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Canine Autoimmune Hemolytic Anemia (AIHA & IMHA) - Lexi newly diagonsed
| Our 7 year old pit Lexi was diagnosed with AIHA on Feb. 23rd, she has been fighting ever since. We started to notice changes to Lexi attitude around Feb.9th. We took her to the vet on Monday and they put her on doxcycline because they thought she just had an infection. On Feb 14 she was acting as if she was in a lot of pain, crying when you would touch her stomach. We took her back to the vet and they completed some x-rays and an ultra-sound. They noticed her spleen was enlarged, so they took some blood. Her numbers were low but nothing to be too concerned with. Over the next week there was no improvement. Finally on Friday we had our answer. We noticed her gums were very pale and took her back to the vet. They started her on the pred. but Saturday her PCV was 14 so the vet decided to do a transfusion. She spent a week at the vet having to have 2 more transfusions. We got to bring her home on the 30th and had to go in for daily blood tests. We are giving her pred., azathioprine, doxycycline, aspirin, pepcide, and something to help with diarrhea. She was starting to stabilize with PCV of 21. As the week went on we had to complete another transfusion because her number dropped to 16. After the transfusion her number jumped to 26, the highest it has been since the start of this. It had decreased by a point every day since last Wednesday but it has held steady at 22 for the last three days. We are going back today to have another blood test. Our lexi is fighting and we are trying to do everything we can for her. She is my world!! Last night I noticed some swelling in her back leg, is this normal? We are going to ask the vet about it today. Just wondering if this is a side effect of all the meds. Thank you to you all for the information on here. It has given us a lot of knowledge about what to do for our Lexi and it has made this process a little easier. |
| Maria Charleston |
| Sorry to hear about Lexi but it sounds like you are putting up the good fight. It sounds like the meds may finally be kicking in. I don't know about the swelling, just wanted to post an encouraging note to let you know your family will be in our thoughts and prayers as you continue to fight this horrible disease. Lee and Lucy |
| Lee Florida |
| Maria, Sorry that Lexi has been diagnosed. My dog experienced swelling in her hind leg about a month into treatment. The Vets had no clue. She then ended up with vasculitis throughout her entire body. I don't know if this is what is causing Lexi's problem and I think a number of people on this board have mentioned similar things in their dogs so hopefully someone will post whether it resolved itself. Best to you and Lexi Penny |
| Penny Lytle Creek Calif |
| Maria- i will surely be thinking of Lexi and praying for her as well... my Sway is also a pit bull and i love them very very much. the basic advice i would give is just make sure you have a specialist in your corner who has dealt with this disease in the past and has a history of successfully treating it... it is a very sophisticated disease and has many different ways of affecting the animal... some dogs respond to meds rather well and can turn the corner pretty promptly, other cases could potentially go months or longer. also, make sure your vet has an optimism about them and a willingness to take initiative with trying things... so many stories ive heard have been centered around vets giving a doom and gloom outlook to the owner. this disease is very in depth but it can be treated, and sometimes it just requires a very dedicated approach. |
| Josh California |
I am so sorry to hear about Lexi,sounds like you ahve reas have you checked out Joannes site on this disease? http://www.cloudnet.com/~jdickson/ I have no experience with transfusions but have been here almost a year with my dog and have read a lot and hopefully the veteran transfusers will chime in. Laurie |
| Laurie CA |
| Hi Maria, My dog was diagnoised in Jan 09 and after a few transfusion with up and down results she finally started to steady about 2 weeks into the meds. Since then she had made huge inprovements and after 4 weeks we started to reduce the meds and her blood count kept rising. Now 8 weeks on she is stable at 41 with 3 reductions in the meds and she is back to her normal self. She is a bit overwieght now cause the meds make then so hungrey and her back legs have lost a fair bit of muscle but vet said that with the reduction in meds it will all go back to normal. She is on meds every other day now so hopefully we can continue to reduce them as she keeps on improving. I hope your Lexi has the same success as my Madison Thinking of you Samantha & Madison |
| Samantha Perth Australia |
| Maria, I'm so sorry that you have had to join us here, but this is a wonderful group and we're so glad that you have found us. I will be praying for your Lexi. I too have three pitties (I am officially the crazy dog lady, having just adopted number three after fostering her). My Tiggs was diagnosed this past July, and he is doing wonderfully now, slowly being weaned off his meds. I hope that Lexi holds steady, it's so frustrating to see that number yo-yo-ing all the time, though not entirely uncommon after transfusions. I hope this time is the charm for her. She is certainly on the right cocktail of meds. Hopefully you have an ambitions, aggressive, and most importantly, POSITIVE vet. I hope you've had a chance to read the Success Stories on Joanne's Meisha's Hope website, as they can give you hope when you feel you almost have none left. I hope you get to the bottom of the swelling, and I am relieved that Aspirin has been incorporated into Lexi's protocol. Please keep us updated and don't hesitate to ask anything! melissa and tiggs |
| melissa slc |
This thread was discussed between 16/03/2009 and 17/03/2009
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