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Canine Autoimmune Hemolytic Anemia (AIHA & IMHA) - Little Cocker with IMHA
| First I want to thank Laurie for showing me this page(she found me on Bio-Algae Group for Animals.) I've searched all over the net for info on IMHA. Last week my little 6yr, 15lb Buffie was in the hospital not expected to make it. It came on suddenly. She was having liver and kidney failure and jaundice. But after tests, xrays, i/v's, force feedings she was diagnosed with IMHA. When her hematocrit got up to 13 and started eating on her own they let her come home, with prednizone 5mg twice a day, and canned Hill's l/d food. She's been home a week today and is back to her self. She gets a little loopy for about 2 hours after her meds but is eating like a horse. Her stools are really loose though, I don't know if this is from the canned food (she used to eat dry) or the meds. I asked the vet this morning "could be the food", they gave her the same thing in dry. She goes back next week for a blood check. |
| Barb Texas |
| HI Barb and welcome, high doses of prednizone can cause loose stools/diahrea. Pure canned pumpkin can help I would add a tsp in her food. When was the last time Buffies HCT was checked? With numbers like that its good to do it about every 4-5 days. When my WYlie first got sick I was at 4 day intervals to make sure she was stable or that her number was rising and to see if she needed to add more drugs like Azithoropine for Cyclosporine. If Buffie hasn't had her HCT since last week I would not wait until next week, (1) since her number was so low when she came home, (2) since the week-end is coming on and if you had a setback you would have to go to ER. I always sheduled Wylies Monday and Friday/Sat for tests. Laurie |
| Laurie CA |
| Barb, I am so sorry to hear your most beloved Buffie has recently been diagnosed with IMHA. If you have not read my Web site on AIHA/IMHA as yet, you might want to do so. The URL is: http://www.cloudnet.com/~jdickson/ Be sure to follow the links on the first page to many other sites on AIHA/IMHA that will be very helpful to you and do read the SUCCESS STORIES pages, they will show you what has worked for other dogs in terms of treatment options as well as give you a lot of HOPE. I have to say that I personally would be a bit concerned if Buffie were my dog since you mentioned that she was released from hospital with a hematocrit of 13 and only 5 mg prednisone of twice per day. At the onset of the disease the LEAST amount of prednisone a dog with AIHA/IMHA should be on is 1 mg per pound of the dogs weight per day divided into two doses, with one dose given in the AM and one dose given in the PM. So 15 mg of pred would be the LEAST amount Buffie should have been on and many vets possibly would prescribe an even higher dose with such a low hematocrit. Also many times a dog will need to be on another immunosuppressive drug such as Azathioprine or cyclosporine. Has your vet mentioned these drugs to you. And finally with a hematocrit this low, one should be seeing the vet very often for blood checks. If this were my dog I would not wait a week for further blood work to be done. I personally would have blood work done again on Friday or Saturday. It might be very wise to ask your vet how familiar he/she is with the treatment of IMHA and what his/her success rate with the disease is. If this vet is not that familiar with AIHA/IMHA and it's treatment it may be very wise to get a second opinion from a veterinary internal medicine specialist or at the very least have this vet consult with such a specialist. While dogs CAN and DO survive AIHA/IMHA and go on to live happy healthy lives, in order for them to do so, they need to be treated very aggressively by a vet who is very knowledable about the disease. Please be assured that you and your dear Buffie are in my thoughts and prayers during these most difficult days. |
| Joanne MN |
This thread was discussed on 12/02/2009
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