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Canine Autoimmune Hemolytic Anemia (AIHA & IMHA) - Lola the Lab
| My beautiful girl, Lola, is a 73 pound white lab mix. She was diagnosed on Monday with IMHA. Her blood count was donwn to 23 and they put her on Prednisone and Cyclosporine. I cannot afford a blood transfusion so we are keeping our fingers crossed that the medicine will begin working before she continues to drop. I took her back on Tuesday and she dropped another 6% to 18. Yesterday she was at 16 so it seems that it could be working a bit. Has anyone not had the blood transfusion and only used the medicine? Has this worked before? I love her so much and she has many people and doggie friends that are in love with her as well. She is my best friend and I don't want her to suffer. Thank you for any response you can give. |
| Leah Austin |
| Leah, So sorry to hear of the diagnosis. 3 weeks ago we were in the vet fearing an AIHA diagnosis. Toqua's RBC was 21. With the pred, a week later, she was up to 35, almost normal. It turned out she actually had a mass in her abdomen which was removed two weeks ago, and has now been confirmed as hemangiosarcomas - cancer affecting the blood vessels. So, not sure if her RBC went up so fast because her problem wasn't AIHA, or because the pred worked. Hoping it was the pred, and your Lola gets similar results. Keeping you in our thoughts. |
| Jessi BC |
| Leah, I can certainly understand your desparation. It's obvious that you love Lola. I cannot stress enough what helped my beagle Darcy when she went through months of treatment for nonregenerative anemia. The immune suppressant drugs didn't help her. It was the Prednisone, low dose of thyroid medication, and, most importantly, Doxycycline that turned her around. Her PCV was below 8% when we started her on the Doxycycline and it took several months (six) to get her to a decent reading of 38%. We continued her on a low dose of Prednisone and thyroid medication during that time period. Now she is at 40% and has remained at that level for several weeks. I know everyone on this forum is sick of hearing me praise the effects of Doxycycline, but I believe that is what saved Darcy's life. She was tested for flea/parasite/tick borne disease initially and results were negative. However, those tests can produce false negatives. To my knowledge, she never had a tick. Doxycycline is a very inexpensive drug, but it can work miracles. I would urge you to ask your vet about it. Our vet at first said that the Doxy hadn't helped in the beginning, but she was only on it for one week. Sometimes it takes months of treatment to see results. This was a new vet and, thankfully, she was willing to give the Doxy a try. She said it wouldn't hurt, so why not try. Please read Jasper's Story on the Vintage Goldens website. It goes into more detail about how Doxycycline helped Jasper. My best to you and Lola. Karen |
| Karen NC |
| I forgot to mention the dosage of Doxycycline we had Darcy on. It was 100mg twice daily for a period of six months. As info, Darcy had three transfusions during a five month period prior to beginning the Doxycycline. She would hold on to a higher PCV reading, then it would drop. Once she was on the Doxy and her PCV started to increase, the vet dropped the Prednisone, but we stayed on the low dose Soloxine (thyroid med) along with the Doxy. After six months of Doxy, we stopped it. The only medication she is now on is the low dose of Soloxine, but we will have her thyroid tested in six months. If it is in the normal range (it is now on the low end of normal) we will discontinue it. We started her on Soloxine because it was recommended by Dr. Jean Dodds, who is an expert in this area of blood disorders in dogs. She lives in California. Karen |
| Karen NC |
This thread was discussed on 25/03/2010
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