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Canine Autoimmune Hemolytic Anemia (AIHA & IMHA) - low white blood cells/azithioprine?
| My dog Missy was diagnosed in early april. with lots of luck and prayers her values have stabilized, only her white blood cells keep dropping. my vet thinks it may be the aziothiaprine so now she's on one prednisone every other day and 1 azathioprine every *three* days (before she was one one a pred and one azathioprine every other day). has anyone had a similar experience when their dogs were on azathioprine? did your vet start weaning you off that? i don't know what other options will be available. worried - any advice? - angel |
| angel atlanta |
| Decreased white counts area side effect of azathioprine. Slinky was only on aza daily for 1-2 weeks I think, then every other day. We did wean her off of the aza before the pred (she still takes some pred). I hope that decreasing her azathioprine helps Missy. I know others on the board have had troubel with this too. Hopefully they will be along with more helpful stories soon. |
| Stephanie Chicago |
| Angel - We had a similar experience that came to a head a year ago today, actually. My dog had been on aza about six weeks (and pred about nine weeks) - his WBC dropped below normal but the board certified internist we were seeing at the time said "keep going" - that the WBC was not dangerously low. Well, it was dangerous and he became septic after picking up an infection his body couldn't fight because of the low WBC. It was touch and go for days and we thought we were going to have to let him go. Luckily, we got him into another internist who was able to get him through the crisis. It's great you have a vet who is managing Missy's total health and I hope the reduction works for her WBC and can keep the IMHA in check - it is definitely a balancing act. If the pred alone can't do it, has your vet mentioned other meds such as cyclosporin? |
| Bonnie Chicago |
| bonnie & stephanie, thanks for your responses. i'm just now reducing her azathioprine now so i'll see how it goes. the support on this board is very helpful as this is truly a nasty disease. bonnie, i'll ask about the cyclosporins. i know missy is allergic to penicillin type drugs. do you mind sharing what the other internist had to do in order to help your baby get thruogh the wbc crisis? |
| angel atlanta |
| Hi Angel, Our Holly was diagnosed one year ago March 2007, and is still taking azathioprine daily and 3mg of prednisone daily. She was originally started on Cyclosporin but within about 3 months transferred over to azathioprine. Her WBC always is low, sometimes goes down in the danger zone, but then goes back up, but just has always basically hoovers around the 3-4 range. The internist said that if it went below 3 we could go to every other day on the azathioprine, but never really did. Linda |
| Linda Sapphire |
This thread was discussed between 04/06/2008 and 05/06/2008
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