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Canine Autoimmune Hemolytic Anemia (AIHA & IMHA) - Lucy may have lymphoma
| well we went to the vet today after noticing her glands in her neck were very swollen still after we took her to the er vet last sunday. we'd been out of town all week at my husbands family in ohio. the er vet last sunday prescribed amoxicillin for 10 days. upon our return yesterday we noticed they had not gone down. so this morning i made an appt at our vet. the vet said her neck glands and glands on her shoulders are enlarged. she took biospies of both and did a full blood panel. we will get results on thursday or friday. i've started my research on line. just as i did when she came down with imha. she is a 4 yr imha survivor...with a few bumps and relapses on the way. i am hoping and praying this is just an infection but the vet seems to feel strongly it is lymphoma. but she did say the remission rate is high and it is the one cancer that she would treat in her own dog because of that reason. i am scared to say the least. i was just wondering if anyone here had any expereince with imha and lymphoma or any thing similar. i read on another website that swollen glands can be caused by "immune mediated diseases" which leads me to think imha. keep lucy in your prayers. she's acting just fine and we plan on just keep on keepin on and encouraging her and hoping for the best. she's fought back so many times and we should have lost her at least a half a dozen times. i'm so sad that something like this could take her. thanks! crissy |
| Crissy kansas |
| Crissy, In short, we were concerned about this with Chance earlier this year. We had a full biopsy done and the results came back negative. In essence, it is his allergies that were making his glands swell, so yes allergies can make lymph nodes swell significantly. Meanwhile I researched the protocol my vet said she would recommend and indeed found it to be highly successful. I was prepared to purchase these drugs through Walgreens (?) prescription drug program. There are several protocols but the one with the most success is a 25 week program called the University of Wisconsin protocol. Here is a link that describes this disease and this protocol. Print it and set it aside in case you need it. Your vet is right, this is a highly treatable condition. My vet used it on her dog and said that dogs under this protocol don't get sick like humans do in cancer treatment. You might not even know they were sick. I found the drugs to be expensive for the first month then the cost dwindled down by the end of the 25 week period. http://www.vin.com/proceedings/Proceedings.plx?CID=WSAVA2004&PID=8710&O=Generic patrice |
| Patrice NYS |
| Crissy, I haven't visited this forum for some time but after seeing your post I wanted to respond. We've experienced both diseases, although not in the same dog but with litter mates. We lost our dear Bailey (miniature schnauzer) at age 7 to IMHA in November 06; it struck suddenly and took our boy within 2 days of diagnoses. The trigger was never discovered and needless to say we were devastated. Bailey's brother, Teddy, had been diagnosed with diabetes in fall of 2004, and in early May of this year we were told he now had lymphoma. We braced ourselves since we learned it was unusual to have both diabetes and lymphoma so we didn't know what to expect. What we've since found out is that lymphoma is one of the most responsive forms of cancer to treatment. Based on your description, if Lucy does have lymphoma, it sounds like the multicentric form which is the most common and is similar to Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in people. The course of treatments will vary depending on the stage, type of lymphoma, and clinic, but the success rate for remission is high. Teddy had two rounds of chemo in May, which involved an IV drip of adriamycin. He came home within a few hours and you'd never have known he had gone thru a treatment. Within 2 days of the initial treatment his nodes returned to normal size. Our internist's protocol is followed by weekly injections of vincristine, which are slowly spaced out until there's a month time span between shots. This summer we took Teddy with us on a month long camping vacation to Florida, and he was a little trooper. To look at him you'd never know he had any health concerns; our vet is very pleased with how well Ted has responded and his continued remission. Teddy will celebrate his 10th birthday in March. I understand your frustration, but don't give up. There is an excellent support group for those of us who have dogs with lymphoma, (requires registration) http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/LymphomaHeartDogs/ Good luck and I'll keep Lucy in my prayers. karen |
| karen Arkansas |
| Patrice: I'm curious about Chances swelling of the nodes. Lucy is just a ball of allergies and had experienced an ear infection just prior to us finding the swollen nodes. She is always itching or biting on her feet so that might be something that could possibly be true. But what I wanted to ask where was Chances swelling? Lucy's are in her neck/throat area and then like on the tops of her shoulder. The vet indicated those are the only ones that are swollen at this time. I appreciate all of your advice. I'm sure I'll be leaning on you guys in the future. Thanks Crissy |
| crissy kansas |
| Crissy, We went through allergies when Chance was just 2.5. They were very bad. He was just raw and we were totally frustrated. We found a wonderful veterinary dermatologist who helped us. We eventually put Chance on allergy shots which made an enormous difference in his life. She showed me how to monitor all the lymph nodes in his body, there are many, and I have always watched them carefully. The most enlarged ones have been in the neck under the jaw, upper chest near the arm pits and back legs. I can't use allergy shots ever again because of AIHA so now we have Chance on a medicine that works very well called Temaril-P. It has a little bit of prednisone and a antipruritic called trimeprazine tartrate. Pfizer says "Indicated for the relief of itching, regardless of cause. The usefulness of TEMARIL-P has been demonstrated for relief of itching and reduction of inflammation associated with most skin disorders of dogs, such as eczema caused by internal disorders, otitis and dermatitis (allergic, parasitic, pustular and non-specific)." I have Chance currently on 1 tab alternating days with a half tab. Each tab has 2mg of prednisone. Dr. Dodds reminded me that Chance will need to be on some prednisone the rest of his life because of the severity of his original non-regenerative anemia. He still gets itchy, worse in the spring and fall. We control that with regular baths with a special shampoos called Malaseb. It works very well to reduce the chewing and scratching. The other option is to use Atopica, which is what it really is marketed for! But it would be really pricey with Chance. We can always go back to using that if we feel the need to. It's a good choice for allergies. Honestly, his lymph nodes were so swollen this spring that even the vet agreed that she wasn't sure if it was allergies or possible lymphoma. She did a small biopsy but the results weren't conclusive so she took a much larger sample under anesthesia. That sample came back indicating allergic changes. good luck, patrice |
| Patrice NYS |
| wow patrice that sounds SO much like lucy. the itching and chewing. we've never been able to find relief for her. and i've noticed her chewing and itching a lot more lately and her eyes are red and runny too. i hope and pray that its allergies. our vet didn't even mention anything about allergies...she just said it was lymphoma but obviously took the samples to be sure. she was sending them off to kansas state. thanks for your help and advice crissy and lucy |
| crissy kansas |
| Hello, My 11 year old dog is having swelling under his chin as well. He's been to the vet twice for it this month. The first time the vet took aspirations of the two as well as a few fatty tumors. Fatty tumors came back as such, the ones under his chin came back as infections but inconclusive. We suspected tooth infection spreading, but feared Lymphoma. We went back and had blood tests. This blood tests aren't consistent with dogs fighting cancer. In fact, they were pretty good for a 105lb dog his age. He was treated with Clindammycin hcl 300 mg twice daily. After a few days he felt bad and in 10 days, horrible. He could barely open his eyes, and is still 10 days later, favoring an eye and joint, which was not the case before the meds. Treatment did not affect the glands swollen size. I discontinued. I went on with a regiment of healthy dog food*, and a variety of natural supplements**. They may have went down a little. but I had to go out of town and left him with a good friend for 2 days. When I got him back tonight, the glands were bigger. So, What has changed. Environment. Exposure to different allergens possibly. I have had him for his whole life. Ever since I've had him, I've had to wipe his eyes. (even on hypo allergenic food and pet shampoos). It's never permanently gone away. For 3 years strait in July he had hotspots in the same place on his cheek. Festering, bald, pusy, bloody face holes. And then they just stopped. I guess what I am saying is, don't rule out allergies. I certainly am not. They are tricky, and complicated. But in the meantime, give all the help you can to the immune system. Just as you would yourself. Human supplements are suitable for pets. Only lower potencies, and make sure you research each supplement you supply, as some may have have risks at higher potencies. I hope this helps a little. *I've trusted this company for most of my pets life... http://www.naturapet.com/ natural, human grade, thoughtful and scientific. Unfortunately only available in U.S. and Canada, but, they are wise about typical pet food ingredients, pet food company practices and general requirement for a healthy pet. ** Garlic, Acidophilus, vitamin c, fish oil, and glucosamine. |
| Wes United States |
This thread was discussed between 02/12/2008 and 28/12/2008
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