VetNet®
VetNet® AIHA discussion forum
VetNet® Forum
Lifelong Learning Network
www.vetnetlln.ac.uk
Veterinary Recruitment
Premier Partner Program
Canine Autoimmune Hemolytic Anemia (AIHA & IMHA) - Matilda update ( from June 2010) Patrice/Johhny
| This is Matilda’s story. I have posted on this site before, it was in June last year after Mattie had been diagnosed with Erythroid Hyperplasia and had her 6th transfusion Some of you, especially Patrice and Johnny (as usual )were there offering their support as they do to so many here on this site. (If you would like to look at the post in the archive search for Matilda 6th transfusion). Although I check in regularly I haven’t posted for a long while. Mainly because I lost my beloved Mum in December and prior to that I was dealing with her and Mattie’s illnesses and just didn’t have the heart to post. Life was a shambles However it is a few months on now and I thought it was about time, especially reading some recent posts here that I let all of you know what is going on with Matilda. Firstly, I am happy to say she is still here, almost 18 months after being diagnosed. Here is a brief history. When she first went to the RVC I was told that if she didn’t start making blood after 3 months that she never would. I was also told she would only ever be able to have, maximum, 4 transfusions. During her time at the RVC she was given all the usual drugs and they also tried Cellcept. I think this is all in my original post) They did save her life one night when she had a bad reaction to the drugs and began to bleed internally. Fortunately, she has never done this again. Eventually I found the angel otherwise known as W Jean Dodds and when I began to talk to Jean, the RVC didn’t really want to deal with me anymore and they more or less refused Matilda’s pending 4th transfusion but referred a me to Davies Vet Specialists. Here I eventually met up with Clive Elwood and between him, Jean, my own vets Andrew Prentis and Odile Sicouri and Richard Allport the acupuncturist/ homeopath we have all been looking after Matilda. For most of this time, you would not have known Mattie wasn’t well, and I know that is why the vets carried on with us. While she was fighting, I was fighting and they could all see that she was fine. Davies’s wanted me to try leflunomide , which we, did to no avail and we tried again some of the other drugs like Imuran , Cyclosporine etc . Nothing seemed to work. During all the time despite what drugs as he was on Mattie did not stop attacking her blood, she had 7 transfusions, the longest one she held on to was 10 weeks. Her body did start to shown signs of strain. The prednisolone was really taking its toll. She suddenly seemed to have lost a lot of muscle mass, her front legs seemed more bowed (she is part dachshund so she always looks a bit like this) and her back legs were weak. My husband and I decided that after the 8th transfusion we would gradually wean her off all the drugs (except her soloxine and fortekor – the fortekor is for a kidney condition of which I will explain later) and see what happens. Her body needed a break. All vets were in agreement. Her 8th transfusion in December was the best one ever . She took all of the blood, no reactions at all and slowly miracle of miracles her pcv slowly started to rise and now she is at the dizzy heights of 25. She has not had a transfusion for almost 8 months!!! She is stronger in herself and now comes out for short walks and goes to hydrotherapy. She does, and always has eaten like a horse and is still very playful and the bossier of my two dogs All is not wonderful however as a few months ago it was discovered she is loosing a lot of protein from her kidneys (Amazingly enough there were never any urine tests taken until I asked for one a few months ago) and unfortunately we cannot seem to get on top of this. Jean suspects that the kidneys could have been the problem all along. The treatment for this would be the same medication she has already been on and we don’t want her on all that again. We monitor her regularly and her kidneys seem to be coping, her concentration ranges from great one week to ok the next and last test her protein was lower than it has been for a while, but her current levels are Protein : Creatin iH 6.01. Frightening I know, but it has been 14.99 before now. I was recommended to put her on a commercial kidney food but when I ran this past Jean (as I run everything past Jean) she was strongly against it (as was I) and I now cook Jeans renal diet for her. Sadly her pcv dropped .5 % last week and her retics dropped right off, but we go in again tomorrow for tests and I’m hoping there will be an improvement. It’s possible that as her body was so used to running on such little blood that her bone marrow has taken a rest, at least that’s what I’m hoping. But as I type this I can see a shade of pink in my little girls ears, a little bit of pink in her nails and her gums, well they could be pinker, but they change so much in the course of the day its hard to tell. I now do a final check in the same place, under the same lamp every night and if they look about the same there every night I don’t panic. I’m sure this routine is familiar to all of you. I am just praying for a rise in pcv tomorrow. As far as her kidneys are concerned she could carry on like this for years, or her little young life could be cut short (she is only 4 and a half) but as Clive Elwood says this little creature has amazed everyone, no one thought she would survive this long. Even Jean has been baffled at times with Matilda, but here she is beside me now, would have thought it? My pet insurance company are still in shock !! I’m sorry if this is badly constructed post, but I think you can get the gist of what has happened. I just wanted to get it written down and sent out. It has been on my mind for months to keep you all posted. For those of you that would be interested Davies included Mattie’s story in their last online newsletter (up until that point she had had 7 transfusions). The story goes over 2 pages and shows photos of Mattie and I and even one of her mid transfusion. The link is below http://vetspecialists.co.uk/downloads/Newsletter_Winter2010.pdf Wish us luck for tomorrow, and if any of you have questions feel free to ask and if any of you have suggestions, especially regarding Mattie’s kidneys please post. Lots of love from a sunny London Lola and Matilda |
| Lola Marlin |
| Lola, So excellent to read about Mattie and what you have done to keep her alive and, most important, active in her home! It is wonderful to read about her remaining as boss... It is excellent that you have takne such strong initiative. Oh, the kidneys are so important to making blood. I have a older neighbor who struggles with the same thing as Mattie does. He, however, gets routine treatments of Epogen and he is able to stay quite active. Epogen is very very difficult to obtain for dogs. I might suggest you join the excellent k9kidneys group on yahoo? There are probably hundreds, if not thousands, of members. The moderators are excellent and you will find great help there. They may not be as familiar with this rather unique aspect of kidney disease, but they will do their best to help you. I was there when Chance's heart began to have so much trouble and that in turn bothered his kidneys. I do believe that dogs can survive quite well with lowered PCV's. They adjust their activity to accommodate. As Chance's heart began to fail more, we still took walks but they were prolonged and we would stop frequently for rest. At first neighbors and friends would stop, alarmed, but eventually they said they were always around if I did need help. It was very comforting. I can't tell you how much I enjoyed these walks in the late summer of 2009. my best patrice |
| Patrice NYS |
| Oh Patrice, so good to hear from you. I will definitely look at the K9 kidney group. I am having to learn something new again. I won't leve it so long between posts again, time passes and so much happens it n be a bit daunting to catch up. I will let you know how we get on tomorrow. I'm just hoping we arte going backwards All the best Lola |
| Lola Marlin London |
| Lola, Sorry to read of your Mom's passing especially when you were already dealing with so much. What a wee special girl Matilda is, she is truly a fighter and I enjoyed reading her story in the Vets journal. I bet she has surprised them all. Keeping you both in my thoughts and prayers and hopefully tomorrows tests will show improvement. Penny |
| Penny Lytle Creek Calif |
| Hi Patrice can you check the name of the kidney group on yahoo. I can't seem to find it. i have looked in the pst on the yahoo groups as I am a member of another K9 group but I have never seen one on kidneys thanks lot Lola |
| Lola Marlin London |
| over 3200 members. wow http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/K9KIDNEYS/ |
| Patrice NYS |
| Found it !! Thank you Patrice x |
| Lola Marlin London |
| Hi everyone....just to let you know that Mattie's PCV stayed at 25.3 and her absolute retics went up to 87.10 from 57 at her last test. Her Urine protein : creatinin went down to 5.50. That's still high but it's still a drop from last test and considering at one point it was 14.99 I'm happy. Onwards and upwards and on July 1st it's 7 months since she had her last transfusion. All the best Lola and Matilda |
| Lola Marlin London |
This thread was discussed between 26/06/2011 and 29/06/2011
Canine Autoimmune Hemolytic Anemia (AIHA & IMHA) forum index
This thread is from the Vetnet archive. The live Vetnet forum is active now.
