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Canine Autoimmune Hemolytic Anemia (AIHA & IMHA) - newly diagnosed
| the thing that strikes me as missing in the comments with the newly diagnosed is the question for the attending Vets by the dog's owners, have you a lot of experience with treating this disease? if the reply is not really, then can you recommend someone who has the experience, as the treatment from the get go has to be very aggressive, a good vet will or should find out for you without being offended, as with this disease, time is not on the dog's side. Bev |
| Bev |
| I asked my vet that question and he claimed he had sucessfully treated a dog for it and it was still alive after a year. I put my confidence in him then. I really shouldn't have and should have dug deeper for answers. I am not saying it would have saved Lucky but I think he would have had a slightly better chance. Something I'll have to live with. |
| Jerry |
| My thoughts and prayers go out to anyone who recently started fighting this disease. Please listen to the people on this board. They know what they're talking about. Time is definitely not on the dog's side. My heart goes out to anyone who has lost their beloved companion or who are fighting this horrible disease currently. |
| Jerry |
| I personally think this disease is over a regular vets head, I compared it to have a family doctor treating a cancer patient. My vet is excellent in many ways, but I feel like she hit the wall with what else to do, other then send me to specialists for more tests ! Funny thing is I didn't even realize how very serious this can be until my dog collasped on the vets floor, thank god it happened there. I contacted Dr.Dodd to do a consult with my vet, she is supposed to get back to me tomorrow, I pray tonight she does as every minute of this dsiease is precious ! Good Luck with you dog :) And I thank my lucky stars I stumbled across this website ! |
| jacki |
| Hi Bev, I do agree this is an important question to ask your attending vet. When my dog Millie was first diagnosed 2 years ago, my regular vet attempted to treat her. While I credit her with saving Millie's life, she had recommended putting Millie down if her PCV didn't rise from 14 after only being treated for 2 days for IMHA. 3 hours after she phoned me to tell me that, she then said that she would do a blood transfusion. Maybe she did some research in that 3 hours, as I am not sure why she wouldn't have considered that before advising euthanisia? Eventually we were referred to a Teaching Hospital, where Millie spent 4 days in intensive care. Following this she was on the road to recovery. It also ended up costing us more money. Had we been referred initially, we would not have had the initial costs at our regular vet. A knowledgeable, understanding and flexible vet is definitely a key to successfully treating this disease. Sam & Millie. |
| Samantha Geelong Australia |
| I too have to agree with Bev. Despite what I think was reasonably good treatment from our regular vet, if I had it to do over again, I would have had Juliet to a specialist right away instead of waiting until after the first transfusion. We spent a month going the course with Prednisone and the Azathioprine and I think we lost time. Having learned more about this, I would have gotten her on Prednisone and Cyclosporine as soon as the diagnosis was confirmed...I think we lost time. I also think that despite the higher cost of the cyclosporine and specialist visit, it might have save us both precious time and money in the long run. Juliet had the non-regenerative type of anemia, which is more difficult to treat. In the end, nothing we did might have made the difference...but having learned so much about this, I would be better equipped to handle it. And I hope I never have to deal with this again. Somehow, we need to get that message out there. Don't fool around with this, it is a mean disease and time is not on the victim's side. Pat |
| Pat Vermont |
This thread was discussed between 22/01/2011 and 23/01/2011
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