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Canine Autoimmune Hemolytic Anemia (AIHA & IMHA) - Problem with Adrenal Glands Waking Up
| Hi Folks, We have successfully weaned Henri off of Cyclosporine and have been working on tapering his prednisone. Twice we have attempted to stop his prednisone and each time, we run into some problems. I am not sure if it is coincidence or if the problems are related to stopping the prednisone. Each time we have stopped his prednisone within a few days he throws up. The first time this happened, the internist restarted his prednisone at 1mg/every other day. We were instructed to do that for 1 week and then go to 1mg/every 3 days. We started the every 3 day regimen on Friday and this morning Henri threw up. Any one else have experience with problems and prednisone weaning? Thank you, Ella Henri, West Highland White Terrier, 9-months old, diagnosed 02/26/09 with vaccine-induced IMHA, current meds: 12.5mg/every other day AZT, and 1mg/every 3 days prednisone. |
| Ella Seattle |
| ella, when we treat our dogs with prednisone, we tend to think only of this drug in relation to treating autoimmune anemia. in medicine, prednisone is used to treat many conditions, some life threatening, but other conditions that are more ordinary. your vet can tell you for sure, but i suspect that the prednisone has been also "treating" some sort of gastrointestinal condition. when you remove the higher doses of prednisone, the inflammation of this begins to increase and thus, there is stomach upset. this can happen to dogs that have arthritis, they feel really good on prednisone, but begin to feel lame once on lower doses. dogs that have allergies seem to have improved, but then removing the high dose prednisone causes the allergies to flare. there can be many conditions that will resurge once the dose of prednisone is lowered. so how to figure out what is happening? this is where your vet needs to guide you as to what they think it might be and where to start with testing. my suspicion is that it might be pancreatitis and vomiting would be a symptom of this. pancreatitis is one potential side effect of high dose prednisone. if this were me, i would have a test done to look for this. the one i would ask for is a very accurate Idexx test called Spec cPL (canine pancreas-specific lipase). or, since prednisone can cause ulcers, there might be a stomach ulcer. this would be treated with stomach acid reduction and special diet. the first answer to a question on this webpage addresses some of these conflicting results of prednisone. http://www.vetinfo.com/dpred.html you should rely on your vet now to help you sort through this confusing situation. if they seem to be uncertain, perhaps a visit to an internal med specialist vet would be the best thing. endlessly treating an unknown condition with prednisone is not the best way to address it. my best patrice |
| Patrice NYS |
| We have had a similar experience, every time we tried to get Ginger off the pred. her arthritis would get bad she would seem stiff and have a hard time getting up. So we have decided to keep her on a low dose of the pred. 2.5mg two times a week and it really makes a big difference. We do have a complete blood panel done every 6 months. Hopefully his vet can figure out why he is vomiting. Glad to hear Henri is doing well. Cheryl & Ginger |
| Cheryl & Ginger Pineville PA |
This thread was discussed between 11/08/2009 and 12/08/2009
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