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Canine Autoimmune Hemolytic Anemia (AIHA & IMHA) - Reposting for Shannon
| Shannon, Boston Jaimie, thanks for your comment! It sounds like Ruger is doing better and I hope he continues to get better (without losing his appetite)And I hope your child is doing better. If I could give you a hug, I would... this time can't be easy for you.... As for Ana, Well - her PVC dropped from the 25% to 16% - the Vet upped her Prednisone (he's leery due to the fact that she didn't tolerate it well the last time with the skin infections and calcifications) yet for the 45# dog we are now on 100mg of Cyclosporine 2X daily, 40mg of leflunomide 2x daily, and 30mg of prednisone 1x daily, with a regimen of gastroprotectants.... I will be checking back in with the vet this week to see if the ulcers she had earlier are still causing her to bleed into her intestine - but now she has diarrhea and is bleeding due to the irritation....She had been tested for bone cancer the first go round and x-rayed and ultrasounded - all looking for cancer just in case - and nothing - this time she's also had an Ultrasound abdomen and her heart and everything was good... How can immunosuppessant treatment work and then stop working? My Vet says that she could develop cancer due to the body's inability to fight off abnormal cells...I am also feeling the financial pain and the first time around with medication total was about $10,000 and this time around I'm getting near $5,000 and I'm reaching my limit of credit... its financially stressful and its emotionally stressful - I wish there was something else I could do... but the outlook is getting to be poor. Alanna mentioned myelofibrosis... I read a little on the net.... Ana has non-regenerative IMHA - when her body attacks the bone marrow and in particular the cites that produce red blood cells, are they permanently destroyed? of does the body regenerate those cells as well? or does it form this scar tissue? and can this scar tissue keep growing? Could that be a reason for the immunosuppressant treatment to stop working? that there aren't enough cites anymore to produce red blood cells? |
| Shannon Boston |
| Hi Shannon, I am certainly not a vet, but we did have discussions on this site about Leflunomide (which you have most probably read). One of the side effects was bone marrow suppression. If Ana is non-regenerative, this is much more severe than regenerative anemia (which my dog Millie had). Have you asked your vet about the effects of Leflunomide on a non-regenerative IMHA dog? My logic says it would not be wise to supress the bone marrow in any way with drugs, if it is not functioning correctly and regenerating red blood cells itself. Has Ana had a blood transfusion yet? This might be necessary to stabilise her for the time being. There have been some cases of non-regenerative IMHA on this forum, one that springs to mind is Kathleen's Nollaig. It might be worth searching the archives for her story, or maybe she will see this post and chime in. What is your vet's reason for dosing the Prednisone only once a day? It is lower than the protocol for immune suppression in IMHA dogs (1mg for every pound, dosed twice daily). I am glad your vet has investigated the potential causes of Ana's IMHA. This is sometimes overlooked. I am also sorry to hear that Ana is having so many side effects from the drugs. Emotionally and financially it is draining, I totally understand. We just love them so much, and would move mountains to get them well again. Please keep us posted, Samantha & Millie. |
| Samantha Geelong Australia |
| Shannon, Have you also considered a consult with Dr Dodds? I'm not sure of her email address, but maybe someone can post it here for you. Good luck, Samantha & Millie. |
| Samantha Geelong Australia |
| Dr. Dodds website is www.hemopet.org her e-mail is on there. Best wishes, Brigitte |
| Brigitte BC Canada |
| Shannon My Nollaig has non-regenerative IMHA and they looked for myelofibrosis on her bone marrow biopsy but there was no evidence of it-also Nollaig's white cells and platelets were all perfectly normal which vet said meant myelofibrosis was highly unlikely as they are produced in the marrow also.Are Ana's white cells and platelets normal? Immunosuppressants didn't work for Nollaig at all(she had been on azathioprine,cyclosporine,prednisolone,leflunomide,danazol)- the combination of things that turned her around after 7 long months and 5 blood transfusions are as follows: 6 capsules biopreparation(F3+) and I would highly recommend this for IMHA,2 capsules F2+ biopreparation, also ronaxan(doxycycline) in case an underlying tick /parasitic infection lying dormant in the system attacking the marrow(this also worked for Darcy on this forum who also had IMHA and she also took supplements very similar to biopreparation) ,soloxine(thyroxine) Dr Dodds highly recommends this as thyroid so important in red cell production,Nollaig gets a laurabolin(nandrolone) injection every 3 weeks and I would highly recommend this too as it stimulates the marrow,she also gets a vitamin B12 injection every 3 weeks as important in red cell production.Nollaig still gets 15mg Prednisolone and iron tablets and lithium(priadel) tablets daily also but she was on these for the 7 months when her red cell continually dropped so I'm not sure they are helping but once she started to go up we haven't changed her regime at all as something was eventually working...Nollaig was 8% pcv in September(and was very lethargic)when I started this above regime and it has slowly risen to 26% pcv. I can't stress enough Shannon that the specialist vet in charge of Nollaig was giving Nollaig a very poor outlook and thought that none of the above would help her but I asked him to try these things above and so he agreed to do it I think more for my sake so that I could say I'd tried everything but lo and behold it worked and he was so surprised but immensely pleased that it did. So please get Ana started on these things above and don't give up IMHA can be tougher but it can be overcome. Any questions just ask. Take care Kathleen and Nollaig |
| Kathleen North Ayrshire |
| Shannon, How's Ana doing today? Try not to get overly worried with what the doctors are saying about cancer and everything else. ALL immune suppessed dogs are at a greater risk for this. Do you know the CBC/morphology results for Ana? Is she producing red blood cells? Platelets? WBC'c? Reticulocytes? Spherocytes? It'd be good to know which ones are regenerating and which ones are not. With the nonregenerative anemia the "whole" of the bone marrow is usually affected at the precursor level. That's why I was wondering above which parts are affected (RBC,WBC,Platelets). It might be very worthwhile for you to get Ana on a blood builder of some sort (Pet-Tinic maybe?). You want to make sure the body is getting all the nutrients it needs to actually make the blood. Feel free to contact me if you'd like. Whatever we can do to help....just ask. Thoughts, prayers and best wishes to Ana. Johnny & Tessy |
| Johnny Nova Scotia |
| Shannon, I'm hoping no news is good news. How's Ana lately? Prayers and positive vibes for her. Johnny & Tessy |
| Johnny |
This thread was discussed between 24/01/2010 and 26/01/2010
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