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Canine Autoimmune Hemolytic Anemia (AIHA & IMHA) - Rocky's down 4pts
| His count is down 4 points today. He was diagnosed yesterday afternoon. Is this normal? Shouldnt there be a little bit of improvement? Thank you all for your support :-) |
| Lisa Pleasantville |
| would a blood transfusion help? the vet said that it could cause more problems with antibodies. i dont want to wait until they use it as a last ditch effort. |
| Lisa Pleasantville |
| Lisa, Actually it is very normal for the PCV to drop right after an AIHA/IMHA diagnosis since it does take some time for the drugs used to treat the disease to start to work. It takes 5-7 days for a steriod like prednisone to start to work and even longer for some of the other drugs to kick in. If the PCV drops too far, vets can give blood transfusions to "buy time" until the meds do start to work. I truly do remember how scary it is to see this sort of drop when you are expecting to see an increase but a drop in PCV right after an diganois is very normal. |
| Joanne MN |
| Lisa, If you read the Success Stories at my Web site http://www.cloudnet.com/~jdickson/successstories.htm you will see that many of these dogs have had blood transfusions. There is some risk of course with the transfusions but there is also a risk without them if the PCV drops too far. |
| Joanne MN |
| thank you very much. my heart just dropped when the vet called this morning. i just want to give him every chance. you made me feel a little calmer knowing this is normal |
| Lisa pleasantville |
| Lisa: I know this is hard for you, but try not to panic just yet. My dog was diagnosed on April 7th and her values dropped twice within the first week after meds, then shot up once, then dropped slightly the next week. Then, a week and a half later, (when the Aziathiaprine kicked in in addition to the Prednizone) BOOM! Her blood levels stabilized to nearly normal. Now she's at a PCV of 44! And she went down three times the first week. So, even though every dog is different, alot of times it really is a case of giving the meds time to kick in. My vet told me that the Aziathiaprine can take up to two - three weeks before some dogs respond. My dog responded within 10 days. So it'll be wait and see for a couple of weeks, but it is normal for your dog's values to fluctuate by a couple of points initially. I'm no vet by any means but hours of reading forums like this, coupled with my own experiences taught me tht. Their body has to get used to so many changes at once. One thing that might help is if you try and give the meds at even 12 hour intervals. That's what I did with my Cocker. If I gave her the meds at 8 pm at night, I was religious about giving it to her by 8 am the next morning. After a few days of doing that, I noticed some improved values. So best of luck for you and hang in there. Keep us posted, too. You'll find alot of support on this board from caring folks as I have. Hang in there! |
| angel atlanta |
This thread was discussed between 29/04/2008 and 30/04/2008
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