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Canine Autoimmune Hemolytic Anemia (AIHA & IMHA) - Rosie
| Going in for a PCV test today. She is on her 5mg of pred. Should I just stop the meds this time or go to the 2.5half a pred. for a few weeks. This all if her pCV is still good. Not sure what my vet will do. but figure in 4wks I would be taking her off so trying to save 4wks of time by just seeing how she does now. Thanks Pam and Rosie |
| Pam Illinois |
| Pam, please don't rush into it, taking Rosie of the pred to abruptly. there are several protocols on how to wean the dogs off the medications and all of them say go slow. Not more than 25-30% at a time every 3-4 weeks. I would go 5mg one day then 2.5mg the next. Do this for at least 3 weeks and then recheck. then go to 2,5mg every day and then eod. that would be a 50% reduction but i think it would be ok at that stage, unless you want to increase the dayly dose to 5mg and 2.5mg eod. I am sorry I don't remember what kind of dog Rosie is or how heavy. you say you want to save 4 weeks, but in the long run, what are 4 weeks over the whole life of your dog. Also prenisone is a cheap drug. Remember AIHA is not a sprint but a marathon. Best wishes, Brigitte |
| Brigitte BC Canada |
| Pam, Brigitte is right. You don't want to rush things and it's important to get to a maintenance dose (2.5mg) couple times a week. This has to be done extremely slowly so that the adrenal glands don't atrophy. The trick here is to slowly drop the cortisol levels to prevent adrenal insufficiency, if htis happens from removing cortisone too quickly the likely outcome will be that they have to be bumped back up on their dose again and possibly have to take the cortisol steroid for the rest of their lives. We want to avoid an adrenal crisis if we can and sometimes dogs will have to remain on this for life. There's testing that can be done to check cortisol levels but I'm not overly sure how this is done. I'm not saying that Rosie will relapse if you decide to take her totally off prednisone but the chances are very high. You've made it this far and now is the most important time in this disease to be taking things slow. Most specialists will say the same I'd assume. I'll send Rosie some good appointment vibes for today. Hope to hear an update. Johnny & Tessy |
| Johnny |
| Dear Pam, I am with Johnny and Brigitte - please take your time with these reductions. I really like Brigitte's suggestion of 5mg then 2.5mg the next day. If Rosie is coping well, then there should be no hurry to remove the drugs - Johnny's covered all the reasons above. We are a year into this fight, and while a lot of dogs are drug free by now, I have opted to slowly reduce Millie's dosages to avoid relapse, especially as she is tolerating the meds so well. I'd rather slow and steady to win this race. Please keep us posted on Rosie's results, Samantha & Millie. |
| Samantha Geelong |
This thread was discussed on 18/01/2010
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