VetNet®
VetNet® AIHA discussion forum
VetNet® Forum
Lifelong Learning Network
www.vetnetlln.ac.uk
Veterinary Recruitment
Premier Partner Program
Canine Autoimmune Hemolytic Anemia (AIHA & IMHA) - Trixie
| I wasn't supposed to take Trixie for another boold test until next Monday, however I called the Vet yesterday because the night before, when she came upstairs to me, at around 3 am, to be let out,her breathing was quite fast, as it is at times, but it sounded different, quite raspy. I was concerned the following day and called the vet, they asked that I bring her in, which I did. They said sometimes they can get infections due to the medication they are on and they wanted to check her temperature and also run a blood test, rather than do it on Monday. The vet said he thought she was ok and her lungs were clear and she had no temp'. Trixie was at the front of the house yesterday and our neighbours saw her, they hadn't seen her in a while, they said oh my, she looks so much older! I explained that she was unwell and has been for a couple months. That word "OLDER", now sticks in my mind, poor baby, I hate seeing her like this, she knows she is not well and its awful! I am hoping with the results next week, she will have gone up from her last test, where she had dropped under 40%. Tricia |
| Tricia UK |
| Tricia, I understand your shock about your neighbor's comment about "older." I have been suffering the same feelings about Chance. You did the right thing by explaining she has been unwell. I always explained that in a few months Chance would be looking much better. Indeed, now that we are on lower doses of meds, Chance is putting back on muscle at a prodigious rate and, while he is still quite gray overall, he is now growing back soft black hair! This summer he was mostly gray and it was a brillo pad consistency. He may never totally get rid of all the gray, but already he looks so much better. How much prednisone are you on? That caused Chance to have problems with breathing, esp when he was at 80mg a day. He's sleeping right next to me now and it is a quiet soft breathing. For months this summer he sounded awful. I tried to stay positive all summer and allowed myself to substitute my pride for Chance's ability to survive for the pride I used to have in how magnificent he looked. My best, patrice |
| Patrice New York State |
| Tricia, Bailey gets pale when she relapses. Fortunately, she loves her backyard and my neighbors tend to stay to themselves. She has a slight decrease in rapid breathing, due to low blood count. |
| Al Florida |
| Tricia, Jasper is plainly and simply my dog, wherever I am, home or work he is never more than a few feet away. I have been taking mum back and for to the hospital so he has had to go to work some days with Andy, and he also commented that not only had Jasper been sulking because I had left him but also that he looked 'older.' Jaz has had a slight infection and been on antibiotics and we have also had to raise his Pred back up a little because the hemolysis looked like it had returned. Lets hope Trixie will be okay, Jackie and Jasper........... sitting next to me on the sofa! |
| Jackie pembrokeshire; west wales; uk |
| Jackie, Al and Patrice, thanks for your replies. Patrice, Trixie is on 1 pred @25mg mornings and a half of one evenings, they did cut her back from 2 per day to 1 a few weeks ago. She is also on 2 Antepsin @ 1g per day and 1 Azathioprine@25mg per day. The vet increased her pred to 1 and 1/2 about 1 and 1/2 weeks ago. This evening she doesn't seem too bad, she hasn't been panting much. You know, whenever I look at her, lying on the carpet, I never seem to see her with her eyes closed, sleeping. She has that look on her face, as if saying "Why am I feeling like this!", if a dog can look really fed-up, well, she does! I should have the results of her test this week, it will be interesting to see if the higher doseage of Pred has bumped up her blood count. Tricia |
| Tricia UK |
| Tricia, Funnily enough my mum is on prednisolone for her Non hodgkins lymphoma treatment. Much bigger doses, 100mg per day for 5 days following her chemo treatment, so I looked it up again. It can cause, insomnia, restlessness, anxiety, mood swings, lethargy, depression aswell as the other ones we already know about like eating constantly.... in people aswell as dogs! I also asked her haematology nurse about AIHA and causes etc in people when she was doing the chemo. There are remarkable similarities in that they don't know the trigger or what causes it. The treatment is pretty much identical as are the drugs. And they only control it and try to keep in remission as we do with our dogs. Jasper does sleep well, deep heavy breathing, he is on 7.5 mg twice daily which is a smaller dose than Trixie. He did pant more when he was on 20 mg daily. He does seem fed up and bored at times. He goes back next week for his next blood test and we will go from there. Lets hope Trixies blood tests show an improvement. Jackie and Jasper |
| Jackie pembrokeshire; west wales; uk |
This thread was discussed between 01/12/2007 and 04/12/2007
Canine Autoimmune Hemolytic Anemia (AIHA & IMHA) forum index
This thread is from the Vetnet archive. The live Vetnet forum is active now.
