Blood counts dropping despite meds

Karen,
If you have read Chance’s story you will see that he was seen by the specialist early in the year but he was not responding to just prednisone as late as July. The specialist had upped the dose which really made him very sick and he finally told me there wasn’t much more he could do for chance. I first contacted Dr Dodds after this, we were considering compassionate euthanasia. She immediately requested I put him on her protocol. My vets were delighted to be collaborating with her and were pleasantly surprised when it worked so well.

What is the difference? It is because most likely the autoimmune attack is occurring deep in Georgia s bone marrow, at the level of precursor cells, a very difficult place to treat. Dr Dodds knew this in 2007, long before any vets understood this. Why is this protocol different than what you have been doing it?

She doses cyclosporine (Atopica) at higher doses and pulse doses. This hard hitting dosing protocol completely saturates body tissues and reaches deep into the bone marrow. The pulse dosing (m-f, ss off) she gets from herbalists who understand that this short break prevents the body from getting used to the drug and not responding to it over time. (Cyclosporine is a fungus) She cycles like this for 3-4weeks until dogs begin to respond. In her protocol you see she mentions for protracted cases (not responding to treatment) ,adding azathioprine will further jump start the attack on the highly overactive T-cell lymphocytes that are destroying the very early stages of cell development in the marrow. And no, doing a bone marrow biopsy won’t tell us anymore than we already know. I could show you a breakdown of which cell lines are being attacked now. It is that common in dogs.

Georgia body has become “used” to the cyclosporine and probably needs to have the aza added. I know Dr Dodds could advise you better than I can. You can request a second opinion from her and she will jump at the chance to help you. See the Hemopet Resources under Second Chance Resources and click on Owner Consultation. You can fill out the form on line. Do you have all copies of blood tests? I would like to see them and so would Dr. Dodds.

Vally has actually used this form more recently and knows a trick to get all tests sent to Dr Dodds.

Chance reached a point after months when he too was totally drained and exhausted from the anemia. The prednisone had elevated his liver values extremely high and it was painful for him. I know the disinterest you mention. I can never forget how Chance was. It is because of his pain and my grief that I promised him I would never let another owner go through that grief alone.

So here we are, you are desperate and frightened to do the wrong things. But your knowledge base is pretty skimpy and it’s very hard to make your own rational decisions when the vets are urging you to spend all this money.

Vets, especially those who work in universities, like to collect data, possibly so they can publish. But also because they are also very curious, especially if they are seeing something like this for the first time. They are attempting to figure it out, when Dr Dodds had nailed this 25 years ago.

She truly cares about each dog that develops this and that is the true miracle. Vally and I, plus many hundreds of others, consider her our guardian angel. She has saved dogs that were at deaths door. This is our 12th year on line, check out the photos of all the dogs we have helped in the slides how on the right side of the forum.

I have faith that you will succeed in saving her. She is very resilient. You are very tenacious. Good match.
My best Patrice