Pit Diagnosed with AIHA

[Alyssa]

I hate this illness. I do believe I’m becoming absolutely neurotic. I’m looking at older pics and videos from the past weeks and it really doesn’t look much different. then again my overdrive brain it going “YES IT DOES!!!”..and it really doesn’t.. ugh.

I could show you guys the photos if youd like. I just took some to see if it gets any different. The older pics obviously werent taken with that in mind so its hard to compare. But you can see shes always had a really flappy fat role on her neck.

[Vally]

If you haven’t been officially welcomed to the”Paranoid Pet Owners Club”, you are now!!! Yes, I hate to do this to you, but you are now a lifetime member :)

Yes do send a photo through.

Vally
xxx

[Patrice]

Alyssa,
This perhaps can be several things. I would need to see her most recent chem screen to see if she has a low value for albumin. Low levels of this important protein can lead to Hypoalbuminemia, follow the pop up link to read about this condition which causes fluid to seep out of the capillaries into local tissues. This creates edema in body tissues.

If her white blood cells are high on her last CBC she could have an infection. Or this could be even be a symptom of allergies. Many dog suffer those at this time of the year. Chance had life altering allergies and his lymph nodes seemed to be chronically enlarged during the spring and fall. He eventually received shots for this. Allergies are often implicated as a trigger in autoimmune diseases.

Another cause can be Canine Lymphomas. Follow the pop link to read more about these conditions. The most notable initial symptom is paired enlarged mandibular lymph nodes (under the neck).

Post me a picture via the Upload Photo box on the upper right side of the page and I would suggest you make an appt with your vet much sooner than 2 weeks. This could be nothing or it could be something.

If this were my dog I would want Dr. M to give me her opinion. And in fact I just went through this with Cassie about 4 months ago. I was frantic for a week. A simple biopsy of the enlarged back leg (popliteal) indicated it was an “unfortunate place for a fatty tumor.” Dogs are just very prone to them. However, this was on only one side, not both. The two sided swelling in Sassy concerns me a bit more.

Please let me know what happens. Good luck and let’s hope it is nothing!
my best
patrice

[Alyssa]

Patrice, ive uploaded a collage. I hope it goes through as it is rather large. let me know if i need to upload another way.

the two top right photos are probably the best. theyre approx. a month apart. you can see, its not as slack there now. more filled in. i have put dates on the photos so you can see as a reference. she DID gain a little bit of weight between those two.

you can see, shes always had a fat neck with lots of saggy skin – theres a photo from 2014 summer.

im including a photo of her lastest cbc (week ago). her whites are normal. she also had a chem test at this time and i asked for the results but this is all they gave me – but there was no mention of any bad signs (“the only things high are to be expected”). She also went to the vet Wednesdays with me for our consultation and I do believe they felt her neck when they were prodding her over. I cant be 100% sure though.

[Alyssa]

Her LY% is quiet low. Is this concerning?

[Alyssa]

LY% was 8% the first day we took her in. since then it has fluctuated. Always low however.
3/13 – 8
3/26 – 6
4/11- 9.4
4/25- 10.5
5/11- 6.2

[admin]

Hi Alyssa

Don’t worry – LY%. Immuno-suppressant drugs (prednisone) are meant to keep these lymphocytes “under control” & at a lower level. T-lymphocytes are the things that attack the body & it’s cells by mistake during auto-immune diseases, so we want them kept well under control. This was one of the first things I learned from Worzel’s specialist & I always looked to make sure his lymphocytes were normal or low – we did not want high.

Have the vets checked Sassy’s neck out for infection now? How is she?

Sheena x

[Alyssa]

I read that about the LY late last night after I posted, so I was relieved! So according to her CBC her levels are all so close to being normal. A few things about out of normal by only 1 point! I’m happy to see that. I am going to call and harass her old vet for her chem panel results. I don’t know why i only got cbc when i had both test done.

I haven’t gone to the vet; I really feel I was being crazy! To me, it just looks like her normal fat roll is a little bigger. It probably is. It’s not her “neck” its her “fat roll”/hanging skin. I feel a little bit of weight gain went there? Like, a tiny bit. I was reading a really, really, really long AIHA thread on another site when I think I started *looking* for something wrong… you know how that is?

Of course watching her like a hawk. She has stretched a few times today, something she did *all* the time before and is rare to see these days. She laid out on the living room floor and stretched then rolled on her back and kicked for a bit. She grabbed her toy all on her own and initiated play. After a few seconds though she realized she really needed to go poop so we didn’t play long at all, now it’s close to dinner and shes thinking about food only.

I told myself last night I have to stop this and can’t totally freak out like this for the rest of her life. It is hard. To go to the vet, my fiance would need to cut off early from work, and he would do it if I said to, definitely. But with the cost of these bills… and the fact that she seems to feel BETTER than shes been feeling.. I’m just trying to stay under control here. I also told myself if she was lethargic at all today or it seemed any different, I would just go. But that didn’t happen.

But all around signs are telling me she is feeling very good.

If I can’t get them to email me her chem results today I will at least ask what the albumin levels were. I’ll report back soon!

Not sure if everyone got to see the pics or not; here is the pics i put together that hopefully you can see a little bit what im talking about. i know its difficult because i took no photos beforehand with her neck in mind.