Advice sought for IRON Supplement for Anemic Dog

[Pamela]

Hi: I just arrived home from the vet. My 4 y.o. male doberman, Maximillian may have AIHA. His vet said that blood tests point toward an immune system disease.

His blood panel reveals that his red blood cells are being rapidly destroyed. Two weeks ago, he hemorrhaged, had massive amounts of blood in his urine for 5 days, possibly longer. He’s extremely tired. He threw up last night and just now, he threw up again.

He’s a rescue so we don’t know his history. Our vet prescribed IRON for him, which needs to be ordered. His red cell count is 27, I think.

What supplements have you used to help with anemia? Do you have any other suggestions. Max is an amazing dog. We love him so much.

[Patrice]

Hi Pamela,
I am sorry to read about Maximillian. This sounds very scary for you.

I would really like to see his CBC and chemical screen if you have copies of them. You can upload them to me using the Urgent Advice page, look up to the right in the menu for that page.

So AIHA or IMHA are very rarely due to iron poor anemia in dogs. It does happen sometimes but it tends to be a less severe condition than you are experiencing. Because of that, I am always reluctant to recommend to owners that they begin supplementing with high doses of iron because it can definitely cause gastrointestinal harm. Getting a specific blood test for ferritin would show exactly the blood level of iron.

However, we often recommend a supplement called Pet Tinic. You can see the information about it on this page. Just click on the picture of the bottle. Many of us have used this for our dogs with AIHA IMHA.
https://www.secondchanceaihadogs.com/second-chance-resources/supplement-resources
If you use the recommended amount on the bottle by weight (if he weighs about 120 lbs) it would be about 2 tsp a day or 25mg. The daily required amount is about half that. I would not exceed the 25mg dose.

I would like to know more about how this happened and some of the details about the hemorrhaging you mention. We do see dogs with IMHA having dark orange urine, but we would not see actual blood in the urine.

I’d also like to read any of the tests the vet did. There are some important ones that should be done in he beginning stages of diagnosis.

The number you mention is most likely his Hematocrit or PCV, always measured as a percentage of the whole blood. So you are seeing 27% and this is classified as moderate anemia. Anything above about 30% would be considered mild and a HCT below about 20% is considered severe. There are many other elements of blood such as white blood cells and platelets.

Once we get some more details we can give you more suggestions.
my best patrice

[Vally]

Hi Pamela, just wondering how Maximillian is coping?

If you can get a copy of blood results, and send them through the Urgent advice, Patrice can have a look at them for you. She is brilliant at understand them and can help you understand what is happening too.

https://www.secondchanceaihadogs.com/urgent-advice

Vally