Abby, the Shih Tzu

[Vally]

Hi Cindi, I’ve put your post here, so Abby gets her very own Topic.

Hi, new to site and so thankful I found it ! My little Abby (shih tzu) will be 8 years old on the 20th of this month and was diagnosed with IMHA almost three weeks ago. What a rollercoaster so far. We changed vets a week in a half after being told she had IMHA, didn’t think the vet we were seeing had a lot of experience with this disease. I thank god we found a vet that is not only caring but is extremely educated about this and hopefully has put her on the right track. I am still scared to death that she will not pull through but she is doing better than she was a couple days ago. I am just thankful I found a group that can relate to what we are going through. I will probably have many questions for all of you :-)

[Vally]

Cindi, first of all I’m so sorry your girl has been diagnosed with this. It’s very scary and we can all relate to being scared to death.

Patrice set this site and forum up so that no-one feels alone. We’ve all been through it and know how scared and lonely you can feel. No-one outside really understands what we go through. I think that’s why we’ve all become such good friends – and you’re very very welcome here. We’re all over the world, so there’s usually someone around – I’m from Sydney Australia.

I’m glad you’ve changed vets and feel better with your new one and more importantly, that Abby is feeling a bit better – that’s a very good sign. My vets didn’t have a clue what was going on and suggested I take Bingo to an internal specialist. He was great and had it worked out. Bingo’s story is up the top under Our Stories, as well as others – he’s got some Shih Tzu in him too.

There’s always a million questions to ask.

What does Abby weigh?

Is she home with you?

What medications is she on and what are the dosages? – Would you like a chart to help with this? I’d love to make one up for you.

Do you have a copy of her blood test results? If not, ask for a copy from your vet. You can attach them to the Urgent Advice up the top and it gets emailed to the moderators. Some of the people here are very clever at understanding them (I’m not one of them) and can help explain them to you. Here’s the link:
https://www.secondchanceaihadogs.com/urgent-advice/

Would you like to post a photo of her? Use the Upload Your Photo on the right. It doesn’t appear straight away as it has to be approved (this is to help stop spam on the website). Bingo likes to check out all the girls :)

Ask anything at all. Someone has been through it.

Regards, Vally & Bingo (diag Nov 2011, in remission).

[Patrice]

Hi Cindy,
Welcome! I am sorry to hear about Abby. But I am glad to hear that you chose to find a vet you are comfortable with. Many owners seem to end up with vets that either are not knowledgeable enough or they have outdated information. On Second Chance we spend a lot of time helping owners make the tough choice to change.

True, even with a super vet, this condition requires hard work on your part as you are doing at home nursing care. We can educate you and help you do this successfully. Our moderators have all gone through this and we are very experienced.

3 weeks is not a long time with this but it may feel like it a has been more than a month!

What we need are as many detail as you can provide. We would really like to see any lab test results. You can upload these on our Urgent Advice page.

Describe in detail her specifics such as weight, age, health history and all the treatments she is on with dosage info and side effects. How is she feeling and behaving?

You will hear from others soon.
Mt best
Patrice

[Brigitte]

Hi Cindy,
I am sorry you had to find us, but glad you did! Good for you to find a vet that is more familiar with this disease, that is very important. I can just imagine how scared you were and still are. But you have to believe that Abby can beat this! You have already shown that you are a very good advocate for her and with you by her side she will get better. Don’t get me wrong, I know this is a serious disease and you have to be constantly on guard. As you already learned, it is a roller coaster ride. But we are here to share the ride with you! Let us know as much as you can about Abby’s medications, her weight and as has been said, upload the latest lab results. Patrice and Sheena are great at reading what is going on and also help you to understand it better. Make sure you ask for all the lab results at your next visit to the vet. Even if all the numbers don’t make sense right now, it is great to learn and to look back and see where things were and are now.
This will be a long haul so don’t forget to take care of yourself Cindy! If you are down, you will not be able to take care of Abby. Hopefully you have friends and family around that can step in with Abby’s care and help you out, so you can take a break here and there.
Don’t hesitate to ask anything that concerns you!
Best wishes,
Brigitte

• This reply was modified 8 years, 9 months ago by admin.

[admin]

Welcome Cindi & Abby

Glad you’ve found us too – but sorry Abby has been ill of course. As the others have said, it would really help if you could give us as much information as possible. I am pleased to hear you’ve found a vet to help you our local vets were out of their depth too & it’s a relief when you find someone who really does know what to do.

We will try to answer any questions you have – between us we certainly have a lot of experience with this horrible, scary disease. Looking forward to hearing from you again – this is really hard work & you need to take good care of yourself as well as Abby!

Love Sheena, Worzel (diagnosed Dec 2012, in remission) & Ollie xxxxx

[Cindy]

Thanks Sheena. Our first vet put Abby on Atopica (10 lb dose, twice a day) along with Prednisone (7.5mg, twice a day). When we first took her PCV was at 19%. During that first week it went down to 15% and back up to 16%. We then decided to take her to a new vet (she is just our angel, so knowledgable and caring). It was 14.8 at the beginning of last week. She then added Imuran (12.5mg, twice a day), Aspirin and Melatonin. We took her back this past Friday and it went even further down to 13.2%. Our vet also works at an emergency clinic. She said to take her there on Sunday to recheck, which we did. She had told us yesterday that she was prepared to do the transfusion yesterday thinking that the PCV would have gone down or stayed about the same. It didn’t though, it went up to 19% !! She said this disease has a lot of pecks and valleys so be cautiously optimistic. Saturday I could tell she was feeling better because she was lifting her head more and responding to our other dogs a little. However, the vet is right because after the good new yesterday she seems to have lost that little bit of energy she had the past two days. What was it like for everyone else, pecks and valleys ?

[Brigitte]

Cindy,
yes peaks and valleys are totally normal. There will always be fluctuations in PCV, depending if it is a check on a fast, if your dog is dehydrated or even stress can effect the results. Is Abby on any supplements? we usually recommend petinic for vitamins that are blood building. SamE to protect the liver and thyroxine because most of these dogs have been low thyroid before they were diagnosed and usually are after diagnose. Some vets will argue that if they were tested, the results are not accurate because they are on prednisone, how ever if they are low thyroid (I can almost guarantee Abby is) a low dose of thyroxine could mean a turn around , it did for my dog and many others I know. An other VERY important medication to add is Sucralfate, to prevent ulcers. There are other medications that can do that, but in our experience Sucralfate does it best. The problem is it coats the digestive tract so well that you have to give it away from all other medications and food so it will not interfere with absorption. Food can be an other issue. Is Abby eating? In the beginning of the disease dogs usually don’t have a big appetite. This will change once the prednisone kicks in and then they feel ravenous. Make sure you feed a very low fat diet, a lot of fat triggers pancreatitis in these dogs. We found that Dr. Dodds liver cleansing diet works very well and most dogs love it:
http://www.canine-epilepsy.com/Liver%20cleansing%20diet.htm
You can play around with it and also use different proteins like lean chicken or turkey and other vegetables.
I am glad Abby’s PCV went up again to 19, that is a positive step and I hope it will rise some more again. If you see her not being well and low energy for a long time, check her gums and if they are very pale, I think I would not hesitate to go to the vet and do a quick manual PCV test to see where she is at. This should not be very expensive, no need to wait, they should be able to do it right there at the clinic. It could give you peace of mind.
Best wishes,
Brigitte

[Patrice]

Hi Cindy,
Please check out some of Our Stories on this website, you can read how different each of our dogs responded to treatment.

There are introductory videos that are easy to watch. We also have an extensive glossary of AIHA Terms. We also are beginning to add many Resources with articles and links to information.

You will find a wealth of information to read. Ask questions about anything you don’t understand.
My best
Patrice