AIHA-Just Diagnosed

[admin]

Hi Wendy

This is a long message, but it’s important you know what to do to help Frank.

I completely understand why you are so frustrated – being told they don’t know what’s the matter is not what you want to hear. When they are unsure of the cause, it is called “idiopathic” which means of unknown cause – many owners never find out what triggered the disease, but the treatment is the same regardless.

The blood in the pee means Frank was destroying his red cells very quickly – if it is paler, that is a good sign as the rate of destruction is slowing – be happy about that, please. The blood in the stools – have they looked around his abdomen (tummy) or checked for GI tract infection etc? He needs tummy protection for sure. Please get your vet to give you some sucralfate & follow the instructions implicitly on here:
https://www.secondchanceaihadogs.com/AIHA_Terms/sucralfate/
As you can see, it’s great for healing ulceration & preventing further damage to the GI tract caused by the drugs. It’s very important not to give it within 2 hours of any other medication. I know a nice lady called Vally who will gladly do you a drug chart – things get complicated with so many tablets!

We got the upload, but it’s about crossmatching blood, so is no help. We desperately need you to upload the following:

Full blood count result (CBC)
Blood smear result
Any ultrasound or x-ray reports (you mentioned they would do some?)
The discharge report from UC Davis & anything from the other vets.

You CAN get through this – you must now take charge of things for Frank’s sake – we will help you – have no fear. You have to trust us though – we all have experience with this disease – some have many years experience.

I e-mailed you two things – the first was a quick overview of AIHA which I hope you printed & took to the vets? The other item was “anemia – determining the cause”. I used this paper with my local vet -we were both totally in the dark at that point – if you follow the steps on there, you can’t go wrong. The only thing it doesn’t really make enough emphasis about is tick diseases – I’m assuming that the vets have checked for this? If not, that MUST be done. My local vet did everything listed on there & he decided we should seek a specialist in internal medicine. I also consulted Dr Jean Dodds & would urge you ton contact her immediately. She will need all the test results (you can always send them on later if you don’t have them) & is always happy to work with other vets. In my opinion, contacting her should be your number one priority – right now. Here is the link:

https://labordatenbank.com/cake/hemopet/onlineorders/hemopet_add

Don’t forget this is a one-off fee of $100 – the best money I’ve ever spent – and she will not charge you any more, unless you need blood products from them or tests done by her lab.

If this is definitely AIHA, Dr Dodd’s protocol will be to get your vet to add another immuno-suppressant such as cyclosporine, or if money is a real problem, azathioprine. Azathioprine works well too (Worzel responded in about 10 days), but has more potential side effects than the cyclosporine. She will also get your vet to give Frank thyroxine too – this encourages red cell production & is inexpensive – it has made a huge difference to many dogs on here.

We don’t know if Frank has other issues, such as low platelets, as we don’t have anything to look at, so there may well be something else she would want you to do. I trust Dr Dodds implicitly – she really is the best person to help you right now. You will find her compassionate & supportive too. She observes the Sabbath, so will not be able reply to you on that day, but is always pretty quick at getting back to people.

We have helped many other people who have been in your position – you are not alone & we will do everything possible to help you get Frank well again.

I know this is a long post, but I really want you to know that we are ALL on your side – if you are worried about anything, have any questions or just want to chat, please post on here anytime. I think you know how much we all care about you & Frank by now.

Love & the biggest hug
Sheena & the boys xxxxx

[admin]

The link to the anemia paper messed up the message above, so I’m putting it here instead
https://s3.amazonaws.com/assets.prod.vetlearn.com/11/5272e0a43a11e18eed005056ad4736/file/PV0612_Fleischman_CE.pdf
Sheena

[Vally]

Hi Wendy, Sheena has given you some very good advice. Ask for a copy of all the tests and reports done. They are the best way to know what’s best for Fred.

Also if your vet would work with Dr Dodds, you’d probably save yourself a lot of money. Dr Dodds is brilliant and knows more about this disease, and all the drugs out there, than any other vet I think.

Yes, work makes things difficult. I was lucky to have my dad at home to let Bingo go out when he needed to, but he couldn’t administer drugs. I had a lovely friend up the road come down once a day to do one of the drugs that was given 3 times a day. Other than that, I just worked around the hours.

Once your drugs are sorted out, yes, let me have a list and we’ll work out the times for you. Let me know what time you are home or not too so we don’t work out something that’s impossible for you.

More hugs,
Vally & Bingo

[admin]

Wendy
Vally just wrote to me – for some reason I got only the first page of the results – she is sending the rest to me right now for me to look at – sorry to worry you
Sheena

[Vally]

Done.

[admin]

Hi again Wendy

Got all 7 pages now! Thank you! Vets have done good investigations on the blood front. Frank has red cell destruction & his platelets are a little bit low too, so it’s looking like he has something called Evans Syndrome – his platelet level is NOT near danger point, so do not worry, but this needs to be kept an eye on. We have a quite a few people on here who have dogs with Evans Syndrome & it just means the disease has affected 2 of the blood cell lines. The treatment is very similar & it is NOT a problem, so please don’t panic about that – it’s treatable & beatable!

Please could you send all the results to Dr Dodds. Her protocol for Evans Syndrome (I’m pretty sure that’s what Frank has) lists Vincristine as a possible additional drug if necessary, but I am NOT a vet & I would like you to get her help on this as soon as you can. In view of the low platelets & some slight clotting risks, you need to ask her if Frank needs any kind of anticoagulent. He may well not need anything, but I personally can’t advise you confidently on that.

Frank also needs some help with manufacturing new baby red cells – advise adding denamarin which contains red blood cell building blocks AND milk thistle, which will help keep Franks rising liver enzymes under control.

On the really positive side, Frank is pumping out baby red blood cells (reticulocytes) which is excellent news! This is very important as it means his body (bone marrow) is trying to replace his lost red blood cells, clever boy. The rate at which his is producing them means he is mildly regenerative & he needs some help to get this figure up a bit. He also needs those goodies required to make the blood cells desperately – the denamarin will help him this.

It is uncertain as to why this has happened – sometimes, we never do find out. Don’t get hung up on that. Just concentrate on getting the right drug treatment inside him as quickly as possible.

You have no reason to lose hope – Frank will beat this with the right drugs. I hope you will contact Dr Dodds urgently.

Love Sheena xxxxx

[Vally]

Hey Wendy, just want to encourage you to do as Sheena has suggested and contact Dr Dodds. Here’s the link to make it easier:

https://labordatenbank.com/cake/hemopet/onlineorders/hemopet_add

Truly, you won’t regret it. She just knows so much and is such a lovely lady. Truly the consultation fee of $100 is a bargain and you can reply to her email if you have questions about her suggestions, so it won’t cost you any more.

Hugs, Vally & Bingo

[Wendy Gonzalez]

Thank you ladies for the link. I just placed the order today. How long does it usually take her to get in contact with me or my vet. I put her information in their as well. Thank you for the information. To be honest we were thinking we were loosing this battle, but I am hopeful now that with proper consultation from Dr. Dodds that we will get Frank through this horrible ordeal. I am still waiting on the ultrasounds and the x-ray images to be emailed to be. I will also request all of the information that my vet has today. It just has been a lot of running around today, but we will meet with them today at 9:30am for a CBC. I will ask for that report immediately and without hesitation.

Frank also has a good appetite. He has been eating more than usual and his tongue is a little darker than these last couple of days. I can only hope that my little boy can survive this—and I am being reassured that he will.

Thank you for everything.