Ashki, 3 yo Golden IMHA – Page 3 – Second Chance AIHA Dogs

Keymaster

Hi Tamara

Worzel’s story is in “our stories” but that’s a shortened version, otherwise I’d have bored everyone to tears! Worzel started to become under the weather in the October, with vague symptoms, gradual loss of appetite (feeding him tiny bits of mince by hand at the worst point) & odd behaviour. Because he has had mitral valve prolapse for a few years (treated with pimobendane), we floundered around with looking at heart problems etc. We were pretty clueless, I can tell you! To cut a long story short, I insisted on a blood test as I was sure his gums were pale & this revealed anemia. He did not respond to prednisolone (IMHA cases don’t, be we didn’t know what on earth was happening then), then he developed a temperature & his PCV was slowly, slowly dropping & dropping. We had no possibility of matched blood in a hurry & I didn’t know what we were going to do. I started to look at obtaining it from UK or vet schools here. The local vets then started antibiotics (high dose doxycycline for 6 weeks) as we all began to suspect tick disease (ehrlichiosis) which would run rife without treatment as the steroids would allow it to completely overcome the compromised immune system. There is no such thing as snap tests here & his blood samples came back negative. However, we were referred to a specialist who said that 4 out of 5 tests can come back negative, even if ehrlichiosis is present, so we decided to take the leap of faith that he should be treated for that & bone marrow biopsy confirmed IMHA. Specialist started azathioprine & 2 weeks later we had retics in the bloodstream – we cried with joy as we thought this might go on & on & he was becoming horribly thin & weak. As you can see, we had an advantage over you in that we knew or had a 99% idea of the cause of the IMHA, but Ashki was started on an additional immuno-suppressant quickly, so you have the advantage in that respect.

I am so pleased to read about the extra stages of erthropoeisis that have appeared since the first biopsy on Ashki & that is very hopeful. Even though Worzel stopped killing off his retics, it took a while for his PCV to come up. He also had slight jaundice (bilirubin) for a while – I bought some human wee test strips from the chemist & checked it every day to see what level it was to put my mind at rest more than anything- just an idea you might like to try? You will probably see protein too, due to the drugs, but that is “normal” sadly. I hope you can get more information from the biopsy result when you see it & personally I would do a blood test every 3 days or so, to keep a close eye on things for peace of mind. Yes, of course you have other drug choices so please, please keep thinking positive. Non-regenerative anaemia can be a real challenge until you find the right treatment protocol. The only thing that has been bothering me with Ashki is that maybe something has caused it & that needs to be successfully stabilised / treated, e.g. hypothyroidism, GI infection, but I’m not a vet. I would still like to see the blood/biopsy results if that’s OK with you. Although I doubt I’ll spot anything your vets haven’t seen, I may be able to perhaps explain things to you in a better fashion.

Anyway, please carry on being a fantastic caring Mum – Ashki is in the best possible hands with you & all your vets. Please keep us posted!

Best possible wishes & a cuddle for dear Ashki,

Sheena & the boys xxxx

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