Bio-Algae Concentrates

[Alyssa]

I am currently feeding whole earth farms, and Sassy really likes it. It’s also a pretty low calorie food. I specifically am feeding the salmon & whitefish. It’s a very good quality, grain free food made in the USA:
http://www.chewy.com/dog/whole-earth-farms-grain-free-salmon/dp/115138

Petco carries it, but I find that site above has it cheaper! Even cheaper if you sign up for their subscribe and save feature which will auto deliver at your desired time.

Another good brand is Fromm. Again, they are on Chewy for the best price I’ve found, and they also have a grain free line.

http://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/dog-food-reviews/fromm-dog-food-gold-nutritionals-dry/ is a good place to see how your food rates. While it’s not the end-all opinion, it’s pretty good. Rachel Rays line is unfortunately one of the worst :( There are so many grains/corn/fillers in her line.

These are just the two foods I like a lot, and their price per pound ratio is one of the more reasonable. I also picked them for their recall history, of which there isn’t one right now. If you can afford it, orijen is one of the best of the best, but it runs close to $100 for 26lbs. I just can’t afford that.

When Sassy was going through her pred hunger I did homemade food mixed with dry because it was so expensive to keep up with her, and I also bought bags and bags and bags of frozen green beans to fill her up – she’d eat them by themselves. Walmart carries a great value bag that cost .98 cents and is steam-able. Just pop it in the microwave for about 4 minutes, run through the ninja, and a bag lasted 2-3 days.

[admin]

Hi Amber

Thanks for the other information. I think part of the problem is that the usual protocol for drug reduction hasn’t been followed – I suspect your vet does not have any experience with treating this disease successfully – that is NOT unusual! Normally, we wait until our dogs are stable & in normal ranges for a couple of weeks, then we slowly reduce the prednisone FIRST. The atopica or azathioprine or whatever the long acting immunosuppressant used should stay the same until you reach the minimum dose of prednisone required – usually this is none at all, although a few dogs require a small dose to keep them stable.
This is what we normally do:

https://www.secondchanceaihadogs.com/AIHA_Terms/prednisone-dose-reduction/

There is good reason to do this. Prednisone is the first line form of immunosuppressant which is used until the second longer acting immunosuppressant has taken effect & our pet reaches normal values. Prednisone has side effects & eats them up, so we then need to get them off that drug by slowly reducing it. The side effects can be minimised by giving Denamarin (contains milk thistle AND blood building goodies) to protect the liver & by feeding high protein, low fat diet, to protect the pancreas too. Muscle wasting is unavoidable & it ravages them – this again is the prednisone, so we need to reduce it to the bare minimum.

I agree with Brigitte – I like holistic medicine, but it can only be used as “add-ons” to the conventional treatment & we all need to be very careful what we give our pets with IMHA. Many supplements (and drugs) can affect this disease in a negative way – all supplements are drugs really!

So, what I’m saying is that the cyclo is not the problem here – it’s the prednisone. I’m sure the higher dose of cyclosporine – i.e. the correct dose for Dean’s weight, regular PCV tests, get into normal ranges, then reduce the prednisone slowly should put you back on track.

Love Sheena xxxx

[admin]

Should have said I’m thrilled about the thyroxine – dogs don’t recover very well with low thyroid – this should make a difference. Thyroxine is often used, regardless of being hypothyroid or not – it is great for stimulating red cell production.

[admin]

Hi Alyssa. You have already gotten great advice from the best. This group is incredible and without their help, Sadie would not be with me today. I am so glad you are here with us. Let’s get Dean back to wellness.

You asked about dog food. Sadie was on Nutrisca (it worked with her wacky tummy) for years. I actually JUST started cooking Sadie’s meals. I have seen an upward improvement in her coat, disposition, energy, and best of all, as gross as this sounds, her BM’s (Sadie has the worse time with this – has for years). I am still balancing the “supplements” but for now I am adding Nortic Naturals Omega 3 (Amazon), PetTinic (iron, plus minerals supplement – Amazon) and orgainc Tumeric (she is incontinent, long term, high dose prednisone, but as weaning, she’s getting better), along with 1/2 hard boiled egg and I grind to a powder, egg shell, 1/2 teaspoon for Calcium. We are missing some, like Vitamin E – like I said, still working that all out. So, I do supplement some left over Nutrisca kibble and also some Evanger’s canned vegitarian (complete blananced meal) dog food. Her kibble is now her “treats” – please don’t tell her. She also get Crananadin (Nutramax, Amazon) for her urinary tract health (hopefully). We this this last relapse was promoted by a really bad UTI, ending up with a horrible infection, but we’re not 100% sure.

I am actually using Dr. Dodds’ Liver Cleansing Diet, tweaked (Sadie does not do well with fish, surprise…), so I use ground turkey, chicken. I steam and Ninja potato, peas, green beans, carrots (and what ever else might be local and okay to use (Dr. Dodds has a list on her site, we have the link under Resources here on the forum). I can not stress enough the difference it has made with Sadie to cook her meals. I would love to have done raw, but her immune systems is so badly compromized that cooking it is. MUCH better though. And I do it all in one day, for two weeks. Love the ice cube trays for the pureed veggies (Ninja) and make burgers from the chicken, beef, turkey. I will keep trying to introduce fish…..slowly…..very small amounts. Oh, and also pureeing blue berries, apples in tiny ice cube trays, adding one of those too.

Sadie relapsed again (don’t fret, she’s very unique in her illness, read her story in Our Stories, although this last relapse is not included yet) in July, so she is still on high doses of immune suppressants. I am trying things a little differently this go around in hope that we can keep her from relapsing yet again. Her PCV yesterday was 40%! Not where she needs to be (regular for her is 46-49), but we’re happy she’s stable and maintaining. We have started the pred reduction – SLOW, SLOW, SLOW. Sadie weighs 31 pounds and is on 50mg Atopica and 22.5mg of prednisone daily, divided am and pm. We will reduce the prednisone first to a maintinence dose (Sadie is one that will be on a maintenance dose for life, most assuredly) and then start the Atopica.

I tell you all this because it’s a guessing game and you have to be on your best and be sharp. I mess up all the time and they reel me back.

You seem really on top of things. You’re an awesome fur parent and Dean is very lucky to have you on his side.

Love and hugs, Linda and doing AOK Sadie

[admin]

Hi Amber
Got the tests etc through – thank you! Sent you a private message – can you let me know you got it OK? Thanks again
Love Sheena

[Amber]

Hi Sheena, I got your email. Thank you so much for the input. You are free to post on this site.

[Amber]

We didn’t know yet that he was anemic when he received his vaccinations. Because of the way he was falling over we thought at first it was Epilepsy. We started reducing the Atopica first because it was so expensive but I’m seeing now that it is more beneficial and the Prednisone should be slowly tapered first when his levels get back to normal. Could the high neutrophils be related to his thyroid? If he has an infection should we add something for this?

[admin]

Copy of our message:
Hi Amber

Been having a look through the blood tests, etc – thanks for sending them through. Looks like vaccinations were done whilst Dean was anaemic the way I read it (page 5 of the PDF) which is not recommended – this could be the original trigger, Amber. Can you confirm he was anaemic when they vaccinated? Or have I miss-read the report?

The specialist says to reduce the pred or the atopica according to side effects/cost implications on page 6 of the PDF & her suggestions on pred reduction look good actually. I think this message may have been lost “in translation/discussion” from your usual vets – I can only guess a communication problem & that’s why the atopica was lowered first? Don’t worry about that now – you can reduce the pred first this time – nothing lost.

The blood test from the 14th August was really good as you say – then the 4th September looks like an infection induced relapse to me – very high neutrophils are almost always due to infection – I’m so sorry this has happened, I really am. Just look at it as if you are starting all over again, as Linda has done with Sadie’s recent relapse – we’ll get you through it, so no more worrying, please. We’ll guide you through the conventional pred tapering when Dean gets back into normal levels, no problem!

Hope this helps

Love Sheena xxxxx