Bunny and Wendi

[Patrice]

Bunny,
Do please get a hold of the last 2-3 test results, both CBC and chem screen. You can upload them at the Urgent Advice page.

I am not shocked that you haven’t heard of this condition. I have been helping owners for over 7 years now and many vets and clinics are sadly not up to speed on the diagnosis or treatments.

The reality is that most vets are quite capable of diagnosing and initiating a treatment protocol and sadly shirk away from the emergency of it. In fact, this kind of an early start is how many dogs succeed while others fail. Some cases are more difficult, but it is that initial emergency treatment that stabilizes the patient that can make all the difference.

We want nothing more than to see Wendi survive this. Her diabetes is a difficult part of this treatment because of the necessity for early prednisone, but shifting the treatment over to Atopica will target the killer T-cells that are most likely responsible for the autoimmune attack on the RBC.

Tell me if they have done any other diagnostics? Considering her age they should have done an abdominal x-ray at a minimum to look for tumors. I would really like to know what condition the spleen is in.

Do you know how her heart is at this point? Have you ever had a thyroid test done? How is her diet etc?

Is Wendi from a Westie breeder? If so, checking in with them would also be an excellent idea. They may have some health history on her sire and dam plus her litter mates.

Gosh, I always have too many questions, forgive me!
my best
patrice

[admin]

Hi Bunny

After chatting with Patrice, I realise why the prednisone is lower than the usual dose. She explained that the diabetes makes a difference to the treatment protocol. I apologise for not thinking of that when you first gave us the information – sorry, Bunny.

I doubt that any of us had ever heard of this disease before our pets were diagnosed – many vets have never seen it before either because it’s so rare. I used to be a nurse a million years ago, & I also had trouble getting my head round what was happening, so I really understand how you feel. This has been a steep learning curve for all of us & we will gladly do our best to answer your questions. We have a lot of information in our AIHA Terms that you might like to look at when you have a minute
https://www.secondchanceaihadogs.com/aiha_terms/
but if you are unsure of anything at all, just ask.

Wendi looks to be coping amazingly well – a PCV of 39 – lovely news! It is always great to see them stable – you are doing a fantastic job. I know she’s suffering a few side effects form the drugs, but these will diminish when you are able to drop the dose of prednisone again (cautiously of course). And my goodness she is very, very cute!

It would be useful if you could supply the test results etc Patrice has asked for. Did your vet give any indication of what they think the cause (or trigger) was for the AIHA? Am I right in saying she had diabetes before he AIHA?

We are all right here for you – this is not an easy disease to cope with & we all understand completely what you are going through. The reason I am here is because these wonderful people helped me when my dog Worzel was very ill in Dec 2012 – I was surrounded by support, friendship & the given best advice. Every single one of us wants to see Wendi make a full recovery.

Hoping to hear from you very soon
All our best wishes to you both
Sheena, Worzel & Ollie

[bunny and wendi]

patrice, yes they did a ultrasound on her abdomen & x-rays of wendi’s thoracict.on the ultrasound. there is a nodule within the right caudal lung lobes,this is most likely an incidental finding and should be monitored for changes in size. the ultrasound indicated a small mass associated with the right adrenal gland and will be monitored. she was on a low fat diet. now i feed her regular diet half low fat and half chicken by science diet can food to make sure she is eating. don’t know about thyroid test. will ask when i take her far a pcv. this week .wendi is from a breeder, i don’t know who. i got her when she was 4 wks. old. her owner was sick and could not take of her.

[bunny & windi]

Shenna, thanks for the support you all are giving me. windi got diabetes 9 months ago. so she had it before IMHA. she had a tick on her and was tested for tick borne diseases. they were all negative. dr. said she has primary IMHA .there is a breakdown in her immune system and her body is directly attacking the red blood cells. the prognosis is guarded with a reported 50-80% survival rate. wendi’s heart is good no murmurs or arrhythmia detected. bunny & windi

[admin]

Hello Bunny. I too, am glad you are here. We have all been right where you are right now, but it does seem you are up on the technical treatment and terminology – that’s a big plus. I was defiantly a deer in the headlights – had NEVER heard of AIHA/IMHA before. I was at a total lost, a basket case. Had it not been for these dear, educated people – my Sadie would not be here today. So, again, glad you’re here with us, but sad for the reason.

Wendi is precious. And it seems she’s responding well to the medications (horrible, necessary ones). As all have said here though, just be sure to go very slow on the weaning. Sadie relapsed – she’s our token ‘gotta go slow or else’ gal here. She was doing so well and then we totally messed her up. BUT, she’s good now. It has been almost a year and a half though, as opposed to four or five months, had we (me) taken it slower on the weaning.

By all means, post Wendi’s blood work. Patrice and Sheena helped so much in putting it all together. How is her color? Her tongue, mouth – pink is good, which I’m sure you know.

Stay with us here. We’re family and we are here for each other, you included. Again, sorry for the reason, but so glad you found us. Please keep us posted.

Our very best to you and Wendi, Linda and Sadie

[admin]

Hi Bunny

You are so very welcome to any support we can give – it’s a pleasure to help. It looks like your vet has covered everything pretty well, but unfortunately a “cause” can’t always be found – this is not at all unusual! I do think you can be positive about Wendi because her PCV has come up so nicely – it makes a huge difference to the outcome if the initial treatment is good & a response is seen quickly. So, all good news really. The only other things I thought of asking were – has she had any vaccinations recently? (These can also be a trigger) & was the tick test done after the diagnosis? Was it Snap4dx?

The diabetes obviously is made worse with the prednisone (thought I should do my homework & have a read up again!) but this should improve when the dose can be lowered. As Patrice said, the Atopica should control the T-lymphocytes nicely. We are normally very cautious on here when talking about prednisone reductions, but in Wendi’s case there is good clinical reason to do it a bit faster, so your vet must guide you on this. I think they have done a fantastic job – and so have YOU – to get her to a good PCV so quickly is extremely positive. Worzel went through an extremely fast reduction because he was in such an emaciated skeletal state from the long-term high dose prednisone – he had a rare form of the disease which was in his bone marrow, rather than his bloodstream & he was not producing any new red blood cells for a long time. Yes – I was terrified to reduce so quickly, but we were afraid he was going to die if we didn’t. He got through it, even though he did suffer from some withdrawal symptoms. Wendi’s dose is not that high, so I wouldn’t think she’ll be as bad as Worzel was. These withdrawal symptoms happen because the adrenal glands can shrink (atrophy) because they stop working after while on high dose prednisone & can only start working again slowly, rather than springing into full production! They do gradually get back to normal though.

Please don’t be scared by what I’m going to tell you. Although it is extremely unlikely to happen, I need to mention the things to look out for during fast reduction that we had to watch carefully for with Worzel – shock, collapse, extreme thirst, trembling, cardiac arrhythmias (irregular heartbeat), vomiting, abdominal pain /discomfort , black tarry stools (melaenia) & possibly a slow pulse. No need to panic – just go straight to the vet if any of these things happen & they can be treated if caught quickly. Worzel didn’t have any of these things, thank goodness, but he was very uncomfortable, sore (very tender to the touch, poor lad) & lethargic for a while. All of a sudden when the pred was at a very low dose, he made a huge improvement & we all let out a sigh of relief!

Bunny, I think you are amazing & I hope Wendi carries on making big steps in the right direction. Now I’ve wittered on enough, I’ll just send you our very best wishes!
Sheena, Worzel & Ollie xxx

[bunny and wendi]

Sheena, wendi has not had vaccinations for nine years. she had a bad reaction to all of them when she was 3 yrs old. don’t know what kind of tick test but it was done after diagnosis at the emergency clinic. thanks again bunny

[admin]

Well that excludes a couple of important things. We are always full of questions just to make sure everything has been covered. Thanks Bunny  – hope Wendi is doing fine still.