Diablo – Page 3 – Second Chance AIHA Dogs

Linda

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Hi Tara. I too, have been remiss about posting in the last month. This ‘ok’d lady in the shoe’ has been going in way took many directions. But it’s slowing, thank goodness!!

I am so sorry to hear of the loss of your precious dog. It’s so hard – my heartfelt condolences.

I’m sorry too, to hear about Diablo and his incontinence. But, I too am dealing with this with Sadie. Not at night, at night she is fine. But during the day, she can nit go more than 3 hours – I’ll come home to an accident, near the door, poor girl. This has been going on for several months.

Sadie did have sone symptoms I’d Cushing’s too. It still will come and go. It’s short lived, but I panic, of corse. Her main symptom is lip smacking, licking her lips. I have found that a bit of slippery elm (powder) over a bit of plain Greek yogurt helps. Just a smidgeon amount. Too much messes with her tummy the other way.

We also have determined, since Sadie has been on high doses of both prednisone (40mg) and cyclosporine
(50mg) for almost a year, that she HAS to get off – or get to a ‘maintenance’ dose ASAP. We started weaning, SLOW (this time!) in August and are down to 10mg pred and 10mg of cyclosporine (Sadie’s on Atopica).

The reason I tell you this, is because as much as the prednisone was messing with muscle atrophy, her liver, her tummy AND kidneys, the Atopica was messing with her too. We think the high dose of Atopica may be the
Culprit of her palsy (Horner’s Syndrome). Since lowing the Atopica from 50mg to now 10mg, her palsy is almost gone.

AND her incontinence is getting better, slowly. She had such bad muscle atrophy, as we see with this disease and the drugs needed to combat it. Since lowering the pred, just in the last reduction from 20mg and in two months now to 10mg, her atrophy has been better – she’s beginning to regain some muscle. Also, the Atopica reduction seems to have not only helped the Cushing’s symptoms and , but also the incontinence.

I am wondering – it seems Diablo is on a low(er) dose of pred, but his cyclosporine still seems high. 50mg daily of cyclosporine for a 20lb dog seems high to me. Would it be possible to start reducing that?

As far as the blood work – I agree with what everyone else is saying. The HCT variance is slight and could be from not drinking enough water recently. Sadie’s will do that too. And Sadie’s blood protein tends to run a bit high too, anywhere from 7.8 and a bit more at times. Also, she showed a bit of bacteria too. Putting her on an antibiotic cleared that up, but her protein levels still test higher than we’d like.

For Sadie, when we do a reduction in either pred or Atopica (reduce one at a time, of course, one month intervals in reductions / PCV weekly, CBC monthly), her PCV/HCT will drop and then the magic is for it to bounce
back. So far, so good.

I hope I have made some sense here in explaining. Diablo is like a mirror image of Sadie’s incontinence. I just really believe it’s the meeds. I would discuss with your vet the
possibility of reducing the cyclosporine when Diablo is ready for another reduction. Maybe, keep the pred where it is for now and then go back to it when you’re at a much lower
Daily dose of cyclosporine.

The med reduction is such a crap shoot and so scary, but it has to happen. A maintenance dose is okay, but as low as possible. And this includes cyclosporine. If done in small increments (20-25%) and over a period of 2-4 weeks. I did THIS (both meds) reduction VERY slow due to prior relapse from hurriedly reducing the prednisone before. I did 4 weeks. And remember, weekly PCV and monthly CBC (plus).

Please keep us posted about Diablo. In the meantime, e-mail me if you have any questions.

Love and hugs, Linda and Sadie

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