Lola – Page 9 – Second Chance AIHA Dogs

Keymaster

Hi Ashley. You poor girl going through all this with Lola. Trust me, I too have been there with Sadie. And agree too – consult with Dr. Dodds – she’s an amazing person.

Okay – here goes,

PREDNISONE (WEANING):

I really hope to listen to what we are all saying (YES, I AGREE WITH ALL – SLOW, SLOW, SLOW reductions).

Sadie would have been over all this long ago had we weaned her slowly. Please read her ‘story’ so you’ll understand where I’m coming from when I say, go SLOW.

I agree with everyone here about the reduction being WAY too aggressive. What do these vets that wean aggressively NOT get about this?!!!!! It’s just AIHA 101 logic – SLOW REDUCTIONS and over a period of at least a few weeks between each reduction. After Sadie’s relapse because of an aggressive reduction, I did one month between each reduction. I do realize that’s really slow, but I was not taking any chances for another relapse. It has taken an incredible amount of time, but we are finally down to 3.5MG of prednisone daily (she’s off Cyclosporine completely).

By the way, I get Sadie’s prednisone from Costco (great price and they discount it for uninsured dogs/cats/pets and people too!). Prednisone comes in 20mg, 10mg, 5mg, 2.5mg and 1mg. So, now with Sadie on 3.5mg daily, I give Sadie a 2.5mg and a 1mg (together with the tiniest amount of pill (duck) pocket around both pills) = 3.5mg (daily, once a day, now being so low). So, if you are now giving Lola 7.5mg, you could give her 5mg in the AM and 2.5mg in the PM. Does that sound right everyone? AND agreed with everyone here – DO NOT do every other day. Not yet. As everyone said, the prednisone and Azathioprine have suppressed the adrenal glands – they need to wake SLOWLY.

AZATHIOPRINE:

I am assuming that Lola is still full course on the Azathioprine? I used Cyclosporine (Atopica) with Sadie. At the end, she had some really bad side effects from it. I had to wean both the Prednisone and Cyclosporine intermittently. She is now totally off the Cyclosporine, which is not the way most have done here, but it worked for Sadie (so far). Sadie’s PCV is now higher than her pre-AIHA PCV, this morning testing at 48.1%. Yeah Sadie!!!

PROBIOTIC SUPPLEMENT:

Just be careful with this. It can have an adverse reaction and cause diarrhea. It did with Sadie – whom ALWAYS has poop issues. I can not even do pumpkin (pure) with her. However, like Vally with Bingo, I have on occasion given her plain slippery elm. I love that Vally cooks it to a roar!! Although, I just put a VERY, VERY SMALL PINCH right in Sadie’s food. But I like her idea much more and it’s most likely much more beneficial and tolerable. Although, Sadie never had problems with it being put in her food.

The other thing that has helped Sadie’s poops, is a product called Perfect Form by Honest Kitchen: http://www.thehonestkitchen.com/perfect-form

I don’t give as much as they say, because again, it has an adverse reaction with Sadie, so I do the same as with the slipper elm, a VERY, VERY SMALL PINCH. Her am and pm food has one squirt of PetTinic and a VERY, VERY SMALL PINCH of Perfect Form in it, every day. She was having some problems (test poop, fine) a few weeks ago, not now. It works great – pick-up-able. Amazing how our dog’s poop makes us smile!

DENAMARIN (LIVER PROTECTION):

Didn’t you mention that Lola is on Denamarin. Great drug. Great. But I later opted for a more natural approach and began to use Milk Thistle and SAM-e. I use HerbPharm liquid Milk Thistle and CellFood SAM-e, both are brand names. I get them both from Amazon.

I tried to do the math and figured that to equate to the Denamarin dosage Sadie was on (she weighed, at onset of AIHA, 35lbs), I would use 20 drops of HerbPharm liquid Milk Thistle and 12 drops of the CellFood liquid SAM-e. She has had NO liver problems, test results all good, thank goodness.

BACTERIAL INFECTION:

You mentioned Lola’s vet thinks she has a bacterial infection right? And I think several have asked, what is she on for this?

FUR LOSS / LUSTER LOSS:

Pre-AIHA, Sadie had an incredible soft, dark black coat. People complimented her all the time. With the Prednisone, she not only lost much of her luster, she also started to prematurely turn grey. I also found 20X the amount of fur balls around the house, so she was shedding. But then when I started to wean her off the medications, the shedding actually got worse for a few months. Now, it’s growing back in and she’s getting that luster back. She is still grey in those same spots, but she looks incredibly better.

Sadie also became ravenous and gained weight with all the medications – seven pounds!!! Her pre-AIHA weight was 35, and she went up to 42 at one point right before we started weaning her! She was a tubby!! Today she weighed 37.5, so thankfully, she’s loosing. She’s also not quite so ravenous.

The second time around, after relapse due to too aggressive weaning, the reductions were VERY SLOW. I weaned about 20% each reduction, at 30 day intervals, keeping the every day regiment. Depending on what the reduced dose was, I gave the higher (mg) in the AM and the lower(mg) in the PM. All this – because my dear friends here walked me through it. Without them, I am quite sure, Sadie would not be here today.

NEVER THE SAME:

You are right – this horrible disease changes them. They are never the same. But if indeed they do make it, we are the lucky ones. So, although not the same, they are with us and usually they come back almost to where they were. Lola will come back. It will take some time. It has been almost two years now with Sadie and she is just now wanting to play, wanting to run (she stopped that completely for almost a year!) and not so anxious as she was on the nasty, but necessary, drugs.

Hang in there with Lola. You are doing an incredible job with her and she is doing well because of you.

MUCH LOVE AND HUGE HUGS:

Linda and Sadie

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