- Second Chance AIHA ›
- Forums ›
- AIHA Dog ›
- Opinions on treatment and weaning off too fast
Hi again Ivan’s Mum
Couldn’t agree with Patrice more – this looks like an infection for sure – high neutrophils are a signal for that. Patrice is extremely knowledgable on tick diseases – I detest ticks too. Can I add that Worzel had ehrlichiosis from a tick bite rumbling around for many months, possibly YEARS – it triggered the IMHA (plus a vaccination while he wasn’t 100%) & stopped his bone marrow from working properly. I can’t stress how important it is to treat these horrible tick-borne nasties. Prednisone allows infections to take hold because of immune system suppression – so any infection must be treated as soon as possible – & hit with a big stick!
Googling individual blood test items is not to be recommended because it will scare the life out of you with all the possibilities – don’t frighten yourself. Sending copies of the blood tests on the Urgent Advice link is a much better idea.
Hope Ivan will soon be improving. Why do our well cared for dogs get this disease?Pure & utter bad luck – no fault on your part I can assure you.
Hi all! Ivan’s bloodwork came back today and he’s kickin’ AIHA’s butt! Nearly everything is back within normal range and the numbers that aren’t yet are heading that way. Re-test on July 2nd and then we’ll discuss lowering the azathioprine dosage. He’s still on 5mg pred and doxy in case of tick pathogens. My order came in this afternoon, too. Pure 100% organic milk thistle powder and SAM-e drops. That oughta help speed his liver repair along. :)
Well done Ivan! This is such good news & we love to hear about a bit of butt kicking on here. Glad to hear you are continuing with the doxy – that is good stuff for killing off tick diseases – I presume his neutrophils/WBCs are down a bit? Worzel was on doxy for about 5 weeks to kill off the ehrlichiosis – that is one nasty bug which can easily hide itself away.
We found the milk thistle & Sam-E brought Worzel’s liver enzymes down quite quickly – a couple of weeks & he had dropped back into the normal. I started it very early on in his treatment, thanks to advice from folks on here, so it might take Ivan a bit longer as he has been on the drugs for quite a while. My French specialist said it was a brilliant idea & he would now start recommending it to other IMHA owners, not that there are many of them around here! We are just very unlucky our dogs got this evil thing.
Love Sheena, Worzel & Ollie xxxxx
PS How is that naughty mourning dove doing? I bet she is still driving you nuts!
ALT went from 226 to 211 (normal 12-118)
Alk Phosphatase went from 1576 to 952 (normal 5-131)
Urea Nitrogen 44 down to only 43 (normal 6-31) Eh, better than nothing.
BUN/creatinine went from 37 down to 31 (normal 4-27)
WBC went from 40 to 15.3 (normal 4-15.5)
RBC 4.3 to 4.7 (normal 4.8 to 9.3)
PCV 35 up to 36 (normal 36-60)
Neutrophils went from 43000 to 13000 (normal 2060 to 10600)
Platelets normalizing at 307 (down from 575 too high)
Muscle tone and energy near normal. The crazy mutt is back, begging, barking and all. :)
Esther is doing great. Ready for release soon. I’ll miss her, but not her formula flinging ways. I was finding that stuff everywhere.
Hiya
Wow – everything is moving in the RIGHT direction on the blood test front – well done again, Ivan! There must have been an infection which is now being killed of with the doxy. If you didn’t do a proper starving blood test (I often didn’t), creatinine/BUN can be higher than “normal” anyway. Behaviour is the biggest indicator of improvement in my world – he’s a happy, hungry, playful boy again & that means everything.
Maybe you & Esther should become inspirational interior decorators before she leaves – formula walls could be a new trend in design, you know!
![bingo-14-5_1200x775](https://www.secondchanceaihadogs.com/wp-content/gallery/aiha-dogs_2/bingo-14-5_1200x775.jpg "Vally\'s Bingo \\"Smile\\"")
![Brigitte_Cleo_Ripley_Enzo_4](https://www.secondchanceaihadogs.com/wp-content/gallery/aiha-dogs_2/Brigitte_Cleo_Ripley_Enzo_4.jpg "Brigitte\'s Cleo, Ripley, Enzo and Guest \\"Rockin\\"")
