Page 52 – Second Chance AIHA Dogs

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Keymaster

Hi Ivan’s Mum!

Lovely that you have joined us – if you have 21 other animals, you must be a real softie – what others do you have? We’d love to hear about them.

I couldn’t agree more with Brigitte, Lynn & Vally – take the reductions slowly & carefully. You can read more about prednisone here:
https://www.secondchanceaihadogs.com/AIHA_Terms/prednisone/
and how to reduce it safely here:
https://www.secondchanceaihadogs.com/AIHA_Terms/prednisone-dose-reduction/
I’d just like to emphasise how important taking the dose down slowly is – relapses are no fun & it is much better to do the right thing so Ivan recovers properly. We also normally recommend getting them off the prednisone completely before reducing the other immuno-suppressant drug(s) (in your case, the azathioprine) & to get regular PCV checks – it’s usually much better that way.

Could I also recommend getting Ivan’s amylase levels checked each time too. Azathioprine can cause pancreatitis & a raised amylase level can be a “first” indicator of that. My dog Worzel was on azathioprine (still has one per week) & my specialist said we must do this at every check up to make sure he wasn’t having a problem. I think it’s very important with smaller dogs to do this too.

Again, I agree with the denamarin – it is great for liver protection & provides red cell building blocks. If you are using milk thistle & Sam-E separately, here is a site which you can work out the milk thistle dosage from:
http://www.canine-epilepsy-guardian-angels.com/milk_thistle.htm
It says use 20% of the human dose for a 20lb dog. There are also other recommendations there which are helpful.
Here is the manufacturer’s site for Sam-E complete with dosages:
http://www.nutralifepet.com/sam-e-for-pets

I must also say that having a specialist who has experience of this disease is very important. I was lucky to find someone here in France who trained at Cornell University so his being able to speak English was a big help too! I would recommend you find someone who knows their stuff. If you are unable to do that, we have a link on here to the wonderful Dr Dodds of Hemopet who many of us have consulted. She is wonderful, kind, highly experienced & very qualified. You can find her under our heading Hemopet resources
https://www.secondchanceaihadogs.com/hemopetresources/
and you can do an online consultation with her using the form you can see bottom left. Her fees are very reasonable & you will only pay the $100 consultation fee to start with, then there are usually no further consultation charges. Hemopet is a charity too – that makes it doubly nice to use her as it helps with the greyhound rehoming. If you use her lab, obviously there would be charges for that kind of thing, but most of the tests can be done by your own vet anyway.

Ivan sounds like a real cutie – give him a hug from me. Hope we have helped a little. Ask anything – we are all here to help.

Love Sheena, Worzel (diagnosed Dec 2012, in remission) & his friend Ollie xxxxx

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