Camilla, AIHA-dog from Italy

eleonora

Guest

Hi ! My name’s Eleonora, i’m italian (so, sorry for my english) and i’ve a 3 and a half years old golden retriever named Camilla.

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about 1 months and a half ago, Camilla started do be strange, very apathetic and lethargic. she’s always been a very quiet dog but one evening she did’t get up to eat so we took her immediately to the vet. it was friday evening (6 november). Blood tests showed a severe anemia, so she was immediately hospitalized, and she immediately started to take antibiotics (for the case of diseases tick) and prednisone in very high dose (for the case of autoimmune anemia). in the saturday morning the red blood cells were decreased. In the sunday morning the red blood cells were decreased again. she had only 1.8 of red blood cell and there was no response from the bone marrow. She had the mucous of the mouth of a very light pink color and the inside of the ears totally white. she looked like a ghost. the vet suggested that it could also be leucemia and she did her a blood transfusion. the following tuesday – after 96 hours from the beginning of therapy – suddenly the bone marrow has begun to produce red blood cells. in the meantime had arrived the results of other blood tests which were not tick diseases. Camilla was discharged from the clinic with the diagnosis of autoimmune anemia . for the first five weeks camilla took 6 tablets of prednisone 25 mg for day, divided between morning and evening and some supplements (stimulfoss and bloodder). now she is decreasing the dose, but she will continue to take prednisone until the end of january (decreasing the dose every two weeks). every 7-10 days we go to the vet to do a blood count control. she’s currently at 4.4 of red blood cells, her ears are back of a beautiful pink color and mucous of her mouth are red again, but she still looks a little apathetic and gets tired easily…….Can be the fault of prednisone? now she’s not lethargic but she still doesn’t want to play with the ball or run. After a month and a half of therapy she has an enlarged liver (the vet says it’s a side effect of high-dose prednisone because blood tests on liver and kidney function are perfect, except the phosphatase high because of prednisone) and we discovered that her heart contracts a little too loosely but according to the cardiologist is a consequence of anemia (however she is also taking a medicine for the heart [vetmedine]). Just this morning we had the control with the cardiologist and her heart was much better. Is there anyone here whose dog survived to the autoimmune anemia? what will happen in january when camilla will finish the therapy with prednisone? what i should expect for the future? she must take the prednisone forever? or make a periodic cicle of therapy? i don’t know why but here in italy i can’t find much information about this disease: in the italian golden retriever-forum no one can help me because no one has experience with the AIHA. most of the information that i have found comes from british or american sites…. i hope my camilla will survive to the AIHA …if you want say a little prayer for her. thank you a lot

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Vally

Keymaster

Hi Eleanora, and welcome. I’m glad you’ve found us. Your English is much better than my Italian. My family are Italian, but I was born in Australia, so my Italian is not good, I’m embarrassed to say.

I’m very sorry your Camilla is sick and I know you’re very worried. The first days/weeks are terrible.

How much does Camilla weigh. I don’t know what stimulfoss and bloodder is. Can you give us the medical name for those? Someone else may know though.

Is she on any other drug? Most dogs with AIHA need to be on low dose aspirin, because their blood is “sticky”. You vet can tell you if she needs to be on it by looking at a blood sample to see what the cells look like. Also we have all found that it’s important for them to be on stomach protection, because prednisone causes stomach ulcers and bleeding. Liver protection is another thing. The drug Denamarin (or in Australia we use Denosyl) helps the liver to cope with the drugs. You can also use milk thistle.

With the side effects of the prednisone, there are so many. Yes, I am certain that’s why she is feeling so tired. It’s best to keep her quiet for now and let her body heal. You can read about it in the glossary above (AIHA Terms) or here is the link.
https://www.secondchanceaihadogs.com/AIHA_Terms/prednisone/

Do they survive – OH YES!!! Many many dogs do survive this. Of course some will not win the battle, but be positive. If she has responded after the transfusion and she has good colour now, be positive. She is nearly in the normal range with her bloods Normal starts at 4.8 (I think???) so she’s very close.

When starting to reduce the prednisone, we’ve all found that the safest way to do it, is to do it slowly. The only reason you would do a faster reduction is if the dog is suffering serious side effects from the prednisone. If Camilla is coping with the prednisone, it’s better to do slow reductions and we recommend 25-30% at a time, testing the blood before and after, the reduction and a minimum of 2 weeks before the next reduction.

By reducing quickly, there is more chance of a relapse. My dog went through this twice, relapsing because we reduced too quickly.

Most dogs, once they’re off the prednsione and stable, are fine. A few dogs (and mine is one) needs to stay on a small dose of prendisone for life. That’s not a problem.

Eleanora, ask anything. Someone has been through it. You can read our stories too, at the top of the page by clicking on the link.

We’d love to see a picture of Camilla too. You can upload a photo on the right. It takes a little while before it appears as, to keep the forum safe, someone needs to check uploads.

My very best,
Vally & Bingo (diagnosed Nov 2011, in remission).

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