Grace Losing Weight and Pale Gums

[Patrice]

My 7 yr old chic Lab was Dx with AIHA almost two yrs ago . After blood transfusion various toxic drugs , Grace survived just.
She is on a whole mostly raw diet with no processed foods. I do not worm, vaccinate or treat for fleas .
Today I made a appt with her Vet after looking at her.
Loosing weight and very pale gums . So guess what I am dreading what the bloods will tell me. Am I going to put her through it again ? As there is no cure and she is only 7yrd old how many times can she survive the aggressive treatment?
Vicki Larkin

[Vally]

Vicki, wow, I’m so sorry and you must be terrified.

First of all hoping with everything that you’re wrong and this is not a relapse, BUT, if it is, remember, she fought and beat it before. You also have the advantage of knowing what drugs worked for her last time.

If she has relapsed, then she may be one of the many dogs that needs to stay on a low dose of prednisone (or one of the other drugs) for life. Bingo was diagnosed at 7, and he’s now 11. He takes 2.5mg of pred daily as he relapsed twice.

Hoping with everything that your girl is okay.

Vally & Bingo.

[Patrice]

Vicki
I am sorry to read this about Grace. This has to be very worrisome to you since you have been through this once already.

It is a wonderful thing that she survived the first time and you have had so much extra time together. I know Grace has appreciated this.

As dogs age they can have more opportunities to become ill, but it isn’t always necessarily a serious illness! It can be simple things to treat that a younger dog might just throw off with a young and healthy immune system. So while it’s easy to jump to the conclusion this is very serious, try to take this one step at a time.

Your vet should look for the obvious and easily treatable problems first. And that means they are going to key in on the fact you haven’t wormed, vaccinated or treated for fleas.

For instance worms such as roundworms, tapeworms, hookworms and whipworms can cause intestinal bleeding which can lead to anemia and also lead to an inability to digest food properly. Heartworm can infect the heart and cause a serious heart conditions. So the two most important tests to do right now are a fecal test and a SNAP 4DX+ test to look for heartworm and tick disease. These conditions are treatable.

A chemistry screen can take a snapshot look at the health of the internal organs like the kidneys and liver, among many other body systems. With the CBC, the vet can get an excellent look at the overall health of Grace.

Once you have this information, you can evaluate more carefully what is making Grace sick and how treatable her current health issues are. Have faith in the exam process to find solutions. Once you have more information we can discuss this together here and figure out what kinds of things you can be doing at home to improve her health!
my best
patrice

[Sara]

Vicki saying a prayer for Gracie and You ! Looking forward to hearing your vets diagnosis. Its Sad for you and Gracie to be going through this .. but the Good is it helps those of us with AIHA dogs to learn about other dogs and how long they have had the disease and what if any issues or complications creep up in years to come. I’m not quite to a year with my girl. So I’ll be coming to this forum to read often so that I can prepare the best possible for the future seeing that this disease has no rhyme or reason.

Blessings ..Sara