Hello: Rosemary and Tempe

[Rosemary Sanchez]

Hello, my name is Rosemary and I have a pup named Tempe who was diagnosed with IMHA 20 months ago. I followed the VetNet site every day, for some reason I was not allowed to post but I got so much great information from the archives that most of my questions were answered with them. Thank you for starting this forum.

[admin]

Hi Rosemary,

I am glad you found your way here. This is a temporary place, something I had to do quickly. As you can see this is a Giant Rescue website, just excuse all the information about Giants! Soon enough we will have a new home. I will make sure that EVERYONE knows where we are going!

How is Tempe doing now?

my best

patrice

[Sheena]

Hi Rosemary

Great to hear from you – hoping Tempe is doing fine now.

Best wishes

Sheena & Worzel

[Rosemary Sanchez]

Thank you for welcoming me. My little girl Tempe doing good right now. She is on 5mg Pred 2xday and 50mg cyclo 2xday. She had a relapse 2 weeks ago and I’ve had to start her back up on these doses of meds. She has had 4 relapses, and has never been fully off drugs in 20 months. Her blood work last week showed an HCT of 44, and her platelets are at 360.  Her bloodwork is all within reasonable numbers, except for her glucose level which is at 66, this is lower than normal for her. Could this be from the recent drug increases? I’m very concerned of what 20 months of drugs is doing to her little body. I also give her Denamarin and Pet-tinic. Thank you for your help.

Rosemary

[Sheena]

Hi again Rosemary

I’m sorry to hear about all the relapses poor Tempe has been through – we have many dogs on the old VetNet site & some on here who have had similar problems, so don’t feel alone.  You’re probably right about the blood sugar being the prednisolone, I’m afraid.

Here is a link to some information on prednisolone for you – you might have seen it already, if not I hope it will help

http://www.marvistavet.com/html/prednisone.html

You need to keep an eye on development of diabetes, but I’m sure your Vet will have explained that.  However, that is a brilliant HCT & if the rest of her bloods are good, that it great news!  To avoid any further relapses, it would be best to stabilise her, then very, very slowly reduce the prednisolone, preferably by 20-25% per month is ideal, unless she has serious problems with the prednisolone of course, in which case it would have to be more drastic.  I am not a believer in drastic unless there are serious health risks.  How old is Tempe & is she a particular breed?  Lots of people on here give their dogs denmarin & pet-tinic, some use slippery elm.  Is Tempe on any tummy protection, e.g. pepcid or sucralfate?  It would be a good idea to use these in case her tummy gets sore with the drugs.  Hoping perhaps a slower drug withdrawal can help prevent relapses, together with regular blood tests, then you can always put the dose back up if there is any significant drop in HCT – don’t worry about a small change as it varies a little bit throughout the day.

Keep us posted & feel free to ask any questions – hope we have helped!

<span style=”line-height: 1.428571429;”>Best wishes from Sheena & Worzel (diagnosed Dec 2012)</span>

[Vally]

Hi Rosemary, I’m so glad you found us.

Regards, Vally

[Rosemary Sanchez]

I’m so glad I found everyone too! Vally, thanks so much for guiding me here. And Sheena, thank you for the website on pred, lots of good info. I do also have Tempe on pepcid, and very recently started her on Soloxine after having Hemopet test her thyroid. Turns out her thyroid was completely out of whack. I am very fortunate to live about 15 miles from Hemopet. I’ll keep a close eye on her glucose and hope that it normalizes when I start reducing the pred and cyclo again. Thank you all!

[Vally]

I think the thyroid plays a big role in all of this.  Hopefully with Tempe now on the soloxine this as well, fingers crossed, no relapses…ANY MORE…right Tempe!!!