Help and advice – Experience with Acute Respiratory Syndrom in AIHA dog

[Vally]

Anne, how is Bilbo going?

Love Vally & Bingo

[Anne]

Hello everyone,

The past two days have been incredibly busy for me, sorry I could not write earlier: Bilbo had his appointment yesterday,and I had to prepare my classes for today. Despite the illness, life must go on.

I received Dr. Dodds’ analysys just on time for my appointment with Bilbo yesterday. She was very reassuring, and in fact, echoed what Patrice sent me on Friday: Bilbo is definitively highly regenerative, and everything else indicates that the problem is internal bleeding due to prednisone. She sais it would be safe to reduce the prednisone by 5mg, as my vet suggested – so perhaps my vet is just not verty good at giving me the information in a positive, confident way?

Bilbo was taking nothing so far for his liver, so she recommended SAMe. to help with his high ALK P level and high ALT liver cell. I’m not sure what it refers to exactly, but apparently this should improve over time.

Thank you for your kind words and emails. I didn’yt have time to reply to your last one, Sheena, but it was really nice of you, and I sure saw what you mentioned: the sucralfate works very quickly!! I wished I’d knew before about it earlier and that I’d started Bilbo on it right away, but at least, we now use it and it does seem to make a difference for Bilbo. He’s more updabeat and we could even take a 10 minutes walk today – with treats helping.

I’m keeping the best news for the end: as Dr. Dodds and Patrice predicted, Bilbo’s RBC count increased a lot since last Thursday (thanks to the sucralfate that stopped most of teh bleeding, it seems): he left the clinic at 30 yesterday! I was so, so happy.

We still monitor him closely because we just reduced the prednisone, but everyone’s input here, along with Dr. Dodd’s reports, really did reassure me. I guess this was just one more rollercoaster in this long journey…!

Lots of love to you all, from Bilbo and me.

[admin]

Hello Anne-Marie and Bilbo,
I am so happy about the good news! Bilbo is a superstar and you are his fighting mama:) No wonder he is more upbeat with a PCV of 30. I am so glad you contacted Dr. Dodds and found the sucralfate to help heal Bilbo’s tummy.
Best wishes,
Brigitte

[Vally]

ALT is an enzyme produced by liver cells. Liver damage causes ALT to increase in the bloodstream. and Alkaline phosphatase is up because Bilbo is taking prednisone. That’s what I understand. These are very common blood results when taking prednisone. The SAMe is brilliant stuff and I highly recommend it. It worked quickly to bring Bingo’s high ALT results down fairly quickly.

Wonderful news on the results. Don’t overdo the walks, go only as far as Bilbo wants to go. If he’s not keen on the walks yet, just give it a little more time.

Love Vally & Bingo

[Tamara]

Anne, that is wonderful news all the way around, I’m so happy you got in touch with Dr. Dodds and she was so helpful. Sending you both much love and many hugs —
tamara and ashki xoxox

[admin]

Hi Anne-Marie

It’s great to hear things are improving & that Dr Dodds is helping you too. Whooopeeeee for a PCV of 30 – that is really positive & shows the sucralfate is doing it’s job. The Sam-E & milk thistle will bring his liver enzymes down – Worzel’s came down beautifully on it. So, keep it going dear, sweet Bilbo – I am so happy he’s doing much better.

Love & cuddles from all of us
Sheena, Worzel & Ollie xxxx

[Anne]

Hello everyone,

Thanks for the cheers, we were really happy as wel1 that Mr. B’s results improved with the sucralfate. His next appointment to the vet is next Thursday, so fingers crossed that his RBC will still be stable and his liver enzymes will improve.

Since getting feedback form Dr. Dodds, I changed Bilbo’s diet to help his liver. I now give him a mix of potatoes, seet potatoes and chicken (fish wouldnt do, unfortunately). I think it was a good decision, because I noticed that his belly was less swollen after eating I noticed that since taking his medication, Bilbo would swollow after his meals, and he’d be sensitive on the sides. I was wondering whther you experienced that as well, and if so, what helped to ease this? What treats do you give, for instance? Bilbo wants to eat a lot, of course, so any suggestions as to what i could give him that would be good for his liver and perhaps help with the bloating and constipation?

Also, do not worry: we do not walk him a lot, about 5 minutes or 10, at a very slow pace. He doesn’t have a lot of muscular tonus, so I freak out a bit about his back, I’m afraid he’ll hurt himself, and an hernia is definitively something we want to avoid right now!

So overall, things seem stable now. He has a lot of energy when it comes to eating, and he even ventured in the backyard this week, just to explore (and possibly find food…of course…). Fingers crossed things will continue to improve until our next visit.

Love to you all,

Anne-Marie and Mr. B!

[admin]

Hi Anne-Marie

This all sounds sooooooo much better – having a sore tummy must have been really miserable & it’s great to hear he’s a hungry boy! We gave Worzel smaller, more frequent meals to help with the bloating, but it’s really difficult working it around the medications that need giving on an empty stomach. He always felt bad after the doxycyline which must be given separately & I always gave the azathioprine with food to help avoid pancreatitis. I also stuck to “lighter meats” such as chicken, turkey, lamb or lower fat mince (10%-15%), steak & fish, but maybe Bilbo can’t have fish? People on long term prednisolone are advised to keep to a high protein & lower fat diet, so that was what we decided to do, but they obviously do need some good fats to be healthy. I hope this helps a bit – I bet others will have some good ideas for you too.

Are you giving him Sam-e & milk thistle or Denamarin (contains milk thistle)? I found the milk thistle did give Worzel slightly looser stools, but my goodness it brought his liver enzymes down to pretty much normal. Many people on here find pumpkin good for both diarrhea & constipation – any one else got an idea on that? I confess we gave good quality doggie biscuit treats which are probably not ideal – our two just live for the treats & we have loads of fun & games with them. It’s important that they are HAPPY when they start feeling better in my opinion!

Sadly, loss of muscle tone is an unavoidable side effect of the pred, but I promise you will see a big improvement when the dose comes down. I would say Worzel went back to approximately his previous musculature, but we were very worried during treatment as he had no fat on him whatsoever before he became ill. So we just accepted he looked like the world’s fattest greyhound with stick legs for a while – handsome! We also have to accept that our older dogs will never be quite the same on the fitness front, but the youngsters seem to do much better. What dosage of drugs is Bilbo on now? Have patience (again) & keep to what you are doing on the exercise front – taking it easy. I was worried sick about Worzie tearing a ligament or tendon when he felt better as he started trying to jump around again – a nightmare. No wonder you are worried about Bilbo’s back as I know they are prone to problems.

Wishing you loads of luck with the next appointment – things sound very much better now Bilbo is getting all the right medications – great news! Let us know how he gets on.

Sending love & hugs, Sheena, Worzel & Ollie xxxxx