Pit Diagnosed with AIHA

[Vally]

Yayyyyyyy!!!!!!

Love Vally & Bingo
xxx

[Alyssa]

Impressed with sassy each day :) She seems much happier now. I wouldn’t say shes back to her old self, but maybe 70%? She stretched a tiny bit yesterday, she always used to stretch like a cat, so that’s a sign she feels better!

I do need to get this prednisone hunger under control. She’s gaining weight fast, and I will be horrified if something happens to her due to her weight after all this. She was already a bit overweight and despite a strict diet she doesn’t lose anything – so this is bad that she is gaining!!
I’m going to start giving her green beans for lunch now, instead of regular food; hopefully with the reduction again her hunger wont be so bad. (She’s still getting regular food in the morning and twice at night, so no I am not just giving her green beans!) She used to only eat twice a day and we’re up to 4 with sometimes snacks in between when she just acts like shes going to starve to death. I’m going to start trying to replace at least one meal with green beans, two if she seems to be okay on that. What did you guys do to control weight gain on Pred?

Anyway, I uploaded a photo of her from yesterday. Sorry, I hope you guys like the photos! I love taking photos of her, lol.

I also made her some homemade treats so I could control what is in them. It’s pumpkin, wheat flour, green beans, sweet peas and 1 egg. It made a LOT of cookies and I froze them and she loves them right out of the freezer, like an ice cube. Also forces her to eat it slower. Very cost effective, low calorie, healthy! Added bonus: because I made it, I don’t fret about washing my hands after handling them.

Here are some pics of the treats & sassy enjoying them, I didn’t want to upload these ones to the site since it’s not purely of Sassy, so click the links to see! :)
http://i.imgur.com/SGi2vlq.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/gPDuSBi.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/cKYxuBx.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/MyUsps3.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/OrGWs6u.jpg

I feel like the person that keeps showing photos to friends that don’t really want to see em. LOL! But, we’re all dog lovers here so hopefully you guys enjoy!

[admin]

Hi Alyssa

They really DO need much more food on these drugs, so don’t reduce her too much – it’s need, not greed – she IS hungry – give more food, especially protein. I promise Sassy needs more than she would normally have. Worzel ate probably 4 -6 times (guessing) more food & he STILL ended up skeletal in the limb, head & muscle department, but had a barrel belly. Keep it fairly low fat – humans on immuno-suppressants especially pred, are told to watch their fat intake, but to UP their protein. Prednisone is catabolic, so it literally eats muscle, and the protein intake must be upped in an attempt to compensate. You will find that a lot of the “weight gain” is actually fluid retention (especially the tummy area) & this will resolve when you reduce the pred – slowly. Green beans are GOOD for her. Please don’t restrict her intake – she really does need a lot of extra calories. Remember muscle mass is severely affected by these drugs & you could be harming her long term by restricting her. The heart is a muscle & it needs feeding.

Love Sheena x

[Alyssa]

Sheena, I understand. Does this still apply so strictly to a dog that was already overweight though?

She was 71 at the start of this, about 10-15lbs overweight. She is now at 75. She has never been a muscular dog. I’m just very worried we’re approaching 80lbs. Weight is very difficult to get off of her, and I worry she will have heart problems just from the weight gain afterwards, too.

She is getting much more protein however – I have a mash of either turkey or chicken & veggies that I mix in to supplement her regular food.

Replacing her lunch with green beans & 1/4cup of her dry, instead of 1/2cup dry and 1/2cup of the veggie & meat mash, with this latest prednisone lowering – does that seem safe? She didn’t finish all the green beans today, which tells me shes not AS hungry as she was about a week ago – she’d eat every last green bean and lick the floor for 5 minutes.

[Vally]

Alyssa, I know exactly what you mean about the stretch. I always thought Bingo was part cat. I love to see him do the cat stretch because yes I’m sure he only does it when he’s lazily content. Rolling in the grass is another. He only started doing this again when he was obviously feeling better. It still makes me really happy to see him do it now.

I love seeing your photos. They’re gorgeous.

I understand about the weight issue. I had to be careful with Bingo’s weight as he had joint problems. If he put on too much weight, he had problems with his knees. But he had lost a lot of weight with the pred (but as Sheena said, he lost all muscle). We went from 2 feeds a day to about 5 to cope with the weight loss and even then were struggling to keep his weight there. Now that we’re down to minimum prednisone (he’ll stay on it), I’m more careful with his weight.

I haven’t scrolled back. What prednisone dose is Sassy on now?

Vally & Bingo (who thinks those treats look great)

[Alyssa]

Sassy just came down to one 20mg tab a day as of yesterday, she was on 1.5 tabs previously!

[Vally]

Alyssa, I wouldn’t be terribly concerned about her weight just now then. When the dosage comes down a bit more, see how Sassy’s weight is going then because she may also be a little less hungry. Is she drinking a lot? Bear in mind this could be water weight too. Don’t every restrict water – you know that though right?

Bingo has taken to turning up his nose to his breakfast. The buggar will only eat his breakfast if he’s hand fed (I say every day this is NOT on Bingo), but I want to make sure he’s eaten before I leave for work so I cave in every time. After he manages to get through his breakfast with great suffering, he dashes into the kitchen to get his prednisone (because he gets that with a tiny bit of tinned dog food). Now dog food is obviously much more yummy than my cooking. It’s then treat time, followed by treat time, followed by treat time (etc). How do I know it’s treat time? The barking and the barking and the barking (etc).

Love Vally & Treats (aka Bingo)

[Alyssa]

Her water consumption has actually come way down from the start of all this, maybe double her usual but it was crazy at the start 4-5x what she usually drank! Shes got a large bowl in each room she spends time in – access to it all night while we’re asleep – not limited at all!

Haha, I know when it’s sassys snack/meal time. She will suddenly start being really, really, really, *really* cute. I’m usually sitting at my desk working, and she will come up to the chair and start bumping my thigh with her nose/resting her head on it, begging to be pet. If I pet her, she’ll melt to the ground and roll on her back and paw at my hands. Occasionally she does this just to be pet but usually, I think shes learned how to quickly get my attention to go feed her (who can ignore that, really??)