Split: Split: For Hope and Steve

[Hope]

Hey all!
Is it okay to shift Steve’s whole lovenox schedule a few hours? So instead of shots at 4:00am, 12:00 noon and 8:00pm, I could give them at 2:00am, 10am, and 6pm or (Even better) 1:00am, 9:00am and 5pm. The 4:00am thing is killing me bc I’m already up with him again at 5:00 and I have to stay up until midnight at least for another of his meds and a 2:00am potty break. I called a people pharmacy and the pharmacist said it’s fine to do that, that I would just give him a dose 2 hours early to start it off. He also agreed that they don’t have to be given right on time (1-2 hours in either direction is okay).. He said problems come in when you miss a whole dose, like during the day if you have to work or something. I figured now is a good time since I screwed up his schedule yesterday.

Also, does anyone know if Pred interacts with Lovenox? The pharmacist said no but I just wanted to ask any of y’all as well.

Thanks!
Hope

[admin]

Hiya Hope
Just to be on the safe side (you know what I’m like!), move them back 1 hour for the first day, then another hour the next day – hope that makes sense! I can find no evidence of lovenox & pred interacting after checking several drug interaction sites. It’s so hard to get some rest with all these meds to give & very easy to make mistakes – please don’t you dare feel bad about it – we’ve all done it. I very, very nearly gave Worzel the wrong pred dose by accident & I used to be a nurse, which doesn’t say much for me, does it?
Hope this helps
Love Sheena, Worzel & Ollie xxx

[Hope]

Hey there Sheena!
Your advice totally makes sense — that’s what I had thought of doing since I messed up his dosage yesterday, move them gradually instead of just jumping to 2 hour change.
I know what you mean — my family keeps asking me how I am gojng to be in the medical profession if I am so paranoid with my pup. I feel like it’s totally different — animals as a whole just break my heart and they can’t tell you when they’re sick. They have utmost trust in you to care for them. And Steve is like my child so there’s that too!
Hugs and naps!
Xoxo hope and steve

[Vally]

Hope, yes, I like the 1 hour change idea too, and I’m the same, animals just seem to touch a place in me too. Can’t stand to see an animal hurt.

Love Vally &Bingo

[Hope]

Hey all!

The vet called with Steve’s kidney and liver blood work from last week. Kidney is good. Liver enzymes are “mildly” elevated, though it seems a lot elevated to me.

ALP: 668
AST: 72
ALT: 444

What do y’all think? Are those very elevated?

They said normal given the prednisone, but they want to go ahead and reduce the Pred now (instead of waiting until next Monday) from 30mg (15mg BID) –> 20mg SID. They said we could use his PCV of 40% from last week since it’s been stable at thay for 2.5 weeks. Ooo gees the panic is starting!

Thanks to everyone!!
Xoxo hope and super steve

[admin]

Hi Hope,
if this would be a dog on no medication red flags would go up left right and center. But we all know why these liver values are elevated. I have seen in MUCH higher than that so take a deep breath. Once the meds are lowered the liver will recover, it is such an amazing organ with the capabilities to heal itself. Yes it is scary to lower the meds, but you can see now why it is necessary. Nobody wants to rock the boat when things seem to be going good. But eventually you want the medications lowered or even have Steve on no meds at all. Of course it is always a fine line but if you do the reductions fairly slow, just the way you do it, it will be fine.
Best wishes,
Brigitte

[Vally]

They do look high BUT, whilst on high dose prednisone, they will be high. I can’t remember is Steve on something for his liver? SAMe or milk thistle?

Bingo’s went on Denosyl (SAMe) to help when his results went too high and that did work quite quickly. His vet wasn’t worried about it because there was no doubt it was being caused by the prednisone and as it’s reduced the liver will recover.

Love Vally & Bingo.

[Hope]

Hi there Brigitte and Vally!

Thank you for the reassurance — is it odd that they are changing the Pred to once a day instead of splitting it into two administrations like we’ve been doing? He’s just been looking so well the last week and I’m afraid to knock it down.. But like y’all said, the goal is to get him off of this or on as little as possible so we have to do it.

He is on milk thistle tincture (the HerbPharm one)… I am giving the dosage dr dodds recommended which is half of the adult dosage for his body weight, about 50lbs (or almost 23kg). So basically I am giving him about 10 drops twice a day.. Do y’all think we could up it a little? I didn’t have him on sam-E because I was worried about it affecting his bladder stones/bladder stone issue. I emailed his normal vet though and she said that it was okay to give it to him and she had some for me to pick up for free. I’ll message y’all when I see what brand it is but I currently have the Cellfood one (I had ordered it but chickened out) also.

The booger is always freaking me out tho — i took him for a walk when I got home and he peed like usual, then tried 2 more times and one was just dribble and the other was nothing. I’m super worried about the bladder stones as I don’t even know how surgery would happen right now with his IMHA. However I think he may have just been out of wee lol and was trying (unsuccessfully) to mark his spot.
So checklist to watch: wee, BM, gums, lumps … Anything else?! Lol!
Thanks you guys!
Hope and Steve