Split: Split: For Hope and Steve

[admin]

Hi Hope

Fantastic news on the PCV of 44 – whoopeeeee! I can relate to Patrice’s description of Chance – Worzel also looked very moth-eaten & his coat didn’t grow back at all until the pred dose came down. He was baldy, scabby & tatty for months. I mentioned he still has a few cysts & various lumps & bumps even now.

I also completely agree that if an infection becomes a real problem (life threatening) then you have to give antibiotics that could be “risky” – there isn’t a choice & you need to know exactly what infection you are dealing with (skin scrape). I have had a look at clindomyacin – yes, it has side effects, sorry. Are they proposing tablets or topical cream? You can google it & discuss with your vet. Hopefully, it might just settle down with a pred reduction. I am rapidly coming to the conclusion that everything has side effects that we will worry about, but some things are minimal risk, others have a high risk. Everything I look up has some problem side effect, but some things are much worse than others! We just have to weigh up the pros & cons.

Dear Jeffrey sounds like a right old couch potato, bless him. Some dogs just love to lie around – my two are either running at 100 miles an hour briefly (they don’t keep it up for long) or stretched out on the settee. Greyhounds are notorious couch potatoes too & very cuddly.

So, great news Hope – I’m so pleased Mr Steve is doing so well.
Love & cuddles from all of us
Sheena, Worzel & Ollie xxx

[hope]

Hey there Patrice and Sheena!
Thank you so much for the super quick response — Patrice, I’ll snap a pic when I get home this PM. I didn’t see your message until I had gotten to school for the day.
It’s funny — I am actually less bothered about it than either of the vets! Dare I say there’s a first time for everything lol?! After mentioning it to y’all previously I was under the impression it was from the Pred and would get better as he was weaned. Steve’s regular vet is the one who kind of jumped on a staph train and wanted to prescribe oral antibiotics.. she saw it when I brought him in for his heartworm medication. I wanted to try the shampoo that he had used before (pre-IMHA) and she disagreed and said that it needed to be treated with systemic medication. The specialist agreed that it needed to be treated but wanted to switch to the Clindamycin (300mg BID — which seems like a lot to me also). I asked Dr. Dodds about it and she said that it causes stomach issues, so I’m kind of nervous because that’s where the bulk of Steve’s side effect and problems have been with all of the medications.
The bumps really aren’t bad — they honestly look like flaky red pimples in random spots, not even all together. I’ll call the vet today and ask about treating with something topical maybe instead. I’ m going to take a look at your pics now, Patrice!

Thanks as always guys!!
xoxo Hope and the stinkers

[hope]

Hey guys!!

Just checking in — sorry I haven’t posted in a few. School started a few weeks ago and its very information overload all the time! Thank God Steve is doing well because I don’t know how I would have managed school if it was like it was in June. He’s not due for a PCV check for 2 more weeks — the specialist is scheduling them every 3 weeks now and Im trying to behave and not find reasons to go more often. It’s funny though..whenever I go in to the clinic to pick up meds, which is quite frequent actually, the staff is always like ‘where’s steve? you didn’t bring him?!” Last one last week was 44% though. Still waiting on results from all of the blood work… getting a little antsy about that..

Steve’s down to 10mg Pred once a day.. I wanted to ask.. how do the weanings generally go? Do they wean totally off of Pred and then move to the immunosuppressant? I thought I had read somewhere that a small amount of Pred was necessary for the immunosuppressants to work though, so if that’s the case, he’d have to stay on a small dose of Pred. Also I am worried that the MMF withdrawal is going to be harder on him than the Pred reduction — is one generally more difficult for them? I’m just panicking about the future as always!

Thanks and much love to everyone and our fur baby warriors!
xoxo Hope and the stinkers

[Vally]

Hope, the intention with Bingo being on prednisolone and cyclosporine was that we would alternate reductions, however, as we got lower, his vet said the cyclosporine wasn’t causing any problems, was relatively a very safe drug, lets just get off the pred. I’m not sure about having to stay on a small amount of pred, but that does ring a bell. Certainly many many have come off all all drugs completely. Fingers crossed Steve will be one of them.

Also, I found with Bingo, he seemed to wean off the pred much easier from the higher doses than he has with the lower doses. But that may just be my special boy. I’ve just put him back up again from alternating 0.625mg and 1.25mg daily back up to 1.25mg daily from yesterday, but that’s because he’s still having some stumbling episodes which I am still convinced relates to the pred dose being too low, although his specialist says on such a low dose that’s not likely.

Love Vally & 1.25 again

[Hope]

Hey Vally!

These babies certainly know how to keep us on their toes, huh? I would like to have weaned off of the myco intermittently with the Pred but our good doctor wanted to do all pred first. He’s down to 10mg so I feel like it’s getting close to being low dose enough and we should work on the other. The myco makes me uncomfortable and I feel like he’s on such a high dose (250mg AM and 125mg PM)..I think if you actually look at the recommended dosage he’s right in the middle but I’m still kind of scared about it. I know it’s wrong to want to hurry it but the malignancy fears with all of these meds just freak me out. It’s a silly thing but it makes me feel better — when I give Steve his myco I give him blueberries, broccoli, strawberries, raspberries etc with it. I’m like “an antioxidant to go with it!” Hubs says I’m insane lol .. Obviously. My mind hasn’t been all here since June 2nd. But it makes me feel better and Steve certainly isn’t saying no to food ever. If he did I would be very scared.
I hope Bingo starts minding his mom and behaves so you can take his Pred back down soon.. That helps with his stumbling? Does he have arthritis?

Hugs to all!
Hope and Steve

[Vally]

I always wanted to be a ballerina. I used to practice walking around on my toes. Maybe Bingo is trying to help me follow my dreams ??? He was also diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis with AIHA. Every time we lowered his pred dose, the arthritis symptoms would show again. No this time, he showing signs of losing coordination though. Vet thinks it’s a neurological problem. I’m still convinced its a dependency on the pred. So I upped his pred back up again from Tuesday to 1.25mg a day. I think he’ll stay on that dose. He likes his happy pills too much.

Hope, the Hubs is right, but he’s talking about us all. Mad, mad, mad!!!

When you go next, ask to reduce the myco. Threaten to bring Steve in yourself at least 2 times a week if they don’t :)

Lots of love,
Vally & Bingo

[admin]

Hiya Hope

There are no hard & fast rules here. We dropped the pred completely before we dropped the azathioprine dosage down BUT we had to because Worzel was having horrendous side effects from the pred – I’m not sure how much longer he could have coped with it. It really was that bad. Some dogs can never come off the pred altogether, so the aim is to get the dose as low as possible, as with Bingo, & people also reduce the other immuno-suppressants at the same time. It is a matter of differing opinion among vets too. Regular blood tests to keep an eye on PCV will stop you worrying yourself to a frazzlewhile this is being done. I was terrified & didn’t take my eyes off Worzie boy for a second. Phil & I never went out together for a few months! Mad – yes completely.

Patrice found an article on calcinosis cutis – I noticed a reference to unique Dalmations in it that you might find informative:
http://www.dogstuff.info/calcinosis_cutis_lanting.html

I don’t care if I’m mad – I am in good company on here!
Love & cuddles to Steve & Jeffrey
Sheena, Worzel & Ollie xxxx

[admin]

Hi Hope. Yes – all MAD here – agree with Sheena and Vally! But still sane. And after all this that we have all been through, that’s saying much!!! ;)

The weaning – awe – a hot topic with me, to say the least. Sadie’s relapse was due to weaning prednisone too fast. So this time, we went (extremely!!) slow. Additionally, with Sadie, she did not tolerate the cyclosporine (Atopica) well in the end. At first, she was fine, but she had been on it for about one and one-half years and I think it just ended up getting to her. So, we weaned intermittently, one month – prednisone, one month – cyclosporine. She is no longer on cyclosporine at all. She’s now, after a year almost weaning, is finally down to 3.5 prednisone.

Sadie is one of those dogs that may (MAY, not for sure) be one of those dogs that have to stay on a ‘maintenance’ dose of prednisone for life. Her last vet visit, last week, her PCV is holding pretty well. Sadie’s vet said that the low dose she is on, calculated with her weight (38 lbs) is about equal to what the body would naturally produce and she MAY be able to come off the prednisone completely. But like Vally, I may ere on the side of the “happy pills” and see how that goes.

I am so dog-gone happy that Steve is doing so well!! Wonderful to see your post.
Keep up the studying!!!

Sending our love and huge hugs to you and Steve,

Linda and Sadie