Split: Split: For Hope and Steve

[admin]

Hope – my personal opinion is drop the pred first (and YES the slow version you’ve suggested) – then start on the MMF. The reason is say this (reiterate personal opinion) is that IF Steve had a drop in PCV that you weren’t happy with & your were reducing both drugs, you wouldn’t know which one was the culprit & would have to put them both back up again. This was my view & my specialist totally agreed, so that was what we did. We kept the aza the same until he was off the pred completely. Aza is horrible stuff too & we all want to get these drugs to the lowest possible dose as soon as practicable. Another thing to think about is that if for some reason Steve has to stay on a low dose of pred (however unlikely), you need to find that level before messing around with the other drugs. I don’t like too many changes at the same time unless there’s a very good reason – is the MMF giving him any bad side effects? If the answer is no, drop the pred first, then start on the MMF. Don’t rock the boat – it’s sailing along nicely at the moment!

Love Cautious Sheena, Worzel (yes – still on on 50mg aza per week) & Ollie xxxx

[hope]

Hey there Sheena!

I was actually thinking about that last night — if we decrease MMF in the midst of Pred, how would we know which, if any, gave him trouble? You’re right — I am rocking the boat but I’ll behave. Haven’t spoken to the vet yet so all good!

Thank you much and give those boys a hug from me!
xoxo Hope and Steve

[Linda]

Hi Hope. I like Vally’s idea of keeping it daily but dropping 25% (on the prednisone). It sounds like you like that too. Great team work there you two!!! How long do you go before lowering again? I went month, but I do realize that was a bit excessive.

There are many vets that promote that every other day regiment in weaning. Heck, Sadie did great on the meds within three months but then was put on a totally wrong weaning regiment and wella – collapse and relapse. It’s just safer to go slowly and in smaller increments.

You’re doing an awesome job for Steve!!! You’re a wonderful fur mom. Keep up the great job!!

Love and hugs,
Linda and Sadie

[Hope]

Bonjour Linda!!

It’s odd maybe but when Steve was at higher doses, he did decreases – and big ones, remember? (Like 40% once) – every 2-2.5 weeks. Now he’s doing months between them. STILL waiting to hear back but I was going to suggest 2 weeks if he didn’t want to do months still.

Thank you for the encouragement – pretty sure there’s a photo on me in the vets office with “crazy lady” next to it but I’m okay with that. Lol!

Thanks and love to you and Ms. Sadie!
Xoxo hope and Steve

[Vally]

Hope, we actually did 50% drops when on higher doses and Bingo did fine. I wonder if when on higher doses with so much of the stuff going through their system, the bigger drops aren’t noticed as much. As soon as we got down to lower levels though 50% drops did not work and problems came up pretty quickly. I wonder if it’s because the body needs to start doing it’s job and the adrenal glands must all be like Bingo, heavy sleepers.

Then again, I would never suggest 50% drops at any stage unless major side effects happening, as Sheena had to do. Why risk it?

Love Vally & Bingo

[admin]

Hi Hope

Fabulous news on the 48%! Not so fabulous on the long term flagyl. I really hope you’ve “had a word” about it. In my opinion, they should refund you the cost of the medication and offer you a free CBC, at the very least. It is NOT ok! They also need to look at their prescribing processes perhaps, to ensure it doesn’t happen again. Still, what a relief that Steve doesn’t seem to have suffered any problems from it. He’s a champ for sure! We had an “issue” with Molly and Mable’s first vet, when they were kittens. Long story, but I complained and when they offered me £3 compensation, decided it was time to leave that practice! I wasn’t interested in the money, but I was interested in them scrutinising their clinical practice to ensure such mistakes didn’t occur again. I’m not suggesting you leave as I know you like your vet (really important), but please do talk to them about this error as it isn’t acceptable and you need to feel you can trust what you are being told/given.

I agree with what others have said about the reduction from 10mg BID to 10mg every two days. That’s a big drop and I would not be comfortable. I prefer yours and Vally’s suggestion of dropping 25% at a time, and leaving a nice long time between reductions. If Steve is coping well with the medications, there is no need to drop so much and risk a relapse. Stick to your guns!

Lots of love,

Mary and Mable x

[hope]

Hey everyone!

Finally sticking my head up from a mound of textbooks and note sets.. Steve went to the vet yesterday for a visit. Still 48%, sooo thankful!! Hubs and I both had a word with the vet about everything that went on a few weeks back — and I was actually the nicer of the two lol, by a lot. However, Steve’s vet was pretty adamant about going to 10mg EOD from 10mg SID .. I discussed it with him and he explained that the therapeutic range for Pred is ______ (I can’t remember at this moment), and that Steve has been under that for some time as is. He said we could try the 5mg SID first but that he didn’t like that idea bc it’s time for Steve to get off of the Pred and other reasons. I spoke with Dr. Dodds about it and she actually agreed with him, which really surprised me. (When I had spoken with her about reductions back in June, she had said no more than 25-33% at a time and no more than once every 5-7 days.) I ended up doing the decrease and thankfully he’s handled it well. I don’t know if I am imagining things but I actually feel like he feels a little better — he’s been more playful the last week and he’s wrestling with Jeffrey again and rolling around in the grass and all over my bed, destroying everything in his way! Never thought I would be so happy to see that! He knocks out immediately after though. So the vet said yesterday that as of next wednesday (Steve will have been on the 10mg EOD for about 2.5 weeks, approximately), he wants to stop it completely. What do y’all think? What are your experiences with discontinuing Pred totally? How do we find out if he’s one of those pups that needs to be on a low maintenance dose forever?

Also.. I was looking back at Steve’s records from when he was diagnosed and in the emergency clinic. His WBCs were elevated, particularly his neutrophils and basophils (the former much more). According to the NIH,

An increased percentage of neutrophils may be due to:
Acute infection
Acute stress
Eclampsia
Gout
Myelocytic leukemia
Rheumatoid arthritis
Rheumatic fever
Thyroiditis
Trauma

I’m still trying to figure out what caused Steve’s diagnosis, even though the vet has kind of just let it go. We went thru everything we could think of but I’m just paranoid lol. I’m wondering if the above kind of lends support to the idea I got from Tamara that Steve’s crash might have been caused by a cascade of things — he is hypothyroid (as diagnosed by Dr. Dodds), had chronic skin and ear infections, has/had urate bladder stones (which probably irritated his urinary tract) and is like gout in humans and then there was the trauma/stress of the projectile vomiting I induced when he got into chicken bones. Is this totally a stretch?

I also took Steve’s poor abandoned brother into the vet again today — his booty blew up again. The vet says that he’s officially developing “bulldog problems.” I wanted to get him started back on heartworm prevention.. terribly, when Steve got sick I kind of dropped the ball with that in both dogs. They said that they don’t want to do that until we do a full annual exam, including vaccinations. Do y’all vaccinate your non-IMHA pups anymore? I know titers can be run to test the levels, even though most vets are resistant. In LA, all dogs are supposed to be vaccinated with rabies, but we’re just going to have to fly under the radar with Steve. I’m not sure what to do about Jeffrey. I can say that I’m pretty positive Steve’s case wasn’t caused by vaccinations — he was actually overdue for his at the time (he hadn’t been vaccinated in about 14/15 months), but still, EVERYTHING scares me now.

Many many hugs to everyone and their babies from crazy Hope and the stinkers!
xoxo

[hope]

OO sorry, what did y’all do about your non-IMHA BABIES, not just pups?! I can’t leave out the lovely Miss Mable and Molly!