Page 29 – Second Chance AIHA Dogs

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Keymaster

Hiya Pam

Goodness, this is hard getting medications into your poor Emily – more difficult than with doggies for sure. My very old friend Theresa (by whom I met Mary) wraps her “difficult ones” in a towel to give meds – it avoids ER visits! I can appreciate that it is not ideal to say the least, but maybe worth a try????? Mary – your ideas are really worth a go – good luck Pam – very frustrating for you. Emily sounds like a real sweetie pie & we always feel bad showing this stuff down their necks – they don’t understand we ARE trying to get them better! Is there any way you could restrict her to a certain area, so that she can’t sneak off & hide? Or even a large cage?

From what you have said, my suspicions still go with an infection – it will take someone far more more clever than me by far to be certain. At the end of the day though, why not go with treating an infection? What’s to lose? Nothing actually. That was what we did – basically, doxycycline will kill of just about anything & that was what we opted for with Worzel. A course of antibiotics may prove/disprove our theory & would do no real harm. But he needed that immuno-suppressant as bone marrow failure was obvious. Would you be able to dissolve & syringe an antibiotic, rather than use a pill? If not, an injection surely is available. It does worry me that pred alone may not be the right thing to do BUT because she is nowhere near emergency levels, you do have time to play with, so no need to panic.

I am sorry the vets have this strange illusion that IMHA is regenerative – we have had many, many cases classed as non-regenerative – hence the explanation on the first page of the website. The level of regeneration for Emily is no where near high enough BUT she is producing some baby red cells – not enough admittedly but a bit better than the big fat ZERO Worzel was producing – maybe this could be why she is holding her level? Or the pred is preventing over-destruction of the cells? Or as Mary rightly says, she has reverted to producing cells in organs other than the bone marrow, which is keeping her going. The body is amazing & will always try to heal itself somehow – by reverting to embryonic stage for blood cell production in certain circumstances, as with Patrice’s Chance.

I am so sorry we can’t give you a more precise answer – that really is internal medicine specialist territory, plus infectious disease expert investigation. Could there be a second factor that sent Emily over the edge, such as a recent vaccination? Or a flea/tick/heartworm treatment? Worth asking you if there is anything else you can think of – even eating something she shouldn’t have?

Trying to get to the root of the problem is not easy – Pam, I really feel for you & Emily. At least she sounds pretty feisty in herself – that’s always good news – even if she is picky with food, at least she will eat some things!

Love Sheena & the boys xxxxx

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