I have a 3yr old 22lb chocolate cocker spaniel named Presley who was recently diagnosed with IMHA March 2nd. Below I have a summary of Presley’s care/treatment thus far in case that helps answering our questions. We are officially madly in love with our vet who has single handedly saved Presley’s life and made it so we can have hope of her getting better, she took under 20minutes to diagnose Presley with IMHA and has been very involved monitoring her care even on days off. Presley`s last blood test March 19 has shown that Presley’s PCV is now at 45% (huge improvement from 12% march 2nd), however the pathologist has found she still has some irregular shaped eosinophil’s, meaning she`s still attacking her red cells a bit. Her bone marrow is thankfully doing what it should, producing new young red cells, but I`m still concerned. Presley is currently taking 10mg prednisolone 2x daily, azathioprine 25mg daily, and famotidine 10mg 2x daily, and omeg 3 pills. I have been doing allot of googling and reading of pages like meisha`s hope, to see if there`s anything I can be doing in addition to Presley’s current treatment to increase her odds. I`ve noticed that people often seem to use the additional holistic medications…
Petinic: I think this is a multi vitamin to with vitamin c, vitamin b, and iron
Milk thistle: for the liver ?
Gui-pi-tang: I gather it`s for the spleen but I’m not sure why? I’ve noticed that some pets have had Spleen tumors and other problems after IMHA though.
Bio Prep: Some sort of body detox, is it used in case the immune system is attacking a virus on the bood cells? Could this potentially interfere with the medications Presley is currently taking?
Transfer factor: This one I really don`t understand as it enhances the immune system, Isn’t that what we’re trying to supress with the steroids? It sounds potentially counter productive?
I don`t want to put Presley on anything with ought the ok from her Vet, and have heard some vets can be un-trusting of holistic approaches. I`m not saying it will help her but if the vet says it can`t interfere with her current medications and treatment, I’m all for giving them to her if it has the slightest chance of increasing her odds of successful recovery, and minimising chances of relapse. I`m hoping there`s someone out there that could explain to me the benefits of these additional supplements, amounts I should be giving my dog, or how long these supplements should be administered (for the life of Presley or the duration of the treatment?) also if there`s any kind of documentation I could supply my vet with to help her make an informed decision, as well where can I acquire these supplements for Presley? Also if anyone has any other suggestions on how I can further help Presley I’m all ears and very appreciative!
Also I’m thinking of next vet visit asking my vet to run an thyroid test just to confirm there isn`t an underlying thyroid problem, does this sound reasonable? Or will the current medications get in the way? Presley has always had a dry nose since we got her last year, and initially had a dandruff problem, and is naturally a very mellow low energy dog.
Thanks!
Detailed summary of care to date:
Feb 28 Presley was fine and her usual self, went on a hike with my cousin she had a good time. feb29th got home from work something seemed a little off, she didn’t get super hyper to see her leash, or sit under the kitchen table while eating dinner. March 1st got home late from work; Presley had to be really coaxed to come with me to the mail box, pooped orange, no interest in dinner, not following me around the house. March 2nd got up early to take Presley to the vet (I had called a co-worker who used to work in a vet and she suggested the night before to do this before going to work), found in the morning she had no interest in even walking had to carry her downstairs to the car, usually she’s first to jump out of the car if I let her, but had to carry her out and into the vet. At the vet waiting room I tried to coax Presley to walk to the scale under her own steam so they could see just how un-energetic she was, and instead Presley squatted and peed dark red wine colour all over the floor. (at this point my heart completely sank- red urine is never good) The vet assistants called the doctor to come out quick and I picked Presley up and they rushed us into an exam room. It was quickly discovered she has developed genetic IMHA her red blood cell % (pcv) was 12%. Our vet was amazing and efficient, and had me out the door in under 20 min from the time I got there, to rush Presley and some blood samples to the closest pet ER for a blood transfusion, and IV fluids, and steroids to suppress her immune system, she also called ahead to the ER so they would be ready to go when we got there. By march 3rd they had given Presley a double bag of blood, one transfusion which got her up to 20% PCV then half a transfusion (the remainder of the bag) which got her up to 25% PCV. The 3rd was a bad day as her urine continued to be dark red, she wouldn’t eat, was extremely tired, and her numbers started to dip back down. The ER doc was saying things like “next 24 hour critical” and “euthanize”. Thankfully by the end of the night Presley’s red cells stopped dropping and she stayed at 22% PVC. March 4th she was looking a little better, was at 25% PVC and was eating, they said if she remained stable she could come home with us that night, Presley’s regular Vet had been keeping in touch with the ER monitoring things and said it would be ok as long as she came in for a daily PCV test. She came home with us that night, with a PCV of 27% and a bunch of medications, prednisolone (steroid) pills to be taken 10mg every 12 hr, famotidine (nausea) pills to take 10mg every 12 hr, azathioprine (steroid) to be taken 25mg once a day, ASA (aspirin/blood thinner) 5mg taken daily. She was tired but upbeat, and wagging her tail when we took her home. March 5th took her into the vet and she had a PCV of 34%. The vet said we didn’t need to come back until end of the week, she seemed a little tired though so we bumped her appointment up to a day (Thursday march 8), her PVC was still at 34% stable but not increasing so they had us come in Sat at she was at 35% PCV, Monday she was at 37% PCV and a more in depth blood cell count showed her bone marrow was producing new young red blood cells. A week later the following Monday (march 19) Presley’s PCV was showing at 45% but the pathologist noticed on her more detailed blood cell count some irregular shaped eosinophil’s, meaning her body is still attacking it’s red cells a little bit still, however her body’s bone marrow is still back to producing new red cells. Next vet appointment is scheduled to be April 2nd to see where her body is at. It is spring and shedding season, but have noticed Presley’s fur is really starting to come out and, spots are more brittle feeling than soft, this could be a side effect of medication so vet said we could have her taking omega 3 pills. She is presently no longer on ASA, or her anti diarreha pills we had to start her on when we first got home and she was adjusting to her new 650cal diet.