IMHA

    • Bronze

    IMHA

    Hi all. I just found this forum today. My 8 year old American Cocker Spaniel was diagnosed 1 month ago with IMHA. He spent 6 days at the vet hospital and is now home. He is on pred, athah, pepcid - all the good stuff. 2 days ago he started limping and since yesterday can not stand up. I know it could be a side effect of prednison but I am very concerned. I took him to the vet yesterday and she said that she does not know why it is happening. His PCV is holding at 32 for the last 2 weeks with no improvement. Tomorrow, we are going to a specialized animal hospital to see an internist. 

    Have any of you had this problem and is there anything we can do to help him?

    • Moderators
    • Gold Top Dog

    Hello and welcome to the DOG.community! If you have any questions or concerns on how to navigate, I am your girl! We currently have an informative thread on this topic that is answered on a consistent basis, you can find it here. community.dog.com/.../90432.aspx

    • Gold Top Dog

    Hi --try the link michelle sent you.  Ot is a huge thread  and on the very first post it is indexed to help you  this is  a difficult disease.  If you will let me lnow whereabouts you are i may be able to direct you to some extra help. I am not a vet but  i my billy was dx 8 years ago .   He survived ---and thrived---and because i  understand how difficult this is i try to continue to jelp folks.  

    My email is callieatcritturs@yahoo.com and if you want i can send you more info.    It is very unisual for me but my husband and i are on a risdtrip  so i would be happy to help you by phone if you want. My phone is 407.310.4332

    • Gold Top Dog

    Sorry i can't figure how to send  while on my phone bot i think you found the big AIHA OR IMHA thread amd i  think  that is what she  sent.  

    • Puppy

    I am based in the uk and have a 16 month old husky that was diagnosed  7 weeks ago with IMHA.

    It has been a complete rollercoaster but he is still with us.

    He weighs 22kg and had an initial dosage of 25mg Pred twice a day, 100mg atopica once a day and a gut protectant.

    When first diagnosed his blood level was 24 at its lowest 5 days later it was 12 and for the last 4 weeks has been between 34-38 so on the low end of normal but consistent.

    We understand the importance of reducing the pred slowly and also this is what saved him but have tried on two occasions now to reduce and  after 5 days the first time and 10 days the second time he relapsed with symptoms lethargy, restless and heavy breathing so the dosage was increased.

    On the weekend he had a lot more energy and was eating well  he is now  very lethargic again and not really eating, we have increased the pred back to the original levels and are back to the vet this evening.

    I know that this recovery will be long term but  also have concerns over damage that may be happening.

    We need to get him improved before we can start reducing again but any tips would be helpful to get the level down and should he have any symptoms while the tablets are being reduced, we tried reducing both times by 1/4 tablet  per dose.

    Having help from people that have already been through this is what is getting us through it

    • Gold Top Dog

    If you will email me I will send you some documents I've done that should help you.  (they are docs I need to send, hence the email) -- my email is callieatcritturs@yahoo.com

    One of the docs is on milk thistle -- that will help you protect the body (specifically the liver, but if you use the large quantities I did, it will also help protect the kidneys).  But there are other things you can use to support the heart and endocrine system.

    You may want to actually post instead to the long "AIHA or IMHA" thread -- go here (there is an Index in the first post) ... but go to the bottom and click "last".  You can jump around in there rather than just  reading all million zillion pages in chronological order:

    community.dog.com/.../90432.aspx