Could use some good thots...Snickers has IMHA

our best thoughts coming your way  

I'm not sure what IMHA is.  I'm assuming it's not good.  Best wishes for a speedy recovery for Snickers.  I hope she feels better soon!

Janet... it is "Immune Mediated Hemolytic Anemia".. the body begins to attack it's own red blood cells. Not good at all... we caught it early which is very positive. It is treated with an aggressive range of steroids/immunosuppressants and things they use for chemo. Could be a lifelong illness like lupus.. could be brought on by a bacteria or virus the body was trying to fight before it went haywire.

Right now she's only on prednisone and baytril and we have to hope and pray she responds to just that. 

She could need transfusions if her red blood cell levels drop too low... i'm looking at Oliver as a candidate for that. He's healthy and 60+ pounds so I'm hoping he'd be a good candidate. 

I've got quite an assortment of stuff to send you -- I hadn't gotten rid of anything from Billy (fear of a setback) -- but it's time to send it off to you JUST IN CASE it will help.  And funnily enough most of what i have is herbs that I'd stocked up on. 

You rock -- the fact that you caught this VERY early is just awesome.  I am SO proud of you!!!

lots of warm healing vibes coming from over here!

You can beat this Snickers!!!

 Aw Karen I'm so sorry.  This really has been a terrible winter for you hasn't it?  How awful.  I wish there was something I could do to help.  I'm glad you've got Callie.  (Theres a reason I named my girl what I did)

I'm sorry about your grandma too.  And what a tough call you face.  If you need to talk at all, I'm just a pm away. 

{{{{{HUG}}}}}  I'm so sorry you're going through this.  Like HuskyMom said, this really hasn't been your winter.  Will you have to board Snickers or will your DH be home to watch her?  Whoever watches her while your gone, just make sure they no to take her to the vet right away if something seems off, let them know it is NOT OK to just try to 'wait out' anything.  Again, I'm very sorry to hear all of this.

We're so sorry Snickers is ill - we are sending good healing vibes.

I believe in dog.com vibes :) Today snickers' values were unchanged... yesterday 26, today 26 for the red blood cells and he could see little baby red blood cells in the microscope. That is all apparently very good. They expect some further downslide before the medication begins to take effect so the numbers remaining the same were, as the vet put it "a BIG DEAL" She's going to be starting on some chinese herbals very soon (thank you Callie :)) and she got accupuncture today.

Saturday morning at 8AM we have a blood recheck, but I can bring her in tomorrow if anything seems off at all. Then, she'll go back in Monday morning to have more accupuncture and a blood test at which point I'll determine if I'm going on my funeral trip. If I go the vet agrees that if she's in this same shape the best thing is probably to keep her home with a pet sitter. Stress could send her "over the edge" with her immune system as weak as it is so boarding at the vet might be bad and driving her with me since she is petrified of the car would prolly be bad as well. DH is in another state so he won't be watching her. I'm supposed to avoid carbs and feed mostly protein/veggies for a while.

Thanks everyone for the good thots... I think they work.

... so I rushed her in to the vet after work even though her appt. was not til tomorrow morning. Levels had dropped 4 points. We've added another drug (a human anti rejection drug) Got her immune panel back, bad news, there are anti-nuclear antibodies indicating a strong possibility this is the lifelong form of the illness. I get SO anxious over this stuff, makes me just feel sick to my stomach all day as well :(

   I'm so sorry Karen; this is so awful for you. I'll be praying for Snickers and hope that the drugs get her levels back up very soon.

Oh, dear heart--my Emma is a survivor of IMHA, and her levels were already at 23 when we caught it (and we know now that her "normal" is 57, so this was HUGE!!!).  I'm so glad that you have this resource and that you know more than I did at that point; we'll be praying--and pulling--for you!

IMHA is tough...but you've already found one of the best resources in this board. <3
 

Yeah folks -- big I-Dog prayers and good thots for Snickers -- she's GOTTA EAT.  Please concentrate on that -- for her to kick in and EAT so she can tolerate the meds.  It's such a biggie with this disease.  They feel SO sick when their pack cell volume is down -- it makes them VERY sick to their stomach.  Then they don't *want* to eat.

calliecritturs

.  They feel SO sick when their pack cell volume is down -- it makes them VERY sick to their stomach.  Then they don't *want* to eat.

   There are 2 canned RX diets from Hill's that may help. Both are high in fat and protein and low in carbs, and designed to support a weak immune system; The a/d is for dogs recovering from serious illness and the n/d is for dogs with cancer.

http://www.hillspet.com/zSkin_2/products/product_details.jsp?PRODUCT%3C%3Eprd_id=845524441760567

   They're supposed  to be very palatable; maybe worth a try.                            

 ... she's laying on a comforter now with a piece of it over her. She just plain old doesn't care about food or the other dogs getting it... in fact she prefers when they get it, then she doesn't have to eat it. Her breathing is not normal and she just doesn't want to do ANYTHING.
I took her in to the vet this morning, her levels are the same as yesterday... i don't like the vet we had today, she spent 10 minutes talking to me about how many bad things can happen and looked at Snickers the whole time like she was a "dead dog walking", she kept saying, "well I just want you to know that she might not respond to the meds, or this, or that... blah blah blah" It's all stuff I know.. it's almost like she was insinuating snickers was going to die anyway so why bother. I was near tears and it has thoroughly made me depressed and anxious to the point of chest pains today...which of course does not help snickers, I'm sure she senses it all. It doesn't help that I'm supposed to leave on Monday to drive out of state for a funeral and I feel like if I leave her it could kill her since she already doesn't want to fight. then I call my parents (my grandmother died) and they don't help at all... they are the least understanding of the value of my dogs to me and my mother told me if I didn't come she was sure my father would die of a heart attack over it all.