AIHA or IMHA

 Frisby sounds like she is doing well.  I'm really glad to hear that.

GratefulDawg

 Frisby sounds like she is doing well.  I'm really glad to hear that.

Slow and steady seems to be the pace--I'm OK with that (I think!). Thanks for your good wishes!

Holy Cow....I'm away for a few days and miss all kinds.  Hope everybody is doing well and their furkids are recovering.

Best wishes and prayers from

Johnny & Tessy

 Well everything seems quiet this weekend.  Hopefully no news is good news.

 You know.. I am totally stupid about this website.  I have no idea how to look at where else you are posting things Meg.  The only thing I know is this thread.  How do you follow people around here and look at other posts?

 Basically if something happens in Pirate's life or Willow or whoever else and its not posted here I am totally out of the loop.  I need to figure out how to get with it more.  

You can copy and paste that and it'll take you to the thread.

To see JUST what I've (or anyone else) has posted you can click on the username, and on their 'profile' it will have recent activity. Also on the homepage of the forum, there is a link, in red, that says 'Posts I have not read' (or something like that). I usually just click there, and then read whatever catches my eye.

I am happy to report that so far, no news is good news with us! Calpso started her 5mg Prednisone decrease Aug 25 and all looks good so far, I chickened out and did not do the addition 2.5mg wean after 5 days because her gums were still a tad pale and she had an episode of vomiting. But her gums look pretty darn pink tonight. We go back in for a HCT check Tues so hopefully we can wean again. It will be an interesting week with my hubby out of town, so just me managing the meds and all of our kids (both on 2 and 4 legs). It has been too warm to do much exercisng with her so the plan is for us go for our walk / jog first thing in the morning.

Sounds like things are great!  That's what my vet used to say on my voice mail when she left me messages about Willow's results, "things are great!" 

I think it's wonderful that so many of you can still walk/exercise with your dogs as they are treating for this.  Willow couldn't do much more than do her business and come back in. 

There comes a time to just plain go with your gut -- I don't blame you.  She's really done incredibly well so far.

 If you feel like her tummy is really suffering (just if you think she's got a sore tummy) holler - I have Dr. DiNatale's "slippery elm cocktail" that works really good to help heal the stomach.

It's not something I'd tell you to use early on -- because slippery elm could potentially block absorption of the cyclosporine -- but it would be minor.  This is just a little recipe of slippery elm, aloe (liquid), chlorophyl, and acidopholous that can come in really handy to use for periods of time.  Over time the pred is hard on the gut -- and using this recipe for just a couple of weeks or however long you need it, can be really helpful.  It's tricky -- to see the problem before it's SUCH a problem that they stop eating. 

 We have been really lucky compared to many of the stories that I have read. I am not sure if it is her age or maybe just luck. Whatever it is, I do not care as long as she gets better. We have the worst "luck" with animals, so I was certain she was going to die the day I took her home from MedVet.

If you were to meet Calypso you would never know anything was even wrong with her. Heck when we went to the emergency vet that first day, my vet had called ahead so they were waiting for us outside, and they were all shocked that she was still walking around and wagging her tail.

She is super playful...frisbee is her favorite past time, well that and trying to catching birds.We started the walk / jog to just keep her muscle wasting at a minimum. We walk 0.6 mile and slow jog 0.4 mile...she did great today because it was much cooler than it has been most days.

Thanks for the info Callie, but I think her stomach is really fine....we finally figured out her problem is eating this she should not like poop or birds then she gets sick. We have 3 acres so it is impossible to scoop all the poop in the yard. We go Wed for her CBC so I will report back then.

Hope everyone else is doing well!

Eli's PCV was 20.4% today.  We are going to stay with the meds as they are and get him checked again on Thursday.

He wants to eat eat eat.  He even will eat the Milk Thistle powder right off the spoon.  

But about all he wants to do is just move around enough to either drink water or go outside just far enough to do her thing and come right back.  Walks very slowly. 

Mike asked me to ask them about how soon we can get him off Prednisone and the doctor said he intends to take him off of it "sooner rather than later".  But he said he'll be on it for at least another week or two before he takes him off of it.  

I still haven't heard anything about how to give liquid aspirin so I guess we have to do the pills.  Too bad someone can't make it easy for me to do it.

ElisHope

I still haven't heard anything about how to give liquid aspirin so I guess we have to do the pills.

Has your vet given it to you in liquid form? Pirate gets a liquid medicine every day (for his seizures) and it comes with a syringe. I just open his mouth and squirt it in, and then give him a treat so that the yucky taste doesn't stay in his mouth.

ElisHope

Eli's PCV was 20.4% today.  We are going to stay with the meds as they are and get him checked again on Thursday.

He wants to eat eat eat.  He even will eat the Milk Thistle powder right off the spoon.  

But about all he wants to do is just move around enough to either drink water or go outside just far enough to do her thing and come right back.  Walks very slowly. 

Mike asked me to ask them about how soon we can get him off Prednisone and the doctor said he intends to take him off of it "sooner rather than later".  But he said he'll be on it for at least another week or two before he takes him off of it.  

I still haven't heard anything about how to give liquid aspirin so I guess we have to do the pills.  Too bad someone can't make it easy for me to do it.

Hi! You must have missed my post a page back or so, here is what we do for the liquid aspirin, it is easy and cheap !!!

cerberusdog

We take the baby aspirin (81mg) dilute with 8.1ml of water to make a 10mg/ml solution and give Calypso 0.8ml once a day. Like I said above you need to keep it in the fridge and it is only good for one week.  This dose was based on a weight of 35lbs when we started this now my little butterbean weighs a touch more :)

HECK YOU BROKE TWENTY!!! Rah!!  Sometimes you just celebrate the small steps.  She's HOLDING -- Judah that is such a big hairy deal!!  You didn't have to transfuse her and she's holding.  The body may not have stopped attacking itself yet, but you've got it at least balanced so the body's trying to MAKE blood equally as hard.

Start pushing iron -- any foods you can get in her that have iron -- I know I've said that before, but her body is working overtime now to try and MAKE blood.  If your folks are at all inclined to try the TCVM (Traditional Chinese Veterinary Medicine) it can really help to build the blood. 

Here's a Callie "how to"

If you have something (anything) in a liquid form to give to a dog:

Get either a syringe at a pharmacy or even one of those baby medicine syringes (whatever is the appropriate size/gradations for what you're giving).

Now there is no needle -- just the open end of the syringe and you draw the amount of liquid up into the syringe.

Sit in front of the dog with the loaded syringe in your hand and with your other hand just hold her muzzle very loosely and pull up her upper lip with your finger.  Park the tip of the syringe BEHIND her canine tooth.  Just hold her mouth shut kinda loosely -- you squirt slowly and give her enough slack so she can work her tongue to swallow it.  You just squirt slowly so she can swallow while you squirt.

Frankly that works with ANYTHING.  Even if you ever have to mix up liquid food for a dog (like baby food and water), or give a dog fluides (like Pedialyte), or a liquid medicine, or just plain water.  But there's a gap behind that canine tooth that makes this work perfectly.