AIHA or IMHA

 I started Cyclops back on Tramadol tonight.  You know she is being so stubborn.  I have orthopedic dog beds in every room and big fluffy pillows, I'd even let her lay on the couch.  You know what she does?  Finds the hardest floor she can and lays down.  She likes to lay on the tile right by the front door because its still in the same room as us but its cold, hard and near the A/C vent.  I've tried putting pads down there but then she just finds some other place to lay down that is also hard.  At night I put her in the bed at the foot of our bed and 5 minutes later she gets up and goes and lays on the floor.  So I don't know what to do.  She gets up all stiff.  I'd be stiff too if I laid on the places she lays.

 I get mad at her for doing this to herself.  I can't decide if she likes laying where its hard or if she is craving to lay where its more cool.  We keep the house nice and cool but maybe the beds keep the heat in too much I don't know.  I've seen these water filled "cooler beds" advertised. They are like water beds for dogs.  At least that would be padding, but not sure how that cold affects her bones/arthritis.  I wish I could get her to understand that she wouldn't be in so much pain and it would be easier for her to get up if she wasn't laying on that hard floor.  Once she does get up and get moving outside then she loosens up and moves like nothing is wrong.  

 Wow she is so stubborn.  Anyway I'll give the Tramadol a few days and see if she gets any better.  In the meantime maybe I can block her into an area of the bedroom where she has no choice but to sleep on some padding.  I've even lifted her on the bed and on the couches but after a few minutes she jumps down and goes and lays on the hardest floor she can find.

GratefulDawg

Once she does get up and get moving outside then she loosens up and moves like nothing is wrong.

For what it's worth, if this is all the problem is I wouldn't give the Tramadol.  

 My vet at OSU was saying that dog's don't communicate pain that well and that she thought clops had pretty bad arthritis.  I had been resisting giving the Tramadol because I've been giving her Glucosomine/Condroitin + Nutrajoint.  But at this point I feel guilty, as like who am I to say she should live in pain.  Would be nice if I could ask her.  I'm going to try it for a few days and just see what her mood is like then I'll re-evaluate it from there.

But Lori, I really respect your opinion and I really agree with you, I know where you are coming from.  I've been trying hard to get her off as many meds as possible so I hate to add one.

My old rescue dog had bad Arthritis but I think she was a couple years older than Cyclops.  Never knew what her age was for sure, I got her when she was already pretty old and gray.  But we used Rimadyl which my vet gave kind of reluctantly, as there had been dogs dropping dead from it.  Again, it was a thing where we had to weight the risks.  But from what I've been reading, Tramadol is much safer for dogs than Rimadyl.  This was back in 2000-2003 that we used Rimadyl.  She ended up living a long life.  Hopefully the same with Clops.  I just wish I could communicate to her that she'd feel better if she'd lay on the many beds I have strewn all over the house instead of finding the hardest floor possible!

Don't get me wrong, they gave Willow Tramadol for pain after her IMT diagnosis.  She had been taking Rimadyl as needed prior to that.  

I would give her the Tramadol if she couldn't walk without holding a paw up, not able to sleep well, things like that.  Of course, you have excellent judgement-I'm just trying to share my experience.  I know when Willow was treating I was worrying about a lot too. 

Also, I wanted to tell you that Willow slept in different places too when she was going thru it.  For example, she never sleeps in the kitchen but she did for those months.  She almost never slept on her bed during that time. 

Lori

Hope she's feeling young and great today!

ElisHope

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.

I just talked to Frisby's vet today about making my own suspension--I'll use 4 ml of water and 1 baby aspirin ground up (that gives me the 20 mg/ml concentration they made for her initially). She takes the equiv. to 14 mg a day, so I give her 0.7 ml of the liquid. I bought a ton of the oral syringes--let me know if you'd like me to send you a few. So--you just need to know how much aspirin Eli needs to take and you can figure out the concentration, etc.

GratefulDawg

  Finds the hardest floor she can and lays down. 

Frisby does the exact same thing--it's cooler and that's what she wants with the prednisone panting. I gave up trying to make sure sleep on any number of comfy options available. I think the bedding just made her very hot an uncomfortable, so I gave up :-)

 Well we just got back from the vet and all looks good still for Calypso!

HCT up to 38.6 (37 - 55)
PLT 307 (175 - 500)
WBC 14.2 ( 6 - 16.9)

Her  eosinophils were elevated at 4.4 (0.5 - 1.5), so we checked her stool and it was normal, so we will just keep watching it for now.

The plan is to wean another 5mg of Prednisone  and check her in another week!!

cerberusdog

 Well we just got back from the vet and all looks good still for Calypso!

HCT up to 38.6 (37 - 55)
PLT 307 (175 - 500)
WBC 14.2 ( 6 - 16.9)

Her  eosinophils were elevated at 4.4 (0.5 - 1.5), so we checked her stool and it was normal, so we will just keep watching it for now.

The plan is to wean another 5mg of Prednisone  and check her in another week!!

Way to go Calypso! We love good news!

my poor 12 year old was diagnosed w/arthritis about a year ago too and it was so gut wrenching to see our once energetic family dog floor ridden.  we gave him glucosamine supplements and nsaids but he wasn't responding really well to either (either wasn't too effective or bad side effects).  i did a lot of research and started hearing a lot about the supplement CM8 - which is clinically proven to work.

 the only product out there right now that contains cm8 is Flexpet.  It's 100% all natural, safe and GUARANTEED to work.  well we tried it out because we didn't have a lot of other options left.  well it's been about 6 months and our dog has been symptom FREE.  it took about almost a month to fully kick in but once it did, we haven't looked back.

 you can get a lot more info on this vet's website about the product as well as where to purchase it online.  it really worked for us:

http://www.getvetadvice.com/

 GOOOOOD LUCK!

New to this site, so not sure how to post to this string, hope I'm doing it right. 

Anyway, my 10 year old little girl Kiya, a shepard/lab mix (we think) was diagnosed with IMHA a month ago on July 5th.  As I'm sure a lot of you can relate to, it has been a very difficult month to say the least that has taken us all on a roller coaster ride.  The day she was admitted her PCV was at 11.  She had three blood transfusions in the first few days and was discharged after 4 nights in the hospital and a week later she was at 33.8.  She's been consistently around that number with one drop to 31 2 weeks ago and then up to 38 last week and today she was back down to 33.  She has been on prednisone since the beginning, but has had SEVERE muscle loss to the point where she cannot get up on her own anymore and slides on our hardwood floors etc.  It is heartbreaking.  She has lost 12 lbs, down to 62 from 74 and has "pred head".  We have tried Cyclosporin and Azathioprine, both have caused her to not eat and the Azathioprine we think gave her Pancreatitis when she was hospitalized yet again last week.  After today's drop her internal medicine dr. is at a loss and gave us two options, 1. surgery to remove her spleen, which they aren't sure would heal right given the amount of prednisone she is on, and two try another more "experimental" drug called Leflunomide.  We meet with the surgeon tomorrow to discuss how she'd do with surgery in her condition.  She will only eat sometimes and her personality has totally changed and she seems non-responsive and depressed except for when we first come home, we'll get a tail wag.  I'm desperate for any feedback to hear if anyone else has a dog that is so sensitive to every medication and what other options might be out there.  She is lethargic and restless at the same time and panting most of the time.  She was also diagnosed with Arthirits just a couple months ago and had reactions to Metacam with stomach ulcers and then seemed to be doing fine on Prevacox, until this.  She is now on Prednisone, Prilosec, Carafate, an anti nausea as of today to help her appetite.  She also can't eat anything fatty because of the Pancreatitis so the prescription food and chicken and rice is difficult to get her to eat and I can't mix it up and give her something she might like better.  We also started her on glucosomine on saturday to help with the arthritis and her joints in general on the prednisone, and now she has diarreah!  She just doesn't tolerate these drugs.  Any info you can give me would be much appreciated. 

Best of luck to all of you with pets with this awful disease!

Good girl, Calypso!!

For KIYA and family---Welcome!! 

As for options, one drug they in mind for Willow if she hadn't responded to Plans A & B was a drug called Vincristine--I think that's how it's spelled.  It's a strong drug but something that you could ask about--I think it's IV administered.

Kiypies, I am so sorry for all you and your girl, Kiya, are dealing with.  I don't have any advice but there are others here who will be able to offer some info and advice.  I just wanted to welcome you and to wish you and your girl the best of luck in your struggle with this disease.

 Kiypies,

 Welcome.  What you are describing reminds me of Cyclops before I fully got her off the Pred.  I blamed the Cyclosporine but looking back on it, things got better once she was off the Prednisone.  Once Cyclops got used to the Cyclosporine she picked up.  

 You are the second person I've come across (one on vetnet) who had an episode of Pancreatitis due to Azathioprine.  

 My suggestion would be to switch to Pepcid AC as your stomach protectant.  I've had a doctor at Oklahoma State say it was best with the Pred + Cyclo combo.  Another person here just the other day got the same opinion from Colorado State. If you look at not just Cyclops, but also Eli, Cooper and Calypso, you'll see the common thread is giving Cyclosporine. 

I'm no medical doctor but thats what I would do if it were my dog.  I would not keep my dog on high doses of Prednisone because you are on a downward spiral of deterioration right now.  

My other suggestion is for you to copy/paste your post and email it to hemopet@hotmail.com.  Address your letter to Dr. Dodds.  I don't know if she'll have time to respond, and even if she does there is only so much of an opinion she can really give over email.  But she is who gave me the nudges in the right direction when I was questioning what my vets were telling me.  

Good Luck with everything.  

Mike

kathyjohn2

my poor 12 year old was diagnosed w/arthritis about a year ago too and it was so gut wrenching to see our once energetic family dog floor ridden.  we gave him glucosamine supplements and nsaids but he wasn't responding really well to either (either wasn't too effective or bad side effects).  i did a lot of research and started hearing a lot about the supplement CM8 - which is clinically proven to work.

 the only product out there right now that contains cm8 is Flexpet.  It's 100% all natural, safe and GUARANTEED to work.  well we tried it out because we didn't have a lot of other options left.  well it's been about 6 months and our dog has been symptom FREE.  it took about almost a month to fully kick in but once it did, we haven't looked back.

 you can get a lot more info on this vet's website about the product as well as where to purchase it online.  it really worked for us:

http://www.getvetadvice.com/

 GOOOOOD LUCK!

KathyJohn -

I want to thank you for taking the time to post.  I will DEFINATELY look into this.  She is already a lot better after 3 days of Tramadol but would always prefer a more natural route. 

Thanks for the info and I'll get back with you when I check into that!

Mike