Crises Mode – Dugal
I think we all have a “crises mode”. Dugal’s is hanging out in the laundry room on the colder floor. He was diagnosed with Autoimmune Hemolytic Anemia yesterday. You can find more information at the following link:
http://www.petside.com/condition/dog/autoimmune-hemolytic-anemia-canine
Hi, What did you go through? My dog is currently very anemic, already had a blood tranfusion and the vet says we shouldn’t do any more even though his level was at 11% He just lays there all day. This started Thursday and he got a transfusion that day along with some pup-tinic and some antibiotic since we don’t know the cause of his anemia. I took him in the next day and they gave him a shot of steroids and told me that the blood in his urine was normal and that he had gone up to 15% (after the infusion). They told me to go back Monday morning. I tried waiting it out until Monday (today) but last night he threw up and collapsed which made me take him into the ER immediately. They were out of blood. So they gave him another shot of the steroids and I took him this morning and the vet said he definitely looked worse. Since we still don’t know what it could be and they’ve treated him for fleas, onions (we thought he had eaten some from my dad’s house), and now today they gave him a vitamin K shot with pills to bring home in case he got into some poisons…. The vet has no clue what it is and doesn’t rule out AIHA but doesn’t think it’s that either. I’m desperate to get him back to normal and they won’t tell me how many days to wait or anything like that. They simply have no clue. My baby eats when I feed him with a syringe and drinks water on his own but I like to give it to him anyway because he drinks it too fast and vomits. Please tell me what your experience with AIHA was because IDK what else to do but to listen to others’ stories. Thank you.
So sorry to hear that. What kind of dog do you have? AIHA is more pronounced in some breeds than others.
We think that Dugal’s AIHA became pronounced after a bee sting. We can’t be sure of this, but it coincided with a bee infestation in our old apartment. Dugal was down to a 10 on his blood count as well. We started him on a therapy independent and in addition to what the vet supplied through http://www.optimumchoices.com/ after which He showed very quick turnaround. You can actually follow the progression on his facebook page https://www.facebook.com/dugaldog
Today, Dugal is off all meds. We watch the inside of his cheeks for signs that he isn’t getting enough red blood cell count (the easiest way to check for AIHA symptoms and the most visible).
Hang in there. I know it is disheartening to see your furry family member go through this. We thought it might be best to put him to sleep when he hit 10 and under on his counts. But if your dog is anything like Dugal then do your best to spend time with him/her (Dugal is very much an attention hog type of dog) and if you can, try the optimum choices thing. Like I said, we saw marked improvement even after he had been on prednisone for awhile when we started him on the (I think it was the BioPrep +3) optimum choices stuff.