[birddog]

anemia in middle aged beagle

My female beagle 8 1/2 yrs. old had symptoms of not wanting to eat and she loves to eat. We brought her into the vet and she was diagnosed with anemia. She did have rimydal as well before feeling this way. it has 20 days now and two different vets can not diagnose her with WHY she has anemia and is not eating, very lethargic and can not figure out a cause. What happened with your beagle after predisone and an antibiotic?

Your response would be so helpful.
Thank you.

 

[birddog]

Maggy's RBC count when she began to not eat (8/10/11) was 26, it has slowly gone down to 19 on 8/30/11. Through this month of time, they have put her on antibiotics for chance of bacteria infection, then she was put on succralfate, prilosec and now she is on dewormer, thinking she might have parasites in her intestines. She has also had xrays, 2 ultra-sounds, several blood testing, urine tests, fecal float tests, all come up negative, no bacteria, no parasites, negative on lymes..... She begins iron injections tomorrow to help the building up of red blood cells. They said a GI tract issue is hard to determine and are treating it as that for now. Lymphoma could be another cause in the intestines, but there isn't a test for that (so i have been told). Her liver and kidney look fine on ultrasounds, blood and urine counts are good for both. She is just so low on red blood cells and the regenerative amounts as well.

jmancini10 What type of hormone injections were they? Both of our vets (regular and internal medicine specialist) we are seeing said that steriods (predisone) will be last resort and they want to rule out anything else before going that route. I am so glad to hear that your Mickey is doing so well!
MWozny02 - did they see the liver tumor on your dog via the ultrasound?

I sincerly appreciate both your responses as this month has been draining and feel like we are just taking chances on why this is occuring.

 

[birddog]

Thanks for sharing your information. We are waiting on our vets next call.

 

[birddog]

Maggy begain predisone today, see where that takes us. We hope in positive direction!

 

[birddog]

Anemia and bone marrow biopsy

Friday Maggy had a count done on her blood and it was at 17.5 RBC. Prior to Friday, the vet started her on predisone the previous Tuesday. This Saturday Maggy 'passed out' and we rushed her to the ER, her PVC count was down to 11. They did a blood tranfusion and it got back up to 39 today (monday). Now between two internal medicine doctors and our normal vet, they have not diagonsed her anemia cause yet. Therefore we have not been able to treat it properly. Now we sit at another crossroad to decide if we want to put her through another diaognositc test, a bone marrow biopsy, to decide why ONLY her RBC is so low and what is causing it. But because she just had a blood transfusion and also has already started predisone, both of those factors could mask the results of the bone marrow. The decision is hard to make. Did anyone have a bone marrow biopsy to determine the cause of anemia for their beagle? If so, care to share your results?

 

[birddog]

Gosh we sure do think alike, we asked the same questions regarding a bone marrow biopsy and just felt it wasn't worth putting her through that for a slim chance we might find out a disease that would still result in predisone for a treatment. I am so happy to hear how your Mickey is doing! That gives us hope. Financially I have not added it all up yet but so far are lucky enough to not have to worry...yet, but she is worth every penny. The hardest part is to not over feed her, for the predisone is making her super hungry, I just don't want her to gain a ton of weight. Plus she is drinking bowls of water being on it too. We are in Wisconsin....you? Still can't figure out what brought this one, guess we have to let that go and move on. Maggy will be 9 in January, we too know if this happens again, we are preparing ourselves to let her go. I appreciate your posts so much, we have felt so alone like no one else was going through this. We will do re-checks 1 to 2 weeks apart for RBC's and stay on predisone 10mg/twice a day for now. Hi to Mickey

 

[birddog]

Hi - I wanted to send an update since it has been months. Maggy is now getting weened off of prendisone, she is in her 5th week of that. Her total RBC's have climed to 35 this week!!! So excited to hear, but her new red blood cells (reticucyltes) have decreased again. She is getting better with a little more sleep, the prendisone was keeping her so hyper and up at early hours of the morning, starving for food. All I can say is how grateful we are this holiday season to have her with us and what we believe is the road to recovery from this long haul of anemia. All the doctors never found out why or what it really is that causes it. I just believe between yearly shots, frontline, heartguard and giving her some rymidal, set her body into a failure of creating red blood cells. I also stopped giving her treats that are not made in USA or that I don't make myself. I daily make her cream of wheat for high iron, i make her liver and then she also get just plain old cooked carrots and green beans to help with calorie intake. I hope you and Mickey and your family have a great holiday season! We believe and pray that Maggy is on her road to full recovery. Merry Christmas!

 

[birddog]

I saw this last post by shellymg30 and wanted to update on Maggy ( 9 1/2 yr old female-see other earlier posts to see her road path of anemia struggles). It is just short 2 weeks of one year since we got Maggy diagnosed with anemia - it is scary and I can understand why you were up all night reading online trying to figure out what is wrong with your Baylee. We still have never found out why Maggy was loosing her own red blood cells, we have grown to accept that fact and moved forward with treatment. She is doing well now. She is currently on 5 mg of prednisone every 3 days and 100 mg of cyclosporine everyday. As we have weened her from prednisone (she was on higher dosages for months), she no longer gets bladder infections, which is such great news. Cyclosporine is a more expensive immune suppressent drug, but it is working much better for her and her symptoms. Her gum color is doing great too. Hang in there shellymg30, we did a blood transfusion (September, 2011) and it was expensive, but so worth it all. We have been given a whole year with her since this started, it was a lot to go through emotionally and see her so ill, but it has been worth it. She is doing so well on this maintenace mediction that our vet has prescribed. I hope that your vets in Germany can find the right path of treatment for your Baylee. Our pets are family, hang in there!

 

[birddog]

Update on Maggy for Milo

Hello,

Sorry to hear your little guy Milo has been diagnosed with severe anemia. You asked to get an update on Maggy, she is doing well! We feel blessed! Maggy was originally diagnosed in fall of 2011 with having a blood transfusion, eventually going on prednisone and clyclosporine. She successfully regained maintaining her own levels of red blood cells after several months of steroids. Maggy is now 13 1/2 years old and has been doing really well for the past 4 1/2 years since this all began. Maggy did relapsed with her anemia this past January which we followed with 4 months of prednisone (skipping cyclosporine) and she is now weened off. She is holding her blood levels, we believe diet and exercise have helped her. Maggy gets steamed broccoli, steamed sweet potato, liver and cream of wheat (with peanut butter) with her dry dog food. She walks about 2 miles a day. We watch her coloring on her gums, inside of ears and white area of the eyes for symptoms of change. We do get her blood draws to watch the levels of full RBC and the reticulyte (new red cells growing). We have a great vet who listens and researches with us down this unknown path of why this is happening. Tips we have learned, prednisone should be given with something like succlafrate (coats the stomach to avoid steroid causing ulcers), watch for UTI's (prednisone weakens the immune system), watch for weakness in legs as the length of steroid usage continues. We wish you and your Milo the best, prayers and hope with you all.