Intravascular Hemolysis

[fairlight]

A friend of mine called me this morning very VERY upset about her mastiff. Her pup is not quite a year old....a lovely little drool bucket. Yesterday the dog sis not want to eat so my friend passed it off as the heat outside. last night her dpg would not eat again so she made the dog some boiled chicken and rice. Still the dog refused to eat. After checking the dogs gums and seeing them almost completely white she was on the way to the emergency vet clininc. With further testing the emergency vet told her that her dog has inrtravascular hemolysis. The woman told me that it is something similar to leukemia. Her precious pup has less than a 30% chance of making it through the weekend. If the dog does make it the vet said she did know of ONE case where the dog lasted 2 years and that was it. She asked the emergency vet if this is hereditary and the vet said absolutely not. The dog was transfused and then was transfused again with the blood from her mom. Does anyone know anything about this disease?

The vet also said that the dog COULD go into remission but bouts will come back again a and again.

[tridentk9]

Did they say what caused the hemolysis? By itself- that is just describing a symptom not a disease or condition (intravascular- occuring within the blood vessels, hemolysis- destruction of red cells).

Good luck and kisses to her boy.

[fairlight]

Originally Posted by tridentk9

Did they say what caused the hemolysis? By itself- that is just describing a symptom not a disease or condition (intravascular- occuring within the blood vessels, hemolysis- destruction of red cells).

Good luck and kisses to her boy.

Thanks for the reply trident. The vet thought at first that it could be snake bite...but my friend stays with her dogs when they go out to potty..outside of pottying her dogs are inside dogs. There is no snake bite. Then the vet went looking to see if the dog had swallowed any pennies. That the chemicals in pennies can mask this condition......nope...no pennies. They even did tests for poisions, but nothing came up. That is when the vet told her that her dog had this disease. Right now the dogs white cells are very low...If I remember correctly at about 19. When it its 15 they will have to transfuse the dog again. There is a good chance that this dog will not make it through the weekend.

[tridentk9]

If all other causes are negative, I'm guessing that the vet is guessing Immune Mediated Hemolytic Anemia aka IMHA (used to be called AutoImmune Hemolytic Anemia- AIHA).
http://www.cloudnet.com/~jdickson/ has links at the bottom

Pennies have zinc, a heavy metal. But aren't the only way for a dog it ingest zinc. Does she use any zinc products (sun screen, diaper rash, Gold Bond, ointment tubes, etc)? http://www.marvistavet.com/html/body...poisoning.html

[fairlight]

She doesn't have any children trident so I am going to rule out diaper rash etc. Same with sun screen. I am going to post these links to her...can you tell me anything about what can or will happen with this situation?

[golden&hovawart]

Fair,so sorry to hear that!.Will keep yr friend's EM,in my prayers and hope he will make it!.L

[fairlight]

Thanks Golden...we are really pulling for this dog!

[tridentk9]

Originally Posted by fairlight

I am going to post these links to her...can you tell me anything about what can or will happen with this situation?

If the vet is talking about IMHA- remember they may be thinking another disease:

Ups and downs. The sooner treatment starts the better his chances, but with treatment there are periods when they feel and look better- and periods when they look worse. They can be sick for a few weeks- but that first 4-5 days seems to be the worst. IMO- It's worth trying the treatments but it can be expensive.

See if she can contact an Internal Med specialist or TAMU.

The vet's percentages of making it through the weekend is about right but I know quite a few cases that once they recover do fine afterwards (and some that need cautions with vax, heat, etc but otherwise do fine) and live normal lifespans.

Given that yahoo has a group for just about everything- and I looked.
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/K9Auto-ImmuneSupport It looks to be fairly busy so even though it covers other problems than IMHA, she may still get some answers from people that have lived it.

[Dauxside]

Ah Fair, so sorry for your friend, how heartbreaking. Xing all Paws that little man pulls out of it.

[alimel]

Wow, I am so sorry about your friend's pup. I am hoping for the best and will keep them in my thoughts and prayers.