Hawthorn

Rest in peace, Scotch.

Rest in peace, beautiful Pinky.

I'm so sorry ... he sounds wonderful. Rest in peace, Woody, loved and remembered always.

Dino's gorgeous - love the big boys!

I'm so sorry.

Condolences to all who knew and loved her. Rest in peace, Binx.

I'm so sorry. Rest in peace, Casper.

I'm so sorry. Rest in peace, Joey.

I'm so sorry for your loss of Mimosa.

He looks very perky! I think you just need to be a bit patient with the weight/muscle loss. My boy was even thinner than Aston and I remember wondering if the wasting was ever going to stop and if he would ever get his muscles back. He did eventually gain most of it back as the steroids were reduced, but IIRC it took a couple of months and we are still seeing improvements 20 months on. In our case the steroids were tapered over 8 months and he's still on a low every other day dose now. IIRC, I think we saw the biggest improvement once we were able to go to an every other day dose.

I'm so sorry for your loss of Matt.

I'm so sorry for your family's loss of Sasha.

Run free Sequoia.

Lazer truly was a special boy and his story is remarkable in many ways. I am very sorry that he had to leave. Rest in peace, Lazer, loved and remembered always.

Nice update - I'd been wondering how he was doing. My boy lost a lot of weight/muscle on steroids: he was a walking skeleton when we got him back from hospital and on top of that he had very little appetite so you are fortunate in that respect. He started to put the weight back on as the steroids were reduced and once he was a decent weight again I started to slowly increase his exercise to rebuild his muscle. He hasn't regained all the muscle he had before: he used to weigh 38-39kg but now only weighs 35kg, and he's not thin, so somewhere along the line he's lost 3-4kg of muscle. I'm not complaining though - the outcome could have been a lot worse. All in all, I think Aston looks pretty good!

As these are random and rare incidents, I'd ask my vet for some valium or similar for use on these occasions. IME valium (I give mine 10mg) takes about 20 minutes to take effect.

I feel for you too ... My boy was just as bad, if not worse, before he was on the correct dose of steroids - he could not stand at all when we emergency hospitalized him at a specialist centre because we were getting nowhere with our GP vets. We got him back a week later but he had to be emergency hospitalized again when he relapsed due to the steroids being reduced too soon. It was one of the most stressful periods of my life but we got through it and 20 months later my boy is fine and enjoying life. Hang in there.

So sorry for your loss of Walter, especially so soon after Blackie.

Obviously I am not a vet, and have only my experience of dealing with something very similar to go on, but I am wondering if that dose of pred is enough to be immune-suppressing for him. How much does he weigh? My boy used to weigh around 39kg (85 pounds) and the specialist put him on a dose of 100mg daily initially. When he reduced the dose to 50mg daily Sunny relapsed within 24 hours and had to be put back on the 100mg daily for another couple of weeks.

I'm so sorry for your loss of your perfect girl. Rest in peace, Penny.

Poor Aston. What dose of pred is he on?

Autoimmune diseases are horrible but I'm glad you are seeing improvement with Aston - very good news!

Fingers crossed that the new drug regime does the job for Aston. FWIW my boy felt much better very quickly once he was on an immune-suppressing dose of steroids. He wasn't able to take the other immune-suppressing drug he was prescribed (Azathioprine) as he had bad side effects, so we managed him just on the steroids. Sending continued good thoughts to you and Aston.

Well, it's good that his temperature is normal, as I believe IMPA usually presents with a mild fever, and certainly did with my boy. If it did happen to be IMPA, Aston would likely need a much higher dose of prednisone than he is on at the moment (an immune-suppressing dose). My boy had been on a dose of 20mg per day + gabapentin and tramadol via our GP vet, but this did nothing to touch the pain, and when we were referred to a specialist his dose was upped to 100mg per day initially, so I wouldn't rule out something autoimmune just because he's already on steroids. Hope you get some answers soon, as I know how very frustrating it must be to see your boy suffering and not know what the problem is.

Sending good thoughts for you and Aston. I'd be wanting some answers too, and if my vet couldn't provide them I'd ask for a referral to a specialist. Has your vet considered immune-mediated polyarthritis? Does he have a slightly raised temperature?