Autoimmune Disease

[Guest RoanokeGreys]

Our 3-year-old Missy is in intensive care at Virginia Tech's hospital. After many tests, they believe she has an autoimmune disorder, similar to lupus in humans. Does anyone have any experience with this or can offer any advice on caring for a grey with autoimmune problems

[Greytlady94]

Sending prayers for your Missy.

 

Send Dr. Feeman a PM through Greytalk. Link to Dr. Feeman He is a veterinarian who has greyhounds of his own, posts on Greytalk, and has lots of experience with greyhound health. I think you will have to make a few more posts to be able to PM though.

[Guest RoanokeGreys]

Thanks for the prayers. Our sweet little girl needs all the good thoughts she can get. She went from running in our backyard one day to barely able to stand to crippled in the hospital in less than 24 hours. But she is getting the very best care in our region, so we have hope for a full recovery.

 

Again, thanks for the link to the doctor and the kind words.

[Burpdog]

I assume they are checking for all the TBDs.

 

Sending prayers.

[Guest longdogs]

Yes, William had a very nasty autoimmune illness that nearly killed him. He eventually pulled round but it took a lot out of him. His illness affected his heart and lungs and caused polyarthritis. The poor boy couldn't breathe, his blood wasn't circulating properly and he had pain in every joint. He lost condition at a frightening speed. When he came out of intensive care he was absolutely skeletal. Well, we still have our much loved boy. His main treatment was corticosteroids and a lot of care. I think he's still fading slowly and has problems with his hips (he's on Metacam) but he's happy and his problems are controlled. He's changed from being very active to wanting to spend most of his time snoozing somewhere warm. That's OK by us.

[Guest RoanokeGreys]

What are TBDs? She has been tested for all protozoa infections, bacterial infections, enviromental toxins, etc. Virginia Tech is the best vet hospital in the Mid-Atlantic region, so I think they have it covered, but I will ask.

[galgrey]

TBD = Tick Borne Disease. Erlichia, Babesia, Lyme, etc. Very important to check for these in greyhounds with any kind of joint pain, inflammation.

 

My friend, Alisha (2hounds), has a 4 year old girl who became gravely ill several months ago and was discovered to have erlichia. She is recovering but was very ill and could hardly walk.

 

Please make sure they've checked for all the TBD's. I would think at Tech they would, but just make sure.

 

Keep us posted. I'll keep her in my thoughts.

[Guest SoulsMom]

Soul has been *initially* diagnosed with Discoid Lupus based on his outward symptoms(Nervous Mom is not ready for him to go under for a biopsy). We've switched to Solid Gold Hollistic Barking at the Moon dog food, and he gets two 1000mg fish oil capsules per day, two 400iu vit E per day, and one 250mg vit B per day. We also keep him out of the sun between the hours of 10am-4pm. If he HAS to be out during that time (like today because we have a meet and greet), he gets a bit of baby sunscreen on his nose.

 

So far this routine seems to be helping. The next step would be a steroid cream for his nose.

 

What are they symptoms? I'm so thankful that so far Soul's is only a skin disorder. Sending good thoughts that your sweetie recovers quickly!

Edited August 26, 2007 by SoulsMom

[ripley488]

 

 

I have a 9yo IG with Lupus. Her's is in her joints - it can manifest in different forms. She has arthritus in her hips & her wrists would swell to 3x their normal size. She would be unable to walk because of pain in her hips.

 

Over about a 8mo period we tried a variety of drugs and even acupuncture. The ONLY thing that gives her relief - and the ability to walk - is 2.5mg Prednisone daily. If I try to go every other day - she can't walk. With her it was a quality of life issue, so we are sticking with the Pred. Of course now she eats like crazy (went from 11 to 14lbs) and drinks/pees like you would expect a dog on Pred to do.

 

All in all she could be worse and at least we have found something that gives her relief.

 

Jennifer Watkins

Shamrock Greyhound Placement

Louisville, KY

[Guest sirsmom]

I lost a non grey to what the vet said was an auto immune disease similar to lupus. She had optic neuritis in both eyes that came on suddenly and was tested for everything and tried on doxycycline and pred. and another corticeroid that supposedly had less urinary side effects but nothing really worked. She did pretty ok for about 6 months and then she got really bad, was wasting away and was in a lot of pain and we put her down. She was not even quite 10. It was in March and looking back may have been related to the dog food she was eating but we have no proof.

[Batmom]

Whoa, replied to wrong thread.

 

Can't offer much advice on autoimmune stuff .

Edited August 26, 2007 by Batmom

[Guest MomofSweetPotatoes]

Hi there,

 

Yardman has Lupus, he's now 9 1/2. It's a bit of a road to travel, but she will start feeling better.

 

How is it manifesting itself? Yardman's symptoms are in his skin (nose and feet), joints and urinary tract.

 

The way we have dealt with it, is supplements, food and holistic therapy with modern (western medicine) intervention and monitoring as needed.

 

For Yardman, we eliminated all foods with chemical preservatives. For a long time we fed Flint River Ranch or California Natural - no chemical preserves (we now feed raw) This way his body doesn't have to work to excrete or process chemicals.

We also supplement for his joints (he acts achey and they can get hot and inflamed)

We supplement for his skin and for immune system support - I'm always asked, why do you support his immune system if it's attacking his body? As it was explained by my vet, if you support the immune system, you are supporting it to function in a more regular fashion, rather than attacking the body. It really does help.

We supplement for his urinary tract and digestive system.

When needed also, he'll get accupunture for relief of his acheyness, although it's been 9 months since his last treatment

 

We monitor his urinalysis and blood work closely (about every 3 to 6 months) depending if he has a flare up.

 

Some autoimmune disorders (especially Lupus) like to affect the kidneys, so we are especially cautious of any urinary changes (ie; greater elimination, smell or color) if it changes (for more than 24 hours) we take a sample to the vet. Sometimes his pee will change due to a food he might have eaten, so we will wait 24 - 48 hours, depending.

 

Hope this information helps. Best wishes to you.

[Hubcitypam]

I adopted out a male dog that had Lupus and he had a good and happy life with treatment for several years after his diagnosis. It does seem autoimmune often hits girls harder than boys...maybe ask you vet?

 

My only direct experience was with IMHA...detected by the Coombs test.

[Guest vahoundlover]

I'm sorry I can't be of any help. Please know everyone in Roanoke is praying very hard for Missy! If you need anything please post here or through the Star City's Yahoo group. We will do everything we can to help you guys thru this.

 

you might want to check out the links in this thread

 

http://forum.greytalk.com/index.php?showtopic=174270

Edited August 26, 2007 by vahoundlover

[Guest RoanokeGreys]

Thanks to everyone for the advice and good thoughts. Missy has been tested for tick-bourne illness and that was negative. We originally feared it was environmental: something we had fed her or some chemical she ingested, even though we could find nothing in the house that would be a likely culprit. All those tests came back negative.

 

This all started with Missy hacking up a little mucus after she guzzled water. Then the hack got worse over a couple of days, so we planned to take her to the vet for a check up. Last Sunday she became terribly lethargic; we had to struggle to coax her up to go outside to pee. By nightfall, she was so out of it we called the emergency vet service. They said we could wait until morning.

 

Our vet saw her first thing Monday morning and thought she had a pulled muscle that was causing her weakness. She took X-rays, ran blood tests and sent us home with an anti-inflammatory. That seemed to make her better for about 24 hours. Then she deteriorated very quickly. She could barely walk and had no energy at all. We rushed her to Virginia Tech.

 

The excellent staff there narrowed it down to a protozoan infection or autoimmune and isolated it to her muscles. Her nervous system seems intact. They are still waiting on one last test that will eliminate protozoan; that should be back tomorrow. They are treating her for both the protozoan and autoimmune, a tricky proposition since suppressing her immune system if she's battling an infection could result in disaster. But as soon as she started on the predizone she stopped deteriorating. We take that as a very good sign.

 

Now we are waiting for her to start to improve. They are taking such wonderful care of her at Tech, but we hope soon she will be strong enough that we can care for her at home. We are anxiously awaiting the biopsy results to know what exactly we are dealing with; we have no idea what to expect, really. We sure need all the prayers and love we can get, so again, we thank everyone for your support.

[lovinggreysslp]

Sorry, we don't have experience with the type of autoimmune problems your girl is having. One of our greys does have inflamatory bowel disease and protein losing enteropathy (which stem from autoimmune difficulties) so I am familiar with medications such as azathioprine and prednisolone. While the medications seemed "scary" initially, they really helped our boy pull through a tough time. Sending healing thoughts and prayers for Missy!

[nyGreys]

Sending prayers for your Missy. :hope

[Guest vahoundlover]

Keeping Missy in my prayers! Come on Sweetie you can get thru this!

[Guest cestbarb]

sending good thoughts and prayers your way.

[Guest RoanokeGreys]

Once again, I can't thank everyone enough for their support. Our little girl puppy needs all the prayers that God can hear on her behalf.

 

We should get more test results in today, so I am typing this with crossed-fingers. Forgive any typos, please. I will post here after I get another update from Virginia Tech.

[Guest OMGiluvgreys]

We had a 3 yr old that started knuckling under and was on high doses of Pred. Everytime we tried to reduce the Pred. she would get worse. She spent 4 week at a specialty vet and was unable to stand . All she could do was raise her head. We spent $4,000 on test, blood work CT scans,ssent bloodwork to 2 major vet universities. All they could tell us is it waas Autoimmune Disease and was closing of her spinal column.

[Guest RoanokeGreys]

Hey OMG,

 

What was the eventual outcome? Did your girl get well?

 

 

[Burpdog]

Did they test for bartellonsis and e ewingii?

 

Have you emailed Ohio State or asked them to contact Dr. Couto or Dr. Marin?

 

Sending lots of prayers!

 

I'd see if this vet can give her an acupuncture treatment --perhaps she could visit the vet school:

 

Bridget Quatmann, DVM, CVH

 

Specialty: Small Animal

Roanoke, VA 24014, USA

Tele: (540)343-8021

Fax: (540)343-6452

 

Email: bridgetQ@msn.com

 

Edited August 27, 2007 by Burpdog

[Guest RoanokeGreys]

Thanks for the prayers, Burpdog (love the name, btw) and I will keep those two docs names in handy.

 

I know they have tested her for every type of bacteria and tick-bourne disease, along with toxins and every other thing known to vet science. The docs at VT have done a wonderful job, and are the very best in our region of the country. I truly think if Barney, the president's famous Scottish terrier, got terribly sick, the Secret Service would bring him to Virginia Tech.

 

 

[Burpdog]

Many times they test the diseases they do by blood draws. The two I mentioned are done by a PCR. Won't hurt to double check The other one is babsia gibsoni.