Auto Immune Disease In Dogs

[BeeJay]

Join our free community today.

Connect with other like-minded dog lovers!

Login or Register

If anyone has experience of living with a dog with AI disease or living with a dog on long term Prednisolone (or any of the Pred steroids) could you email me please.

I can't discuss the matter on the board. But I need some information so that I can make an informed decision.

Thanks.

 

[Kirawan]

If anyone has experience of living with a dog with AI disease or living with a dog on long term Prednisolone (or any of the Pred steroids) could you email me please.
I can't discuss the matter on the board.  But I need some information so that I can make an informed decision.

Thanks.

Yes..... have sent a pm to you.

 

[BeeJay]

A big thanks to everyone who answered my plea.

Tally deerhound went to see a referral vet today. Before doing any tests himself but going on the evidence of Tally's illness and the way that he responds to pred and doesn't respond to any of the various AB's and rimadyl he believes that it is most likely that Tally has an immune mediated poly arthritis with possible steroid responsive meningitis.

As I've been asking my vets for over 5 weeks if Tally has AI poly arthritis and being told by all but one of them (1 thought that he may have it) that AI disease is so rare that it was very, very unlikely. I could hardly believe my ears when the referral vet was saying that in his opinion that was the most likely cause of his PUO (fever of unknown origin to the rest of us).

Of course it may still be that Tally has a very aggressive cancer in which case he will be pts straight away. However this vet is a cancer specialist and he doesn't think that this is the problem.

Blood test results will be back on Thursday.

Thanks once more. At some point I will be able to reply to you individually but at present I'm exhausted and this post has had just so many wrong words etc in it that if I write anymore it'll make no sense at all.

 

[Jan Doherty]

Thinking of you Beejay. Good luck Tally, JAN

 

[Zephyr]

Beejay and Tally, you are both having such a rough time - so glad you have been referred to someone who sounds like he knows what he is talking about.

Very best of luck with Tally, I am sure you will let us know how he is doing :luck: :luck: :huggles:

 

[Joanna]

I'll keep every-thing crossed for you and yours Barb.

Jo

 

[Rae]

Hi Beejay,

Really feel for you Hope Tally gets some good news on Thursday.

Star & Leia send 'roo roos' and licks to Tally.

Rae x

 

[~JO~]

Thinking of you all and the lovely Tally - lets hope this specialist will get to the bottom of it.

Good luck for Thursday :luck:

With regards to the AI disease, doesn't Louise Tope have a whippet with it - in The Whippet Club mag there was an article written about it by her. May be worth a look

 

[BeeJay]

Yes Joe Louise's Reggie has an AI disease. Her ear has been bent already and no doubt will be again.

She's been another good resource for me. Nothing beats being able to ask people who have dogs with this kind of problem what it's like living day to day with it. When I think of how ill Reg has been and what fantastic condition he is in today I'm amazed.

Luckily for me apart from sharing a love of whippets we also share an interest in whippet pedigrees so I already knew her.

 

[~JO~]

I did think you already may know her

I totally agree Reggie is looking so fantastic at the moment, got a 3rd in open dog at Paignton- which is a fantastic achievement and very well deserved - he powers round that ring like a trooper!! If it an AI disease Tally has got - Reggie has definitely got to give you hope

 

[Macha]

My 11 month old whippet has been quite ill for the past week and we now think he may have steroid responsive/ autoimmune meningitis. I would be anxious to hear of anyone with experience of this type of illness.

last Monday evening the dog developed severe fatigue rather suddenly (after a longish walk and then I left him for just two hours). He was weak. listless and off his feed. He was no better the next day so I took him to the vets and he had a slight fever of 103 fahrenheit. Antibiotics were prescribed. The dog was a bit chirpier that evening and the next day but soon declined again. On Friday his temperature was 104 and he was prescribed more antibiotics and anti-inflammatory. The vet said he'd do blood tests if the dog wasn't much better by Tuesday, but I brought the hound in first thing this morning as he had a very bad day yesterday. For a while yesterday his neck was very stiff and he held his head constantly to one side and a bit low. He staggered a lot and sometimes his left legs buckled at the ankle/wrist joint. I phoned the vet to describe this condition and that is when he proposed the meningitis diagnosis.

Today the blood tests were okay and I got a 4 day course of steroids for my pet. He hasn't had a recurrence of the extreme nerve disorder that was apparent yesterday.

He urinates and moves his bowels okay except sometimes he has wet his bed because sometimes he is too weak to get up. I've kept weight loss and dehydration at a minimum by hand feeding moist meaty foods ... recently the appetite has been good provided food is tempting enough. No retching or coughing.

I'll provide an update later in the week. In the meantime, who can describe similar illnesses and/or canine meningitis?

 

[Strike Whippets]

I wish your boy well ......Pm Beejay as she's very up on these things .........I have 2 AI Whippets of different illnesses, but please remember don't mix the anti-inflammatory's and the steriods :thumbsup: ..... :luck: :luck: .......Also copy this post and put it under general discussion Whippets ....you might get more of a response .......

 

[anslinmcg]

Hi Barbara sorry to hear about Tally.

Big kisses from Macey and Byron and :luck: good luck with Thursday.

 

[BeeJay]

Um I'm confused but that's a near normal state for me these days. :b

Last year we did wonder if Tally had developed steriod responsive menigitis as well as immune mediated poly arthritis.

His symptoms were. Very, very high temperature, high levels of white blood cells, failure to respond to different AB's (4 in total 2 of which were given together). He'd respond initally for less than a day and then go down hill again. He was knuckling over with his front feet. He had pain on a hock joint and between his shoulders (withers) after a day or so huge swellings came up which were inflammed and very hot. Once the swellings came up the pain went. ie he could walk and didn't scream so much when he moved his head. The swelling between his shoulders was the size of large eating apple. He wouldn't eat or drink. Within 24 hours of him going on steriods his temp was normal and he was wanting to eat and drink again.

However he still screamed if anything touched his nose or if he turned his head. The only movement that he was comfortable with was upward movement of his head. His is a screamer though. A bit of a wimp. So how much pain he was in we don't know.

We lowered the steriods over the next few weeks - he was never on the amount that you give to knock out the immune system. That is a huge amount and needs to be taken with a gastric buffer to protect the stomach. Anyway he was on the maintenance level I can't remember how much now I'm sorry and it had been weeks since he'd been ill so we started to go racing again and take him with us and do normal things. He had a blood test at the vets on the Monday just to check what was happening result his white blood cell count was too high and bang by the next day his temp went through the roof and he became ill again. The stress of going to the vets and having his blood taken was too much for him and triggered something off.

I insisted on him being refered. The referral vet said that he thought that it was most likely to be the aforementioned AI diseases. But for him to confirm it and find out exactly what it was then the dog would have to come off the steriods and basically become ill again. The timing was important because the dog needed to be ill so that when the joint and spinal taps and x-ray were done the vet could find the evidence he needed but the dog couldn't be so ill that he'd die or suffer unnecessarily.

So we took Tally off the steriods and waited. His temp started to rise, he'd go lethargic and I thought yep book him in and then it went back down again. He was screaming about his neck but that was all. His temp did go back up high again but it always came down again. A year later Tally still has a bit of a neck problem but he's not on any med's and he's fine at the moment.

What dosage of Steriod is he on? Is he also being gastric buffered?

I know someone whose whippet has had 2 very bad instances of. Once affecting the brain and the other affecting the spinal column. But he's been okay for a year or so now. He's on steriods permanently and that seems to keep it under control.

I hope that everything is going okay with your whippet. Hugs to him :huggles:

 

[alfie]

Hi Barbara,

I am so sorry to hear about poor Tally.

Give him a hug from me- if it doesn't hurt him... :wub:

Liz and the Monellis

 

[BeeJay]

Thanks Liz. At the mo Tally is fine. It was touch and go last year as he was so ill. I panic when I hear of things going around in case it sparks off another over reaction from him.

I hope that you are all fine.

 

[kris]

ive got a shiba male with severe flea bite allergy reaction.he usually looks bald,hes been on steroids for a few years now.ive been giving him evening primrose too.a few months ago i saw a new vet as robin was due for his check up.this young lady vet told us to reduce his medication to a tablet twice a week instead of every other day.within a few weeks he was in a terrible state and i had to ignore what shed said and put him back on his normal doseage.(ill be informing my regular vet when i se him of what happened) :angry: apart from him being fairly bald most of the time due to him constantly chewing and nibbling himself hes a perfectly happy normal dog.if being on steroids will shorten his life at least the life he has is pain fre and made more comfortable for him.skin problems in shibas ,akitas and other dogs with a harsh brush type of coat seems to be quite common,though i must say none of my other dogs have ever had any problems.robin was fine until i brought him indoors and he stayed as a house dog.when he lived outside i never had any trouble with his skin/coat.at first we put it down to central heating but after having tests done we then realised he had a severe reaction to fleas.as we have cats too its not easy trying to keep on top of the flea problem.i treat the cats and dogs but the stuff ive bought for the carpets doesnt seem to be much good.

 

[Macha]

my dog hasn't been as bad as Tally

yes, we stopped the anti-inflammatory when we started steroids. He's responding well so far, just a little tired just a little stiffness, and sometimes he's quite well and perky

I don't know how long he will need to be on steroids

anyone else have experience of canine meningitis?

we aren't sure that is the correct diagnosis but it seems likely

 

[Jan Doherty]

I had an Italian Greyhound with meningitus(Or should I say suspected as he never had a lumar puncture which would have confirmed it) He had severe neck pain and a very high temperature and was treated agressively with antibiotics. He was fine after a few days and never looked back although he could have developed fits, he didnt thank goodness. Prolonged large doses of steroids creates further problems including auto immune. Having lost a dog through steroid induced AI I would never put another dog through that again.

 

[BeeJay]

If he responded to AB's Jan that's a different type of Menigitis. Steroid responsive is an AI disease and AB's won't work for it. That's how I understand it to be.

Steroid's are life savers for dogs that won't respond to anything else. But I thought that for something to be an AI disease then 1) it should be tested for and found not just suspected and treated as such 2) that the steroid dosage had to be very high to knock out the immune system initially. A low starting dosage won't work.

Steroid's are a cheap anti inflammtory and my previous vet told me not to bother with continuing with the referral vet as we could just keep Tally on pred for life. (Why take him off something that works he said to me). I carried on with the referral vet and trying to find out just what was wrong with Tally. Yes it cost me a lot of money <sobs> but he's on no med's now and was only on pred for a short while. To my mind it was worth it.