CIMDA

Posey has evan's Syndrome and has relapsed once. She is just getting better and on low dose of her meds at the moment. She had a little encounter with a woodchuck in the back yard this weekend. We got it away from her and woodchuck seemed OK. His back leg is dragging which may be a sign of rabies? I've seen him the last couple days as well and he's just still going slow and munching on plants in the yard. I'm now getting conflicting advise from vets. Do I get her a rabies booster or not??? As far as we could tell there were no scratches or bites on her. She only had it in her mouth for a few seconds. I'm not sure which route is more risky. Any thoughts or experiences with this would be much appreciated!

The only thing I can think of that may have triggered a relapse is possible a tick bite? We had pulled a couple ticks off her. She has received no vaccinations since her initial diagnosis. She is now on a tick medicine called Bravecto which is supposed to protect them better. I live in PA outside of Philadelphia and we often visit family in the Hudson Valley region of NY, both of which are known for lyme disease and a lot of ticks. So due to this, I don't think we can go a completely non-chemical route to prevent ticks. She also seems to have allergies and every now and again gets these sneezing/coughing type attacks where she would then throw up mucus. We are currently looking into making her food from scratch.

Thank you for the melatonin suggestion. We will add this to her regimen. Is there somewhere online you can order this or is it something you get prescribed from the vet?

And I'm also glad to hear her numbers may pop back up without an increase in the pred. Fingers crossed!

My 5y/o IT, Posey, suffers from Evan's Syndrome. She developed it in April 2016 right after she turned 4. She was severely anemic and needed two blood transfusions. After a week in the hospital she pulled through and was on 40mg of pred a day, azithropine, and doxycycline. After a few months of slow recovery she began vomiting bile non-stop. I took her to the emergency vet and she needed surgery to remove her gallbladder. It was gallbladder mucocele, so bile wasn't being processed properly through her body. She did well in surgery and it was almost a blessing because the pred was taking such a toll on her body. The pred was lowered drastically so she could recover from the surgery and she went into remission and back to her usual self for about 8 months. Unfortunately, while she was having a routine blood test this May 2017 we found out her platelets were extremely low again so she had to go back on medication. She was put on 40mg pred a day and mycophenolate. She was doing well and her blood was responding to the medication so we were able to lower it quickly. She got back to 146,000 after just a few weeks, but this past week dropped back down to 106,000. She is currently on 20mg prednisolone/day (switched to prednisolone to save liver stress). Her muscle wasting is pretty severe and happened fast, she also has minimal energy while on these medications. Does anyone have any thoughts on this? I hate the effects the pred has on her, but at the same time know it's saving her. Any advice on how to increase platelets without as much prednisone would be greatly appreciated.