Advice required for Jessie Whippet

[mickwhippet]

Hi,
Latest update on Jessie. She had a blood test yesterday and her blood count is now at 55! She's been on 5mg of prednisolone every 5 days for the last 6 weeks after her last test when she was at 47.
We have been told to reduce her to 5mg per week for the next month with a view to every 10 days if she stays at 55 (or gets higher). She's still on benazacare for her protein in her urine but apart from that she's as fit as a fiddle and has been for several months.
Do you think it will be safe to take her off meds completely after the next reduction?
kind regards
Mick, Liz and Jessie.

[polly]

I can't offer you any advice about reducing the medication - I'll leave that to Jo and your vet- but  what wonderful news about the blood results.  My boy, Jasper Whippet (alias Talkabout Escargot)  who also has IMHA , sends Jessie Whippet  his regards.

[Catherine]

If the correct medication regime has been followed and the medication has been reduced slowly then at some time you may want to see if she can come off medication altogether. Some dogs, though, do stay on a lose dose of Preds. for the rest of their lives and if your dog does relapse then that may be the safer option in future. Obviously it also depends how well their body copes with the Preds.

[Jo CIMDA]

Hi Mick, Liz and Jessie

That is really good news.  To be honest the dose of prednisolone she is on now is not doing anything to suppress her immune system, so clinically it probably isn't having much effect.  Having said that  I think the latest reduction is a good one and even if the current dose isn't having much clinical effect it is not doing any harm either and it might just be maintaining stability.  One never knows if a dog will relapse or not until you take the decision to stop steroids, but you have done the weaning down process so gradually you are now in a great position to stop the steroids after the next reduction. 

I really don't know that giving a 5mg dose of steroids every 10 days will have any effect but who knows? If Jessie can live steroid free then it has to be the best for her, but if she can't then so be it.  There is always a risk of relapse and being on 5mg  of pred even once a day won't stop a relapse if she meets the dreaded anonymous  'trigger'.  The best you can do is to limit all potential trigger factors such as vaccination, spot on treatments and food with nasty additives etc.....  The list is endless!

Don't worry about her PVC dropping a little.  She is at the high end of normal now (this often happens) so I expect it might drop a little before she reaches what is a 'normal' PCV for her.

Jo

[mickwhippet]

Hi,
Thanks for your responses. We have stopped her vaccinations and for the most part she eats raw food – which she loves. In the meantime she has eaten some disgusting carrion and been bitten by an Alsation (which broke her skin but we got away without stitches) which haven't had a detrimental effect on her so i'm guessing her immune system is working fine.
Polly – sorry to hear that Jasper has IMHA but if Jessie is anything to go by (and it was touch and go at one point) there is hope. We also have 3 other whippets one of whom goes by the name of Jasper – he's big and orange and daft as a brush.

Egards
Mick