Desperate for answers - Systemic Auto Immune Disease

[Jo CIMDA]

Hi Emma

Gem has done very well indeed!!!!  The usual gripe is that dogs on steroids put on too much weight.  Wouldn't her CT scan have shown up anything sinister? I am hopeful that it is a primary AI disease and not secondary. She is hungry and that is great

Regular small meals is the right way, especially as she is getting over bloat.  I think the diet you are giving her seems fine.  Keep the fat low to avoid any problems such as pancreatitis, and day by day she should progress.

Great news.

jo

[gemini]

Hi,

Update on Gem.  Gem has recovered from bloat really well.

The specialist vet now thinks thinks her condition is related to her muscle tissue.  He said he has never seen anything like it before.  Needless to say, Gem is doing brilliantly.  Vet has reduced her steroids to 5 mg once per day.

She is still on 125 mg of Atopica twice per day.  We think our insurance limit is soon to expire.  If we continue with Atopica this will cost us £400 per month.  We can't afford to do this.  I wondered what advice you can give us to either reduce the dose or if we can gradually stop giving her the drug.  Does anyone know where we could purchase at a cheaper price?

Gem's weight has increased from 19 to 24 kg.  she used to be 29 kg but we are over the moon with her progress.  She is now back to her usual 2 walks per day and eating for Britain!

Hope all is well with you all,
Emma, Tim and Gem

[bensonsmum]

hi emma tim and gem

if you are looking for a very efficient and reasonable supplier, please have a look on the viovet site. I have been using them until the loss of my dog benson last week for his prescription meds. what would cost me £53+ at the vet cost only £6.99 including post and packaging and all the orders are dispatched within 24 hours.  I hope this is of help to you.
  good luck   bensons mum       laura

[gemini]

Thank you Laura.  Sorry to hear you have lost your pet.

Emma x

[Jo CIMDA]

Hi,

Update on Gem.  Gem has recovered from bloat really well.

The specialist vet now thinks thinks her condition is related to her muscle tissue.  He said he has never seen anything like it before.  Needless to say, Gem is doing brilliantly.  Vet has reduced her steroids to 5 mg once per day.

She is still on 125 mg of Atopica twice per day.  We think our insurance limit is soon to expire.  If we continue with Atopica this will cost us £400 per month.  We can't afford to do this.  I wondered what advice you can give us to either reduce the dose or if we can gradually stop giving her the drug.  Does anyone know where we could purchase at a cheaper price?

Gem's weight has increased from 19 to 24 kg.  she used to be 29 kg but we are over the moon with her progress.  She is now back to her usual 2 walks per day and eating for Britain!

Hope all is well with you all,
Emma, Tim and Gem

Hi Emma, Tim and Gem

That is really good news.  Personally I would want to reduce the Atopica and gradually wean her off.  Why don't you mention to your specialist that your insurance is running out - never be afraid to say you can't afford it because sometimes the vets and specialists think insurance is a pot of gold and they can do unnecessary tests at times.  If you do decide to keep Gem on Atopica then you might consider adding grapefruit juice to her diet.  See the abstract below.  I have another article about it but it is in pdf format so I can't copy and paste it here.  I have a friend who used grapefruit juice with cyclosporin and she said it worked well and allowed her to give much less than the prescribed dose.  She and her vet worked together on this.
You will probably find other references to it on the internet.

Jo



Lancet. 1995 Apr 15;345(8955):955-6.
Effect of grapefruit juice on blood cyclosporin concentration.
Yee GC, Stanley DL, Pessa LJ, Dalla Costa T, Beltz SE, Ruiz J, Lowenthal DT.
Department of Pharmacy Practice, College of Pharmacy, University of Florida Health Science Center, Gainesville 32610, USA.
Comment in:
•   Lancet. 1995 Jul 8;346(8967):122-3; author reply 123-4.
•   Lancet. 1995 Jul 8;346(8967):123; author reply 123-4.
Abstract
Grapefruit juice increases blood concentrations of some dihydropyridine calcium-channel blockers, which are metabolised by the P450 enzymes that also metabolise cyclosporin. We evaluated, in a randomised cross-over study, the effect of grapefruit juice on blood cyclosporin concentrations in 14 healthy adults. Each subject was given oral cyclosporin 300 mg with 250 mL grapefruit juice, orange juice, or water. Area-under-the-curve (AUC) was significantly higher with grapefruit juice than with water or orange juice (means 7057, 4871, and 4932 ng h/mL, respectively; p < 0.0001). Thus grapefruit juice may provide a non-toxic and inexpensive alternative to drugs that are used to reduce cyclosporin dose.
PMID: 7715295 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]