Myelofibrosis

[ridge57]

Hi, Am interested if anyone can help with a diagnosis.  The litter brother to our foundation bitch has sadly just been PTS with this condition age 6. The diagnosis from the Vet Hospital was myelofibrosis after a core bone marrow test. The Hospital have said this thought to be triggered by immune mediated disease

The dog presented some 4 months ago, lethargic and just not right...Vet did blood test and found severe anaemia...he was referred to a Vet Hospital where he had two transfusions and was prescribed Preds 5mg  3 tabs twice daily
The owners have very kindly sent me the Vet Report but apart from above there are no test results printed...just the cost !

Didnt really improve and owners decided to euthanase

I wonder why this was attributed to IM disease,  is the cause usually Im disease?   

Obviously I would really like to know the ins and outs as our bitch has had two litters ...
Jan

[Jo CIMDA]

Hi Jan &  Welcome

What a shame to lose this boy at the age of six. This is a worry for you and I can understand why you want to try to get to the bottom of this.

Have you got any more information?  Do you know any more about the type of anaemia?  Can you tell me what this boy weighed?
There is an article in the files called bone marrow disease.  This may help you.
Jo

[ridge57]

Hi Jo,  Thanks for reply, the only other info I have is that before 2nd transfusion platelets were down from 34 to 10

The Vet report gives the simple diagnosis I quoted before and a list of all the tests and costs but not the results

I will email the owners and see if they can get them for me ( its hard when they are so upset)

Wil ask about his weight but if normal for a whippet would be around 30 lbs

[Jo CIMDA]

Hi Jan
The treatment he was on was the lowest immunosuppressive dose of prednisolone, but sometimes other drugs have to be used in combination and also occasionally the dose has to be raised to the maximum (2mg/kg/12hrs) and I have known it to be even higher for a short while.

I do believe if it is due to an autoimmune disease (which is only one cause of myelofibrosis others include cancer) it can be responsive to steroids, but  also because the bone marrow has a build up of fibre it reduces the space for the bone marrow to produce new red blood cells, and platelets, and as a result it can take longer to see new cells and treatment can be more difficult.  There are no guarantees with any of these diseases and some do carry a poorer prognosis than others.  Also, each dog is an individual and will respond differently, and some cannot tolerate the side effects of the drugs.  It is a very sad situation.  The owner couldn't do anymore than allow a specialist to treat him.  Myelofibrosis isn't a common complication of non regenerative anaemia.

[ridge57]

Thanks Jo, I dont think there will be a known cause for this as I dont think any other tests were done to ascertain the cause of the myelofibrosis, ie immune, cancer or drugs. Nothing was found on an ultrasound .

Thank you for the replies and also for this forum , I will put a link on our whippet-health website

Cheers Jan x