They did the quick in office test and she was negative for ticks, although a test wasn't sent off to a lab where they can test for all tick illness, it was only the most common ones. She was already anemic when we went in the first day with the fever, and she dropped several % each day until we transfused and doubled the steroids/added azathioprine. However, it doesn't seem like she was truly stable until I added the bioprep - her other numbers were normalizing but her blood count was in freefall.
Would it still be a good idea to insist for a blood test being sent off site? is that too late?
Sassy is doing well, I guess as well as she can on high steroids. In that I mean she is alive, her gums are super pink, and she is eating/drinking/alert/happy to see everyone. But the steroids are starting to effect her and i'm feeling so awful. I'm starting to see the muscle wasting in her face and back legs, her life revolves are food she is so hungry, she has been lethargic and not her normal self at all. I cant get her to even glance at a toy. A 5 minute walk tires her, I think because of the muscle loss.
I am sure all of this is the prednisone, she was on 3 pills a day, we just yesterday dropped down to 2 pills a day. Her next appt. is the 11th, to check her levels before we drop it again. We are starting to come down now, however I am wondering if I need to get a second opinion - it doesnt sound like my vet is even thinking she will ever be able to come off pred/azathioprine, it's been discussed the goal is to have her on both for the rest of her life in a small dose that is every other day for each pill, alternating. I know lots of dogs with AIHA can come off the meds completely? Will small doses of pred still be effecting her like it is now? Right now I just want her off it. She is not the dog I knew. But I don't want her to relapse.
