Help For Dog In Trouble

My mom has a lovely chocolate labrador, 4 years old. She has a mystery ailment that is making her very anaemic. She needs regular transfusions to feel well, which transform her, but then she rapidly declines again. On Wednesday they're going to put her down if things don't improve, because of her suffering. In between transfusions the poor thing shivers and is miserable. She is particularly hungry all the time but neither fat nor thin. I noticed her coat is rough and coarser than you'd expect. I thought some treatment for tick disease can be very harsh and damaging to (think) the liver, but apparently the vet says that's not it.
I was wondering about cypro maybe as I gave some to my dad (yes, we are that kind of family, no problem treating across the species line ...) who had a terrible enervating cough (he's 85, strong but a lifelong smoker, it was winter, very dry air, he had flu but it carried on long after the infection was over) and it cured his cough and gave him back his strength almost overnight.
If she was old and weak then maybe I'd make peace with it but she's young and well other than this. Thanks for reading.

sueq said:

My mom has a lovely chocolate labrador, 4 years old. She has a mystery ailment that is making her very anaemic. She needs regular transfusions to feel well, which transform her, but then she rapidly declines again. On Wednesday they're going to put her down if things don't improve, because of her suffering. In between transfusions the poor thing shivers and is miserable. She is particularly hungry all the time but neither fat nor thin. I noticed her coat is rough and coarser than you'd expect...

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4 days is a pretty short time line for determining whether to put an entity down or track the response to progressive treatment.

My first guess would be using a thyroid supplement. My general impression about retrievers (e.g. chocolate and golden) is that they seem pre-disposed to low thyroid issues. The retrievers I have seen with dysplasias and luxations seemed to have sluggish metabolism compared to more peppy retrievers. Sadly, only one retriever owner I know was interested to add thyroid, with gratifying results-the animal was mobile and vigorous for several years after surgery was suggested. I have not had further follow up. Other lab/golden owners were warned by their vets that thyroid was dangerous, even though the prognosis for usual treatment was dreadful.

Low thyroid function is one possibility for otherwise mysterious anemia. With circulation compensation due to anemia, it may be trickier to judge pulse as a measure of thyroid status.

http://raypeat.com/articles/articles/iron-dangers.shtml

"Anemia in women is caused most often by a thyroid deficiency (as discussed in the chapter on thyroid), or by various nutritional deficiencies. Estrogen (even in animals that don't menstruate) causes dilution of the blood, so that it is normal for females to have lower hemoglobin than males."

I know very little of the situation here, and the usual disclaimers apply. For a beloved pet where the alternative is pending euthanasia, if the animal was comfortable, different metabolic measures might be considered. Tracking response to Cyproheptadine seems mild compared to the alternative. For a female animal especially, in these times of environmental xenoestrogens, bio-identical progesterone might be another possibility.

Thank you Aguilaroja! I'll give her a bit of my T3 and see if that helps. This has been going on quite a long time by the way. I can also have a try with the cypro. I'll just give her a crumb of both. It's worth a try and the vet might consider a thyroid prescription for her, who knows. Vets are more open minded than doctors in my experience.

my dogs love coconut oil and raw hide chews(gelatin), I get the beef ones.

My dogs go nuts for coconut oil.

Wonder if a little progest-e might help too.

A friend had a dog who was incontinent and a little progesE cleared that right up. So can't hurt.

I suppose she's been checked for immune-mediated hemolytic anemia? Being a 4 year old female she falls smack in the middle of the risk group.

A shot in the dark, but it's been proven for more than one century, with the works of Rene Quinton with isotonic sea water, that this product can replace more than half of a dog's blood, and yet it will reconstitute the blood formula within a few days and even give back added good health after this regeneration takes place.

Thanks for all the input! I gave my mom thyroid and cypro for her and said a quarter tab of each, 3 times a day. So each dose is 5 mcg t3 and 1mg cypro. I got feedback this morning. She's much better! I'm so delighted!
Aguilaroja you will not be surprised at the vet's comment when asked about thyroid: "it's dangerous"!!!! What, more dangerous than death? Really?
Luckily my mom is more rational than that and is carrying on regardless. No blood tests yet but I'll be fascinated to hear the vet explain that one away!

Incredible!!!!

I love this story sueq! Recently when my boxer was ill the only nourishment I could get in her for 16 hours was coconut oil (not even liver which is usually a favorite)!
Another time my boxer which happens to be female got my empty bottle of Progest-e from the trash and had it partially chewed up before I discovered what she had done. There couldn't have been more than a drop or two left in the bottle. Later that day and for a couple days after I had to keep her separated from my male chiweenie because he wouldn't leave her alone. He was relentlessly trying to mate with her. Powerful stuff indeed! He's never done that before or since.
It's great to know thyroid and cyproheptadine helped your mom's dog!

My 15 year old Bichon-shih-tzu dog just got an x-ray showing that she has a collapsing trachea, probably due to inflammation or tumors, or cysts. So she's dry coughing a lot.
The vet just gave her doxycycline and cough syrup.

Any advice on what I could give her? anti-inflammatories?

I plan to give her a drop of vitamin-K every few days, a drop of vitamin-E every few days, and 4 grams of Urea in her water ever couple days, and half a drop of Methane Blue every day. Any other ideas? Lapodin? Aspirin? Progesterone? A small amount of T3? Small amount of Cypro?

By the way, she also has Addisons disease, and takes a Percorten-V shot once a month, and Prednisone daily.

Thanks!!

Cascara @johnsmith

michael94 said:

Cascara @johnsmith

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Thanks, I got some of that new good Cascara coming in the mail from the "Lifegivingstore" I'll try it out on her.

johnsmith said:

Thanks, I got some of that new good Cascara coming in the mail from the "Lifegivingstore" I'll try it out on her.

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Yea... aspirin and quinones seem to go together. Be gentle of course