Immune Mediated Polyarthritis

[Poodle Mum]

I had a weimaraner with IMPA, her immune mediated disorders started young ( when the litter was vax with live vax @ 8wks) most of the litter had reactions. 2 died, 3 recovered.

The little pup we adopted ( typical VN) seem to bleed & bruise from everywhere - gut, eyes, chest & the tips of her ears become so swollen from shaking her head, that become necortic & dropped off.

Molly's life (only 5yrs ) was full of ups & downs, lots of AB,s & cortisone. Specialists visit when she was a pup, who said she should not have survived.

I knew Molly's health better than my own! & was able to pick a blow to her system before she really fell in a heap. She was an extremely stoic little dog ( never grew past 25kg & was always size of 6mth weim) we visited homeopathic vet in Balmain & she had drops made up for her ......sorry I forgot what they were. I gave her spurulina & slippery elm for her gut.

She was regulary on lose dose cortisone & i learnt to keep stress & change to a minimum. No long runs or heaps of excercise has that woould mean swollen joints in 2 days time :D

Molly spent heaps of time being well & she was gorgoeus. We just learnt to manage her.

Good luck

[Danois]

Hi!

Its funny you posted the bit about necrotic tissue.

We had an emergency on the weekend and Angus had to have surgery to remove a small section of his tongue. We suspect that he threw a blood clot in the tongue and it died. Blood clots occurence is increased because of the drugs he is on.

He is recovering at home with me now but was a very stressful time.

We have to cut back on his normal srugs to let the anti-biotiics work and the tongue heal.

This has meant his hock has flared up...

Oh la la

As PoodleMum said - you learn to manage it!

[anneh]

Hi, I just joined the forum and saw your posts re IMPA (I do hope Angus is ok). I am in a quandary because I adopted an 8yo little dog last summer and she started having high fever bouts (and had all sorts of tests done for infectious diseases which were negative) and finally culminating to having bouts with obvious body pain also. We went to specialists for spinal/joint taps and dx is IMPA. They put her on steroids early April and when that alone didn't do the job they added cyclosporine. We go back next week and if there isn't more improvement when they examine her they want to switch her to Imuran instead of the cyclo, the goal being to start being able to lower the prednisone. In the meantime I am worried to death about giving these horrible drugs to her, I already see they are taking a toll on her little body. I am wondering if I should have let her go peacefully instead of going down this path :p . I do make her food myself and giving her supplements to help her. I joined an auto immune forum and seemed like all the dogs either died of the IMPA or something associated with the medications Thanks for any input, I love her so much and after having a horrible, hard life she is finally in a loving furever home and now this has to happen to her anneh

Angus has been recently diagnosed with Immune Mediated Poly Arthritis (IMPA from now on in!) and I am just wanting to hear from anyone else who has had this diagnosed as we are having a few teething problems with treatment - but getting there thanks to a fanstastic vet (and vet nurse!).

[Garloch]

Guys,

I can't imagine what you and the animals are going through! Sounds dreadful.

In the first post you asked about dogs that had been oncortisone for long periods of time.

I have no vet experience, and I don't know what the disease your dogs have is, so I wouldn't dare comment on it or its treatment. Naturopathic vets are worth their weight in gold though.

My input is from the point of having a dog on long term cortisone. My breed tends to suffer from skin disorders, and years ago I had a gorgeous boy who was sick from about 3 months. Perfect in every way before that - no history (that I was told). It started with an itch that he scratched, it got infected, then picked up mites, and mange, despite drenches, dips, washes, medication, weekly trips to the vets (who were brilliant). Used specialist advice from melb uni etc. The mainstay of his treatment was cortisone. It did help. Unfortunately, it did make him susceptible to Cushings Disease. (Over-use of cortisone can create a problem in susceptible dogs - its a type of cancer.) He was so sick, and died of a brain tumour before his 2nd birthday. I wish I'd known about natural treatments then, and a predisposition towards Cushings. May not have made any difference in the end, but at least it was something I could have tried.

I am not trying to panic you, or suggest you go against your vets advice, or stop any treatments. But please talk to your vets about the doses of cortisone, and the possibility of Cushings. Your breeder should be able to help with information about what diseases are prevalent in your particular breeds, and may be un otherwise untapped source of information.

Good luck with your beautiful animals. I wish them (and you) well.

[Danois]

wow - forgot about this thread!

Angs continues on his way and is on 40mg of cortisone a day now and 100mg of Imuran every second day. I gave the natural option a go with no discernable improvement (in conjunction with the cortisone).

Unfortunately IMPA is not a common issue within danes so there is very little information out there.

Garloch - I am always conscious of putting the drugs into him but there is communication with my vet at least weekly and he is happy with things at the moment. We have only been on it 6 months at this stage.

Anneh - it sounds like you are in a difficult position especially as your wee one is not so young and age related issues may heighten the IMPA. I maintain an attitude that as long as Angs is happy, racing around, eating etc then I will leave him be. The cortisone makes them comfortable - just have to adjust to increased thirst and peeing.

[anneh]

Danois thank you so much for responding, glad to hear your Angus is still doing well. I will know next Tuesday if specialist wants to switch to Imuran, if you have had no big issue with it perhaps I will give it a try and will let you know how its going.

Garloch, we also have tried other means of dealing with this horrible disease. We use a holistic vet and all other ideas were tried prior to starting the steroids. I titer instead of vaccinating (btw no more vaccines ever for this little girl, we are in the USA so we got a rabies vaccine waiver as she was due this year) and make my own dog food. We still go and get acupuncture and chinese herbals to support her system. The choice was either pts to go down this path. I know its hard for people to understand, I have never used drugs like these on any of my dogs, I always have used alternative methods and successfully I might add so I think this is why my heart is so heavy with fear and grief over this situation anneh.

wow - forgot about this thread!

Angs continues on his way and is on 40mg of cortisone a day now and 100mg of Imuran every second day. I gave the natural option a go with no discernable improvement (in conjunction with the cortisone).

Unfortunately IMPA is not a common issue within danes so there is very little information out there.

Garloch - I am always conscious of putting the drugs into him but there is communication with my vet at least weekly and he is happy with things at the moment. We have only been on it 6 months at this stage.

Anneh - it sounds like you are in a difficult position especially as your wee one is not so young and age related issues may heighten the IMPA. I maintain an attitude that as long as Angs is happy, racing around, eating etc then I will leave him be. The cortisone makes them comfortable - just have to adjust to increased thirst and peeing.