We recently had to put our 6 year old female Golden Retriever to sleep after she became deathly anemic. After a 3 day inpatient stay in vet hospital 2 blood transfusions, IV fluids, IV steroids with no improvement. Cancer was ruled out and vet determined that Autoimmune Disease was the diagnosis our dog closest fit into. The vet told us from the beginning that our dog was a "confusing case" since she didn't fit all the criteria for Autoimmune Disease.
s disease or diabetes often have anemia caused by poor vitamin B absorption (pernicious anemia), and yet others have iron deficiency anemia (most common) which is from not enough iron in your diet...(there's hemorrhagic anemia caused by blood loss also) If you don't have an explainable reason for your low labs, I'd ask for a redraw...Too much iron can be very hard on the liver and spleen...But not enough can be damaging as well...
Don't worry Deb. You know you have hemolytic anemia and that's what you'll see - decreased haptoglobin and increased little itty-bitty baby red blood cells.
I ordered those same tests for myself 2 years after treatment when my hgb and rbc were borderline or a little low. I didn't have hemolytic anemia thankfully because I was not treating. My transplant team wasn't concerned but they acquiesced to the tests anyway. Your results will be fine.
I had anemia that was procrit dependent going into treatment - anemia of unknown or chronic disease (possibly an auto-immune hemolytic anemia as it turns out). I did treat with ribavirin and interferon, and I had a lot of difficulties with anemia. Early on, I began taking 40,000 units of procrit (well, epogen in my case) twice a week. It really didn't touch the anemia. I had blood transfusions every 10 to 14 days while treating and I had a successful treatment and I am now SVR.
Ribavirin is weight based so if his weight says he should be on 1400 a day, then that is what he should be on (unless he develops hemolytic anemia). To me, it sounds like the doc is tinkering with the med dosage and thinks that because your husband is currently Undetectable that your husband no longer needs 1400 mg a day. If that is the case, and it was me, I would be alarmed that the doctor does not know the recommended Hep C med regimen protocol.
The type of anemia we get is hemolytic anemia, meaning that the red blood cells are lysed and iron will not fix that. That said, some people with HCV have excess iron built up, so that is why iron is not good. I used to think the the virus liked the iron, but I think that is not true.
For the anemia, I think there is a good chance he will improve once incivek is completed, but no gurantee. I hope his Dr. is on top of that or will be soon. I had a fairly HCV inexperienced Dr.
You must find the cause of your anemia. Do consult your physician regarding this. Iron tablets, capsules and syrups are freely available in the market. For people who cannot tolerate oral iron, injectable iron preparations are there.
Here is a link for you to go through for a complete list of iron rich food. http://www.loveyourbaby.com/iron-rich-food-list.html
Hope this helps. Please let me know if there is any thing else and do keep me posted. Take care!
Advanced kidney disease
Hypothyroidism
Other chronic diseases, such as cancer, infection, lupus, diabetes, and rheumatoid arthritis
Old age
Anemia Caused by Destruction of Red Blood Cells
When red blood cells are fragile and cannot withstand the routine stress of the circulatory system, they may rupture prematurely, causing hemolytic anemia. Hemolytic anemia can be present at birth or develop later. Sometimes there is no known cause.
Other common health conditions, such as diabetes, heart disease, pancreatitis, hemolytic anemia and thyroid disease, can also cause liver transaminase elevations. Most liver diseases are characterized by greater ALT elevations than AST elevations except cirrohsis and alcohol abuse. ALT also rises in bile duct obstruction due to stone. Since spleen is mildly enlarged please follow up with a hematologist to rule out hemolytic anemia.
Hope this helps. Take care!
The kind of anemia from treatment drugs like ribavirin is hemolytic anemia which means red blood cells are destroyed and you have less of them to carry oxygen to your various tissues and organs. Low iron anemia is when you don't have enough iron in your system to carry adequate oxygen. Iron is what oxygen binds with in the blood, that's why it's red. With hemolytic anemia no amount of iron will help since the problem is not the iron but the lack of red blood cells.
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