I have an 8 year old Sheepadoodle (cross between a old english sheep dog and a standard poodle.
In March 2018, when she was being groomed I got a call from groomer as she noticed red patches all over her body. Anyway went to vet and it was determined her platlettes were zero. Rushed to Atlantic Teaching Vet School, and after lots of blood work, aspirated lymph nodes etc we had a diagnosis of Primary IMT.
Initially she was put on heavy dosages of steroids and the imusuppressant cyclosporine. After many many months we weaned her off the steroids( prednisone) and tried some reductions of the cyclosporine. We have had 2 additional relapses where we have had to start at the beginning again. Over the time we have regular blood tests to track platlette levels about 1 every 2.5 weeks.
After a partial relapse in June 2019, returned to all the medication and through the summer got her off prednisone and that has been stable since early August. Still on the immusuppressant and I am leary about starting another reduction. There are side affects to this drug, loose stool problems and growths on her gums. Not live threatening but I too wonder what are the unknown side affects.
My dog is regularly vaccinated as per requirements and this has not been a problem and it did not trigger the original diagnosis.
Hopefully we can get some other folks talking about this disease and the medicines used to manage it
Fingers Crossed
