Hi there. My BC started stumbling around a little bit back in September 2025. He had lost interest quite a bit in playing, and he wasn’t jumping on me like he was before. When we moved back in August of 2024, he was interested in eating the dirt in the backyard, so when he was eating the dirt around this time, I noted it but didn’t think much of it. I took him to the vet, where I discovered he had 18% PCV. He was diagnosed, tentatively, with IMHA. She prescribed Prednisone and he never received infusions. I fed him liver and gave him supplements for Iron Complex and Cobalequin (B12). He recovered about a month later: no remaining anemia. The rest of his bloodwork, even when anemic, seemed fine. He didn’t have any tick-borne illnesses.
Flash-forward to February 2026. I notice he started to try and eat the dirt again. He didn’t do that since the September anemia episode. I check his gums, and they’re paler than they should be. Back to the vet - now he’s at 30% PCV. Everything else looks normal - they did a full blood panel to monitor organ health, and everything is okay. She started him on Prednisone again, and she’s recommended me to an IMHA specialist. Tonight was the first night of Prednisone since September. I will have to leave for a job from mid-May to July, and I’m hoping I can get him on a low-dose steroid treatment plan while I’m away. He’ll be with my mother, so she won’t be able to get him into the car if he collapses (he never has, FYI). The vet said she is hesitant to put him on a longer dose of steroids thanks to the complications of being on them, but I don’t want him getting sick again (she claimed that stress could trigger IMHA, which may suggest that he became sick last summer because I left).
I’m very worried, although he seems to be doing okay for now (some minor clumsiness - she says I brought him in time).
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