Can dog vaccination or Ehrlichia cause IMHA? When should I retest?

Hi, thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! Sundance is very handsome! I would recommend calling your Vet to discuss this, since they are the ones that treated him for IMHA. If Sundance is in remission that is good. IMHA is an immune condition that can be initiated by antibiotics, vaccines, tick infections, etc. If an underlying cause wasn't found when he was originally diagnosed we call the Idiopathic IMHA or Autoimmune. Personally I would be very hesitant to continue vaccinations in a dog with an immune mediated disease. I think it is best to discuss with your Vet They may have an automatic computer system for their reminders and don't know they are sending you reminders. I hope this helps and I wish Sundance the best!

I'm very sorry for your loss. Adverse immune reactions, including IMHA, can be caused as a result of any vaccination (rabies tend to cause reactions more often than other vaccines though), it's generally not common but it is a possibility. it's not possible to prove it and it's also possible that it was a coincidence.

Thank you for submitting your question regarding Happy. I typically will not vaccinate a dog that has had a significant immune mediated disease such as IMHA. However, each case is different. Rabies is typically 100% fatal if a pet acquires it. So deciding to vaccinate also needs to consider Happy's risk factors for exposure. I hope this information helps!

Poor Chantilly, i am sure you are quite worried about her. If your girl has IMHA what this means is that her body is attacking and destroying her own red blood cells. If enough are lost it will make her anemic which can cause the symptoms you report. IMHA can arise without a cause (idiopathic) but many diseases can also cause it as well (secondary IMHA) and low red count is not always IMHA (low red count just means we need to find out where they went or if the body is not producing them). The safest plan would be to have her red count rechecked to see if this is contributing to her symptoms. Pets with IMHA are treated with pred typically but other meds can be used and some cases are more severe then others. I hope this helps and thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach!

I am sorry to hear about your loss and my thoughts are with you. Generalized edema could have been caused by a lack of albumin in blood due to albumin losing enteropathy from kidneys. This condition can be secondary to a kidney disease due to the infection disease (from ticks). I understand that the mechanism is not easy to understand but can lead to severe consequences. Anemia in Scooby case was not that severe and possibly another cause could have been present (as your veterinarian is suspecting). Unfortunately I do not think steroids could have helped much and modify clinical worsening. Please do not hesitate to contact us again on the forum or by requesting a consultation if you have any more questions or to discuss it any further.

Anemia should be ideally retested. At this stage, with the clinical informations you provided, is mild to moderate and could have been caused only by inflammation. I would recommend to retest the anemia when both the abscess is completely resolved and the course of treatment over. Please do not hesitate to contact us again on the forum or by requesting a consultation if you have any more questions or to discuss it any further.

Hello and thank you for your post! I am sorry to hear that Spock has ehrlichia. This disease is treatable and can be cured. However, you should know that the test most veterinary clinics use is a snap test to detect antibodies against ehrlichia. If you are going back in 3 weeks to have this same test performed, Spock will likely continue to show a positive result. This is because his body has made antibodies against ehrlichia. If he had a previous infection and ehrlichia is not causing any of these symptoms, he will still show positive on this SNAP test so if you are going in to have the same SNAP test performed I would have your veterinarian send out a tick fever PCR test to the laboratory. This will detect DNA to ehrlichia and not antibodies. If Spock is positive on the PCR, it means that he has a current active infection. If you do not know if Spock has ever had your licio previously, I would still treat this with Doxycycline for 4 to 6 weeks total treatment time. I hope this helps, please feel free to contact me with any further questions or concerns you may have. I am also available via consultation