autoimmune hemolytic anemia

My dog is being treated for Aiha. He has had it for 8 weeks and are now looking at a Predisolone reduction this week. His RBC was 5.5  last week. He is currently on 10 mg twice daily. The vet wants him to go down to 10mg per day as from wednesday. Do you think this is too much of a reduction and when we reduce does he only have one lot of medication per day or is it still divided into 2?

[Aleda M Cheng, D.V.M., C.V.A]

Prednisone or prednisolone can be given once per day usually without difficulty.  Dropping the dose in half is fine as long as your veterinarian will be monitoring his blood work diligently.  If there is a decrease in RBC's your vet will know quickly and rectify it immediately by increasing the prednisolone dose.  I am sure that your veterinarian is concerned about prednisolone side effects and is trying to get the prednisolone dose down to the lowest effective dose.  There is a valuable Chinese herb that might help your dog.  You could run it by your veterinarian as an adjunct to prednisolone.  It is called Yunan Biao (or sometimes spelled Yunan Biyao and other spellings). Good Luck!

[jaxa270]

My dog is being treated for Aiha. He has had it for 8 weeks and are now looking at a Predisolone reduction this week. His RBC was 5.5  last week on his last blood work. He is currently on 10 mg twice daily. The vet wants him to go down to 10mg per day as from Wednesday.
Do you think this is too much of a reduction as I have read that it should be reduced by 25%.
When we reduce does he only have one lot of medication per day or is it still divided into 2?

I am fearful of a relapse.