Dog Owner IMHA Guide
Bringing your dog home after an IMHA diagnosis is a massive milestone but it represents the start of a critical care phase. This guide details daily clinical observations, medications, and warning flags.
🩸 Daily Home Vital Checks
Your veterinary surgeon relies on your daily home logs to catch shifts in blood levels early. These simple checks can help your veterinary team understand how your dog is doing at home twice every day at set times.
Check Gum colour & Texture
Lift your dog's upper lip. Gums should be a wet, bubblegum pink. If they look pale pink, porcelain white, greyish, or jaundiced (yellow tint), this is an immediate medical emergency. Gums should also feel slick and wet, not dry or tacky.
Monitor Urine colour & Output
When your dog urinates outdoors, try to catch the stream on a piece of white paper towel or in a clear plastic container. Healthy urine is yellow. Dark brown, orange, pink, or tea-coloured urine suggests red blood cell destruction is actively occurring inside the blood vessels.
Track Sleeping Breathing Rates
Count your dog's breaths for one minute while they are fully asleep. A healthy sleeping breathing rate is under 30 breaths per minute. Elevated rates (above 35) or visible effort/belly breathing can warn of anaemia relapse or blood clots in the lungs.
💊 Medication Rules & Schedule Care
IMHA medications are incredibly powerful. Managing them strictly and safely is your top daily duty.
- ✓ Never skip or adjust doses: Even if your dog seems perfectly healthy, stopping steroids abruptly can trigger a fatal relapse or severe endocrine shock. Only taper doses under direct veterinary guidance.
- ✓ Always give steroids with a meal: High-dose prednisone causes significant irritation to the stomach lining. Give it with a full meal, and notify your vet instantly if you spot dark, tarry stools or vomiting.
- ✓ Support blood thinners immediately: If your dog is on an antithrombotic (like Clopidogrel or Rivaroxaban), administer it at the exact same hour every day to prevent dangerous blood clots.
⚖️ Steroid Side Effects: What is Normal?
High-dose prednisone will drastically change your dog's behaviours. Knowing what to expect will help keep you calm and prepared.
Expected Side Effects
- • Intense thirst & hunger
- • Massive volume of urination
- • Rapid, dry panting
- • Muscle loss & pot-bellied look
- • Moderate behavioural changes
Abnormal & Concerning
- • Completely refusing food
- • Black, sticky or tarry stools
- • Severe vomiting or diarrhoea
- • Sudden weakness or collapse
- • Inability to settle or find comfort
This guide is strictly educational and designed to help you work closely with your veterinary surgeon. Do not use this tool to replace active clinical consults, change medication protocols, or ignore physical exams.
Daily Health Assessment
Input your dog's vitals now to receive an automated safety screening checklist based on standard recovery signs.
Enter your daily values above. This box will evaluate your results immediately.
🚨 Canine Emergency Red Flags
Call your veterinary practice or an emergency hospital immediately if you notice any of these signs:
- • Pale, blue, or porcelain white gums
- • Sleeping breathing rate above 35 for 2 continuous logs
- • Black, tarry, or bloody stools
- • Sudden collapse or severe weakness