The Shar-Pei Forums-Health Behavior Diet & Rescue Info and Discussion Group

I posted a new blog on my current thoughts on treating FSF/A, colchicine and supplements: http://www.hyvitality.com/blogs/news

Thanks. ~ Linda

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Linda Tintle DVM
http://www.wvc.vetsuite.com

Thank you for the updated blog and answering some questions.

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http://groups.yahoo.com/group/shar-peifsf

I was not ignoring your questions... I needed to think about the complicated response before I offered you and the Forum some explanation.
Thanks Sandra. ~ Linda

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Linda Tintle DVM
http://www.wvc.vetsuite.com

I have learned over the yr's I will get answers..Sometimes it takes a while..I do know your stretched to the max especially with all the new research.
The one thing with Pei each time you find an answer it brings more and more questions.

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http://groups.yahoo.com/group/shar-peifsf

Dr. T, as always we look forward to your posts, it's such a help to us shar pei lovers to have as much knowledge as possible. thank you for helping us help our peibies i will be keeping this info handy.

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dr.t. i always wonder if what im giving lola is right for her, after reading this post i feel much better. lola is getting exactly what kiwi is getting, and knock on wood so far no fever. i feel much better now giving this preventative medacine to lola
thank you so much.

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Lola and Jenuine

I do have a question re: colchicine..........what if a pei can't handle it?
Murphi had one weak stomach granted he's no longer here but he can't be the only dog with that weak of a stomach

Thank you so much Dr Tintle for all the information .... I don't know what I'd do without you!

I hope you won't mind my asking a question which I'm sure not only affects me but other Pei owners living in Continental Europe?

Because of strict customs regulations I can't obtain HyVitality and I've tried to compile a list of alternatives.

M'boi is just 2 years old and to date hasn't had any health issues, but obviously there's no guarantee she'll remain healthy in the future. She's not given any commercial dog food but is fed a 100% home cooked diet instead with added supplements such as glucosamine, probiotics, vitamins etc, but I worry in case I've missed something out.

Would it be possible, when you have time, to post a list of what you consider is essential in keeping a Pei healthy because I think it would be a great help for owners like me who can't buy HyVitality?

Many thanks
Barbara

The "weak stomach" is often a manifestation of inflammatory bowel disease. Sometimes we are better able to control the inflammation with things like diet, tylosin, cobalamin (B12) and sometimes prednisolone. If I can get their IBD better controlled, I can sometimes get them onto colchicine. In some cases though, they cannot tolerate the drug without unacceptable side-effects (diarrhea). In that case we look at what systems are most affected by their chronic inflammation and try to make them as healthy as possible. I included the bromelain with Kiwi because she has an old neck injury that causes her a great deal of pain and I hoped it would help with her musculoskeletal problem and some Forum members here report that it helps their dogs.

As for what to do if you live in a country that bars importation of HyVitality like Australia or some parts of eastern Europe? I picked the ingredients for specific reasons and you can try to cobble it together from the individual elements like I did before having it manufactured all together. If you cannot find the individual ingredients, the most important factors are including a source of multiple antioxidants (you need several - Vitamin C, alpha lipoic acid, mixed tocopherols, etc.), Vitamin B12, magnesium and anti-inflammatory phytochemicals (curcumin, etc.). There is a good description of the ingredients here:
http://www.hyvitality.com/pages/why-hyvitality

~ Linda

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Linda Tintle DVM
http://www.wvc.vetsuite.com

Thank you for the usefull post regarding the Fsf. I want to ask you some questions regarding fsf.

My female pei ( Soko) is suffering from constant fevers up to 104. She is on Colchicine every day
for approximate one year now. She is taking 3 quarters of the pill. I also give her vitamin c
and Salmone oil (protein free). Can i give her something else as a prevention to the fevers?
She needs to take more Colchicine or it is enough? She does blood and urine tests every 6
months and her liver, kidneys are all good for the moment!

Your reply will be highly appreciated! Thanking you in advance!

Irene, read through my monograph here: http://www.wvc.vetsuite.com/Templates/C ... 9b55742691

Particularly the second half on addressing hyaluronosis. There are 12 points to consider to maximize their health. I have shipped HyVitality to Greece so that is one option for you.

Have you tried increasing the colchicine to twice daily? I do think it works best when given every 12 hrs if they can tolerate it and most do.

~ Linda

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Linda Tintle DVM
http://www.wvc.vetsuite.com

Thank you again! No i haven't. She is on Colchicine once a day as on our vet's instruction.
I will read your post. If i give her the hyvitality pills should she quits the vitamin c and the salmone oil?

No, when you read the monograph you will see that I do recommend giving Vitamin C and fish oil along with the HyV and colchicine.

Give a copy of the suggestions to your veterinarian (I hope they can read English.) and perhaps they will approve the increased dose. ~ Linda

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Linda Tintle DVM
http://www.wvc.vetsuite.com

Even if they have FSF, with treatments and supplements it is hoped that they will have longer higher quality lives . Thak You Dr T for all you do

Yes he can read English! I will give him your monograph which is very helpful!

Dr. T, I'm curious to know if you've seen amyloidosis in other breeds, i've heard akitas, siamese cats, and abysynnian cats are more at risk,and even humans. i've read about meditterranian fever in people and it is very similar to FSF. I would buy Hyvitality in a heartbeat if Sabrina was not in end stage kidney failure we cant thank you enough, for all you do.

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Amyloidosis is very uncommon in dogs and people. It does occur in the breeds you describe but far less commonly than in Shar-Pei. Just like most veterinarians only treat a couple Shar-Pei, I do not see large populations of those breeds. I did treat an Abyssinian cat with amyloidosis many years ago and have seen it in a couple old dogs. When many pets are diagnosed with end-stage renal failure in their old age, we manage their symptoms and usually do not get a definitive diagnosis. A definitive diagnosis of amyloidosis is made by biopsy or at post-mortem exam of tissues so the known overall incidence is primarily determined by those dogs examined at veterinary colleges, not private practice.

Amyloidosis in Shar-Pei was brought to the attention of Dr. Stephen DiBartola at Ohio State's Veterinary College when breeders were trying to find out why they were losing young Shar-Pei to kidney disease. He had written the definitive paper on amyloidosis in Abyssinian cats and was able to describe the familial amyloidosis in Shar-Pei in the first scientific paper and was the first to suggest that it had many similarities to FMF in people, including remarking on its association with periodic fever disorder.

And I am developing a HyV formula for senior/renal dogs that does not contain the high levels of magnesium that younger Shar-Pei need so watch for that

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Linda Tintle DVM
http://www.wvc.vetsuite.com

Amyloidosis is frequent in rheumatic disease and Alzheimers. I believe there is an article on beagles and amyloidosis.

lita

Amyloidosis is a possible but uncommon long term sequellae to any chronic inflammatory process in some individuals. Defects in innate immunity can lead to it having heritable components. There was a paper published about a familial amyloidosis in Beagles many years ago but I have not heard anything more about it since then and have never seen it in my Beagle patients (we see a lot of beagle hunting dogs and pets) so I do not believe it was widespread.

The amyloid protein in Alzheimer's is beta amyloid so slightly different but they are both associated with inflammatory dysregulation. Rheumatoid arthritis is associated with the same reactive systemic AA amyloid fibers.

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Linda Tintle DVM
http://www.wvc.vetsuite.com

I had been wondering if there were any similarities between the Amyloid deposits pei suffer and the Amyloid linked with Alzheimer's.

I recently watched a documentary on an Australian Professor researching Alzheimer's. He was using Testosterone to reduce the production of Amyloid in Alzheimer's patients.

Another interesting thing was they showed the use of a brain scanning machine that was able to give an image of the brain showing detail of the extent Amyloid in the brain.

I was wondering how different the two Amyloid's were and if either of these two options could benefit our pei?

Would love to here your take on these Linda?

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Alzheimer's is due to the abnormal accumulation by beta amyloid in the brain and Shar-Pei have been shown to have reactive systemic amyloidosis because of abnormal accumulation of a different amyloid protein called amyloid A. They are similar but completely different diseases.

There are researchers working with PET scanning and other techniques to try to diagnose amyloidosis non-invasively but there are currently no diagnostic tools except biopsy and histopathology available to us.

I follow the beta amyloid research in Alzheimer's because of the similarities but Alzheimer's and the reactive systemic amyloidosis of Shar-Pei develop through different pathologic processes. There are actually many different types of amyloidosis. Patients with myeloma, for example, are at risk for immunoglobulin light chain AL amyloidosis and there are others caused by rare diseases like Huntington's in humans. Shar-Pei have deposition of amyloidogenic fragments of the acute phase reactant protein serum amyloid A from chronic inflammation that lead to their disease.

Amyloidosis means abnormal accumulation of an extracellular, proteinaceous deposit exhibiting beta pleated sheet structure. They share a characteristic ability to be stained with Congo Red.

~ Linda

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Linda Tintle DVM
http://www.wvc.vetsuite.com