Over Active Immune System:
Auto immune or immune mediated diseases are those diseases where the immune systems has malfunctioned and is attacking its own body. The immune system is too sensitive, it's hyperactive, it is responding to things inappropriately.
In the case of most of these diseases, the immune system has wrongly tagged the body's cells with an antigen tag that labels it as a foreign invader. Normally these antigen tags are a good thing. In a normal immune system when a virus, bacteria, or other foreign organism invades for the first time the immune system has to first recognize the organism as being harmful. Once the immune system establishes this, it remembers the organism by creating an antibody (a type of protein in the blood) specifically for the antigen so the next time the antibody runs into the antigen, the immune system can respond quicker and better.
The immune system catalogs the antigens with the corresponding antibodies. The more antibodies for a specific disease floating in the blood stream, the easier it is to find that invading antigens. These are measured with antibody titer levels. The higher the titer, the more the immune system can patrol the body. Think of the antibodies as police, if there are more cops on the beat, crime goes down. But, if there aren't enough police officers, bad things can spread quickly and invade the surrounding neighborhoods.
If the body incorrectly tags a cell within its own body as being bad, then the immune system produces more antibodies for these 'invaders' and more of the body's normal cells are attacked.
What can we do to stop the body attacking it's own cells? We suppress the immune system. A suppressed immune system means it is sluggish to work, or it doesn't respond at all to antigens. In order to do this we used certain medications.
Be aware that close monitoring of your pets blood is required during the initial phase of treatment, and it is very common for doses to change frequently. We highly recommend using a spread sheet to keep track of medications to help prevent missing or doubling doses. We have created a weekly medication tracker that you can receive free from us just for joining the newsletter. Click here to sign up and receive your copy of the weekly medication tracker.
A pill dispenser can also be very helpful to make sure nothing gets missed. Filling the dispenser once a week can save time throughout your week, and keep you sane.
In the case of most of these diseases, the immune system has wrongly tagged the body's cells with an antigen tag that labels it as a foreign invader. Normally these antigen tags are a good thing. In a normal immune system when a virus, bacteria, or other foreign organism invades for the first time the immune system has to first recognize the organism as being harmful. Once the immune system establishes this, it remembers the organism by creating an antibody (a type of protein in the blood) specifically for the antigen so the next time the antibody runs into the antigen, the immune system can respond quicker and better.
The immune system catalogs the antigens with the corresponding antibodies. The more antibodies for a specific disease floating in the blood stream, the easier it is to find that invading antigens. These are measured with antibody titer levels. The higher the titer, the more the immune system can patrol the body. Think of the antibodies as police, if there are more cops on the beat, crime goes down. But, if there aren't enough police officers, bad things can spread quickly and invade the surrounding neighborhoods.
If the body incorrectly tags a cell within its own body as being bad, then the immune system produces more antibodies for these 'invaders' and more of the body's normal cells are attacked.
What can we do to stop the body attacking it's own cells? We suppress the immune system. A suppressed immune system means it is sluggish to work, or it doesn't respond at all to antigens. In order to do this we used certain medications.
Be aware that close monitoring of your pets blood is required during the initial phase of treatment, and it is very common for doses to change frequently. We highly recommend using a spread sheet to keep track of medications to help prevent missing or doubling doses. We have created a weekly medication tracker that you can receive free from us just for joining the newsletter. Click here to sign up and receive your copy of the weekly medication tracker.
A pill dispenser can also be very helpful to make sure nothing gets missed. Filling the dispenser once a week can save time throughout your week, and keep you sane.
If you are looking for specific autoimmune blood disorders such as Immune Mediated Hemolytic Anemia (IMHA) also known as Autoimmune Hemolytic Anemia (AIHA), Immune Mediated Thrombocytopenia (IMTP), Evans Syndrome, or Immune Mediated Neutropenia (IMN) we recommend going to the hematology section of the website for more information. Click here to find that info.
Looking for specific information about Immune Mediated Polyarthritis (IMPA)? Check out the IMPA page for more information.
This page is still under construction. Please visit again soon!
Last updated 3/2019
Last updated 3/2019
