Posted By Gerean (Ashland, Oregon, United States) on 03/26/2011
To Earthclinic and to Ted~
A family pet, an Akita has been diagnosed by a vet practitioner and a vet eye specialist with VKH. VKH is a human disease that can affect dogs. In research, I read that many interchange the terms VKH and Uveodermatologic Syndrome.
Our dog's prognosis from the vet is that there is no cure and no effective treatment other than high doses of steroids, which will eventually deteriorate the dog's health. Those we have consulted urge us to put the dog down as there is a high probability that the dog will suffer blindness and severe pain.
My question to anyone and especially to Ted: Is there any known alternative treatment for VKH in dogs? We would choose an alternative IF, we believed there was a chance of prolonging the dog's life and maintaining his level of comfort at the same time.
Thank you all for this wonderful forum. I have tried many of the remedies with great success and continually refer others to Earthclinic.
Gerean, Ashland, Oregon, USA
Replied by Berlynda (Kingston, Ontario) on 03/25/2012
I am living with a vkh Akita she is 6 now was diagnosed nov1 2011. We have been through hell and back but we are still fighting. Here is what I do- her symptoms came on so fast our heads were spinning. We did all the chemo therapy we lowered her immune system I did it all and it was getting way to costly. So I went back to my regular vet said I can't afford this here is what I'm giving her. We dropped her meds dramatically but slowly. From 200mg prednisone 2 100mg then 50mg now 25mg every other day. For the day she doesn't get pred she gets 50 kg of metcam. 3 times a day she gets timoptic in each eye. And because we have had a flair up with 1 eye getting infected she is on (only) for flare ups 1BNP eye ointment every 4hr. Just like having a baby. Now what we did to bring her immune system around to almost normal we gave her 1 tbl spoon of activia to bring the normal bacteria back to her stomach. I have brought her eyes back around again that she can see shadows and I can live with that or even if she is totally blind as that is where she is headed. But I refuse to remove her eyes if it means disrupting my sleep not the end of the world. And the only reason I don't put her down is because she still is fighting with me and still tries to chase the cat lol. Don't move your furniture around as they do get use to it so I know sometimes she is in pain but she still wants to fight so this is why I'm still fighting with her. If vet tells me we give up well I trust my vet and ill go on her advice. Hope this helps a little if you want more detail on working with your vkh dog you can email me. I'm still myself looking for a cure. We just had another flare up on her same eye but I started 7am with ointment and I wash her eye and have it almost back to where it was comfortable for her. Ty for reading this as if I can help im here for you. Berlynda.
Replied by Brianna (Gainesville, Fl) on 04/06/2012
Hey there, I don't know how well this will help but I am a vet student actually living with VKH myself. And I will tell you that steroids help my outbreaks, but what helps even more is constant exercise, taking my vitamins (esp C for my weakened immune system), and supplementing constant low dose steroids with immune suppressants. This way, my immune system cannot attack my eyes, ears, skin, or brain and I also am not causing further damage to my body with long term high-dose steroid use. Hope that helps!
Brianna
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