Heart Like a Dog

The Good, the Bad, and the Oh My God of living with dogs!

Level With Me

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For the most part I try and find the humor in the situations I find myself in.  With these two dogs, you sort of have to. 🙂  

Who us?

Who you calling senior?

But sometimes we have to talk about some serious issues.  After all both of my dogs are considered seniors.

You may recall last June when Delilah had pre dental blood work we discovered she had slightly elevated liver levels. Since then we’ve tried a number of different supplements, and treatments to bring those liver levels down, but with no luck.  My vet wants to do a liver biopsy and I’m really not comfortable with this.

Jodi Chick recommended Dr. Peter Dobias, a holistic vet in Canada.  Jodi swears by Dr. Dobias’ liver cleanse.  I e-mailed Dr. Dobias and was thrilled when he responded to me.  He suggested a liver cleanse for Delilah and to continue her on the supplements she is on.

Naturally I wanted to run it by one of the vets in my practice.  I spent a good 20 minutes talking it through with Dr. Atz.

This may sound weird, but my gut is telling me, the whole issue with the elevated livers is in Delilah’s gut.

Think about, this dog eats anything.   For heaven’s sake, Sunday she ate dog shit!

When I shared my theory with Dr. Atz he agreed.  I said I just picked up The Microbiome Diet and the premise is a good portion of disease begins in the gut.  And do you know what my vet said?  He said, “I agree, the gut is the root of all evil.”

So then I ran my idea by him.

My plan is to do a liver cleanse with Delilah and then add in a good probiotic and a good multi-vitamin.

Typically when a dog is diagnosed with elevated liver levels, the levels are quite high.  Often times in the 800 range.  Delilah’s are currently under 300.  As of this writing, Delilah has no symptoms of liver disease.  In fact, as Dr. Atz reminded me we wouldn’t even know there was an issue going on if we hadn’t had the pre dental blood work run.  Dr. Atz and I agree, this gives us time for experimenting.  

Because we feed raw, I try to keep the dog’s treats grain free, but that doesn’t mean we don’t slide occasionally.  Since I have been diagnosed with food allergies, it’s crossed my mind perhaps Delilah may have them as well.  I’m going to be very strict about the treats she gets and do my best to control what goes in her mouth.

Do any of you have experience with food allergies and how would I go about having her checked for them?  For me it was a simple blood test.  Can it really be that simple with dogs too?

Good Morning Monday!

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You may recall we’ve been treating Sampson for a lick granuloma.

He had one last year in October and then this spring he got another one on the same paw.  We treated it in the spring but I don’t think it really went away.  You can read more about that go round here.

Our vet recommended a 20 day course of antibiotics (Clindamycin 300 mg twice a day,) a 27 day course of nerve blocker (Gabatentin 200 mg twice a day) and 6 cold laser treatments, with a re-check in three weeks.

Meanwhile the holistic vet added some liver detox drops, some skin drops and a Super Probiotic to his diet.  He is still taking all three of these.

Let me tell you, this boy did not mind the cold laser treatments at all!   The first visit the vet techs tag teamed him.

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One to do the treatment and the other to feed him noms.

9-15-13 002 I don’t mind this as long as this guy keeps feeding me noms.

A close-up of the boo boo while he was being treated.

This photo was taken the very first laser treatment, you can see how he’s licked it raw and it’s gotten infected.

After that first treatment, they discovered what a good boy Sampson is and that he’s perfectly fine with me in the room feeding him noms.

The fact that they allowed me in the room made me super happy.  The first appointment took place the day we went in to have his paw looked at. The day of the 2nd laser treatment I heard on the news of a man who was arrested for abusing animals at the shelter he worked for.  I worked myself into a fine tizzy worried about bringing Sampson in and having to leave him while he was treated out of my sight.

I know, I know.  I trust my Vet’s office, I really do, but there’s always that little wondering voice that makes me doubt.  I can never be too careful when it comes to the care and well-being of my pups.

Anyhoo, Sampson finished the laser treatments about two weeks ago, he finished the antibiotic last Monday and he’s scheduled to finish the nerve blocker tonight.

Our vet checked him out last Tuesday and was so pleased with the way his paw looks.

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 You can see that the fur is growing back and you can tell that he hasn’t been licking at it.  My vet says he may need to remain on the nerve blocker for a while and that it is a perfectly safe drug.

This morning I noticed he was limping. On that paw.

Good morning Monday!

Our Appointment with the Holistic Vet

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Ever since Sampson injured his paw last fall, he’s been on and off with the licking.  About six weeks ago I noticed he had licked so much it was almost bleeding.

I cleaned it, and put some Vetericyn on it and wrapped it with vet tape.  It kept him from making it bleed.

Whoo Hoo, we can stop him from licking it, but I still wanted to know why he was licking, so we scheduled an appointment with the holistic vet.

The holistic vet we use is based out of Massachusetts, about an hour away but he makes house calls.  Our friend has him see her dogs every three months, so Friday he came to our house.

I put the dogs on the porch so we could chat first. Once he had a clear idea of what was going on, I let them in.  He was thrilled to see Delilah and was ecstatic at the weight that both dogs had lost.

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IMG_4656 Then he got down to the business of examining Sampson.

IMG_4660 The treatment performed on Friday, acupuncture.  One in the head.

Paw One in the paw and one in the chest (no picture.)

IMG_4657 The big cheese ball ate it up.

Since Dr..Landau does not carry a full supply of herbs, he’ll be sending the recommended supplements in the mail.  The official diagnosis is a toxin build up in the liver and some seasonal allergies.  If memory serves me right, the liver is not helping with the seasonal allergies.  The supplements should help the liver detox and help Sampson’s system deal with the allergies so his skin doesn’t get as irritated.

Dr. Landau will be back in the area in July and I may schedule a follow-up, just to be certain Sampson is healing the way he is supposed to.

Dr. Landau also does phone consults and can manage your pets health by mailing herbs and supplements so if you’re interested in giving holistic a try, why not check out his website?  All the information you need is right there, and if you start ready testimonies, you’ll see my friend’s dog, Lily right on the front page.

What do you think? Would you consider a holistic vet for your pet’s health needs or do you go with traditional medicine? Do you like the idea of your pet being treated in your own home?

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