Heart Like a Dog

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

One Step Forward – Two Steps Back

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I thought it might be a good time for a little update on Sampson’s CCL injury.

Since his partial tear on the 26th of January he’s been on restricted activity. Short, slow leash walks twice a day and no off-leash in the yard.

We started off with six minute walks and have worked ourselves up to 1-10 minute walk and 1-12 minute walk.

Four weeks ago we started on Hydrotherapy using the underwater treadmill. With the goal being to help build up some muscle and give him some strength and stability in that knee.

Except that hasn’t happened.

Instead he seems to take one step forward and two steps back.

After four weeks of Hydrotherapy there are still days when he won’t put any weight on his foot. Sometimes he puts his foot down, but his toes are just touching the floor. There are times when he holds his foot completely off the floor. And if he tries to move quickly, whether it’s in the house or on a walk, he holds that foot up and does a little three legged scoot.

With only one week of Physical Therapy left, it’s time to re-evaluate the situation.

I’ve been researching Conservative Management of CCL injuries and alternative treatment plans, so I felt it was time to speak to my vet and get her thoughts.

I shared all of the above with her and explained that eleven weeks post injury I’m not really happy with his progress. I shared my concerns with him not putting any weight on his foot in the house but using it outside and she feels like he might be afraid of slipping, so she gave me the suggestion of some things we could do to help him feel more confident. Once I make a decision as to what we will be using I will share that here with you.

I told her he was starting his fifth week of the Hydrotherapy and the final week of the package I had purchased. At this point I am wondering should I purchase another $500 Physical Therapy package or is my money better spent on something else.

She feels it’s time to try something different.

One the treatments we will be considering is Platlet Rich Plasma Therapy and the other one is IRAP (which has been used with great success for horses.) Dr. Soutter gave me the name of two different veterinarians, so in the next couple of days I’ll be making some phone calls and seeing if I can schedule Sampson for some consults.

In the meantime, he will finish out his Hydrotherapy and I will continue with his short, slow walks.

You ain't nothin' but a hound dog if you keep giving me short, slow walks!

You ain’t nothin’ but a hound dog if you keep giving me short, slow walks!

I’d love to hear any experiences any of you have had with conservative treatment of CCL injuries, also if you’ve heard or used either Platelet Rich Plasma Therapy or IRAP I’d appreciate hearing about that as well.

Making Sure Your Dog’s #TummyWorks

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This post is sponsored by Finest for Pets. I’ve been compensated for sharing my opinion about their new product, TummyWorks. Please note, while I have been compensated, Heart Like a Dog only shares products we feel are relevant to our readership and would never recommend a product we do not use ourselves.

TummyWorks

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again, “I believe the gut is the root of all evil in the body.”

I know it is for me. When I eat something that’s not right for my body, I definitely know it. For instance when I eat wheat (a food I have an allergy to) I am left with a very bloated feeling and often time end up with hives. When my body is overwhelmed dealing with the reactions to the food, it doesn’t function at the capacity it should.

I believe it is the same with dogs. When your dog eats something and vomits, you watch to make sure it doesn’t happen again, and if it does, you eliminate that food from their diet. But what if your dog is experiencing symptoms that are not quite that severe? We all know how stoic dogs are, it’s possible your dog could be having some gastric distress. If they aren’t showing it, you may never know that something is not agreeing with them.

When you have a dog like Delilah who will scarf down any and everything, it’s hard to know what may or may not be bothering her.

When Delilah was diagnosed with elevated liver levels back in 2014, I made some changes in our lifestyle to help reduce stress on her liver. After all, the liver’s job is to remove toxins from the body. In this ever growing world of chemicals, it’s easy to see how a liver could get overwhelmed.

Some of the things I’ve done is using more natural products in our home for cleaning purposes, reducing toxins I put on her body (we go natural with our flea and tick preventions) feeding treats with limited ingredients.

The other thing I’ve done, is added a good multi-vitamin and a probiotic to their diet. I firmly believe it’s a great thing to add a probiotic to just about any diet, human or canine.

Probiotics are one of those supplements where you don’t necessarily SEE the benefit, because it’s busy doing its job on the inside. Of course if your dog is having diarrhea or vomiting (or they’re super gassy) that’s a totally different story. In that instance, you should be able to SEE (and smell) the results.

The thing I’ve discovered about probiotics is, they can often times be pretty pricey.

When my friend Steve over at Finest for Pets asked me if I’d review his newest addition to this pet line, I jumped at the chance. TummyWorks is a premium probiotic and digestive enzyme.

Some of the benefits that Tummyworks provides is

  • Relieves Diarrhea, Gas and Bad Breath
  • Helps to reduce Shedding, Itching and Hot Spots
  • Optimizes Digestion
  • Improves Health and Energy and Boosts the Immune system.

As you can see, TummyWorks has a number of great benefits. Besides helping regulate the good bacteria in your pet’s guts, (Bonus, it’s not just for dogs, it’s for cats too!) it’s helping to boost their immune systems. Think about it, when your immune system isn’t strong, it’s harder to fight off illness and injury.

Which is why with Delilah’s liver issues and Sampson’s adrenal/ACL issues, it’s important to me that their immune systems are as strong as possible.

The container of Tummyworks should last a dog Sampson or Delilah’s size two months; at the cost of $28 a container, that’s a good investment (in my opinion.) Of course, with both my guys on it, it will only last a month, but still a good value in my eyes.

When I first got the container I admit I sort of freaked out. The recommended dosage is 2 scoops per day, I thought, dear lord, I’ll be through this in a week. BUT the scoop is tiny, oh so tiny.

It can’t taste bad either because I sprinkle it on their meals twice per day and both dogs eat it up with no issues and lick their bowls clean.

TummyWorks Probiotic Okay, Delilah might NOT be the best example to use here, because as I said, she’ll scarf down anything.  Sampson however, is very picky. There have been supplements I’ve used on him, and I’ve stood and watched as he’s eaten around them. When he had his ACL surgery we had a wrestling match because I was trying to get him to eat a peanut butter covered pain pill. And he KNEW it.

Yes, he’s that dog.

Frustrating. As. Hell.

But lovable, OH SO lovable.

But lovable, OH SO lovable.

I only have one tiny issue with TummyWorks…it’s that tiny scoop. Not that I want a bigger scoop mind you, just that in transit the scoop kind of got buried in the container. (I told you it was tiny.) My suggestion to Steve would be to see if the scoop could either be taped on the container, or secured in some manner. That’s it, that’s my only complaint.

So….Do you know a dog that could benefit from using a probiotic? Yes? Good! We are super excited to be sharing TummyWorks with you and Steve at Finest for Pets has generously offered to let us share some with our readers.

Giveaway Rules: We will be giving away five (5) containers of Tummyworks. The contest runs from 12:01 AM March 1, 2016 until 11:59 PM March 8th. All times are Eastern Standard Time. Winner will be announced Thursday, March 10, 2016 (if I remember.) E-mail addresses will be forwarded to sponsor and winners will be contacted by sponsor directly. If a winner fails to respond within three days, it is the sponsor’s discretion to request an alternate winner. Contest is open to persons located in the US. (Sorry international friends.)  Winner will be chosen by Random.org Contest rules are set by Heart Like a Dog Blog. 

Phew, that’s a lot of bullshit if you ask me, but I have to lay some ground rules.  OKAY, finally we can get to the contest.

Leave me a comment and let me know your interested in entering. Tell me which of your pets will benefit the most from using TummyWorks.  Bonus entry if you share this on Facebook and tag Heart Like a Dog in the post(verification required.)

This post contains affiliate links. If you order from Amazon by clicking on a link, we may receive a small commission. 

 

Where We Are – Barks and Bytes

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On January 19th at an exam to remove a dead tooth, our vet discovered that Sampson had a heart murmur and an irregular heartbeat. Subsequent X-rays and Ultrasounds could not determine the cause of the irregular heartbeat, but they did find a nodule/mass on one of his adrenal glands. We were told the nodule/mass could be benign or something sinister. The recommendation was to recheck the adrenal in 1 to 2 months.

To compound the situation, a week later Sampson did a partial tear on his ‘good’ leg. I say, ‘good’ because to me it seemed like he never really walked well after that ACL surgery. In fact, I’m not entirely convinced his poor recovery from surgery didn’t aid in the partial tearing in the other leg, but I’m not a vet. Many, many dogs have ACL tears and surgery for repairs and recover well. Sampson just wasn’t one of them.

We did a lot of soul searching about how we were going to treat Sampson. The two major issues for us were the nodule/mass on the adrenal and the ACL tear.

Of course the heart issues are concerning, but the murmur is faint and the irregularity in the heartbeat is mild, so our focus turned to the other issues.

We decided not to do surgery on the ACL. First, we aren’t even sure they can DO surgery because of the irregular heartbeat and second, based on his experience with the first ACL surgery, well it’s just not something we want to put him through again.

We have a good plan in place to treat it conservatively. Some traditional medications, along with some supplements, acupuncture, short slow walks and physical therapy.

We made our decision based on his age, his previous experience with surgery and we also considered what was going on with that adrenal.

Speaking of the adrenal…

The treatment for a malignant mass on the adrenal is to remove it. From what my vet said, the only way to tell if it is cancerous is to remove it.

Hubby and I decided we didn’t want to put Sampson through abdominal surgery at his age, especially if it wasn’t going to significantly extend his life. Our thought process is, if this is the beginning of the end for Sampson, we don’t want his days to be filled with tests, treatments, missed meals and days away from home. We want his time left with us to be spent keeping his life as normal as possible.

Golden Lab

Missed meals and tests? That doesn’t sound appealing to me.

After many, many telephone consultations with the team of veterinarians at our clinic, we rescheduled his ultrasound for yesterday.

I’m going to tell you something here and some of you may laugh, and that’s okay. I’ve said it before, we are all on our own journey and we all have our own beliefs. If you don’t agree with mine, I’m okay with that.

So here it is.

I prayed over Sampson. I placed one hand on his stomach and I had one hand open and raised and I prayed for healing. While I was doing, I heard very clearly in my mind, “The adrenal is healed.” I said thank you and considered it a done deal.

I told the vet techs this story yesterday and told them they were going to be surprised when they saw the results of the ultrasound.

When I spoke to our vet yesterday afternoon she told me the nodule/mass hadn’t changed, and that the ultrasoundographer didn’t find anything alarming on the ultrasound.

I believe I pounded the roof of my car and said, “Yes, yes! I knew it.”

Then she told me, the next thing would be a blood test that could check for cancer. I then told her what Hubby and I had decided and that I didn’t think we’d be doing that test.

Yes, it might be the best $100 we ever spent if it ruled out cancer, but if it didn’t, I know I’d obsess over it and I’d be stressed, which in turn would make Sampson stressed, and that’s not beneficial to anyone, especially if we are not going to treat it anyway. Besides, you know if you dig long and far enough, you’re bound to find something!

I told her if that opinion changed after I talked to the Hubs, I’d let her know.

I talked to Hubby and we are both in agreement. We will not be pursuing the adrenal.

So that’s where we’re at. We will be working on helping Sampson heal his ACL tear conservatively and not be worrying about that adrenal gland.

Disclaimer:  I am not a veterinarian, the decisions we have made are made after much soul searching, and consultations with our Vet team. If you are facing decisions regarding your pet, you should consult your own Veterinarian.

All that being said, I have stayed at the Holiday Inn a number of times and can highly recommend them.

 

Heart Like a Dog

Welcome to Thursday’s Barks and Bytes Blog hop hosted by 2 Brown Dawgs and Heart Like a Dog. We hope you will grab a badge from one of our websites and join us.


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