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- Sassy – New thread
She has actually never taken Atopic, we went with Pred and Azathioprine treatment. Since this all started shortly after she got sick, I was strongly thinking it was one of those two drugs. Antibiotics were there for a while, but she has been off all of those for so long. Pred off for over a month now. She is just on Aza and Famotidine. I seriously wonder if it is the Aza! She got sick in March, and I started noticing weird looking skin on her elbows in April. The nose started around the same time. That went away, and her paws started getting rough in May. I thought it was just dry skin. But eventually it started looking feathered, like pictured. It’s been at that state since about July. She was on 50mg Aza for a few months, and we have been reducing 25% every two weeks for the last month or so.
I actually have that BPO shampoo already from her previous skin infections, and I do like it. I ordered the one you mentioned too. I was thinking I’d soap her feet in the new one, and use the bpo elsewhere.
I read about propylene and was hesitant to use that also. So far I’ve used 100% organic unrefined coconut oil & aleo vera I had on hand and it does seem to help a bit. Shes not much of a licker so it stays put too.
Okay, fish oil capsules. I can look into getting those. Is there a reasonably priced brand you (or anyone else!) would recommend? She is currently 78lbs.
:) Thanks again Patrice!
Hi Alyssa, I’m new to this website and I started reading this thread because of how you described your emotional experience of not enjoying your dog as much, fearing a relapse, etc. It was, in a weird way, good for me to see this because I thought I was going crazy since I was having similar thoughts and feelings. I’m on a roller coaster right now. One minute (usually after reading posts on this site) I’m feeling super optimistic and hyped that Dean is going to beat this, the next minute I’m overwhelmed with a sense of impending doom and end up sobbing. Just this morning I was filled with rage, wanted to break things (I didn’t) and even chewed out a poor old lady working at the Wal-Mart pharmacy counter because she was having computer problems and couldn’t ring up my allergy medicine. I felt awful and the hardest part of this for me is that I’m a therapist! I teach people skills all day long to regulate their emotions, manage anger, develop skills to bring them out of depression… Long story short, I’m happy to hear about Sassy’s story and your experience as her owner.
Alyssa, the benefit of fish oil is that it’s cheap as. Get one that’s meant for people. Make sure it’s not cod liver oil though. Just your basic fish oil.
The stuff at the dogaware site is great. There’s a link here-
https://www.secondchanceaihadogs.com/nutrition-resources/
It the 4th one on the page – Click on that and have a read about fish oil.
I’m also a fan of coconut oil. Start with a little amount. Dr Dodds has written about it and I also wrote to her specifically as I was concerned with Bingo’s blood results a while back and was querying whether the coconut oil could be a problem – I didn’t want to drop it as I’ve read on her site that it’s good for senior dog’s brain function. She wrote back and suggested the problem was most likely his cartrophen injections and to keep on with the coconut oil. Incidentally, Bingo had his liver enzymes tested this week, and having stopped the cartrophen injections for now and kept on with the coconut oil, his liver enzymes have finally started coming down again. She’s a clever lady our Dr Dodds. Go into the Homopet Resources and search through the education section about coconut oil.
https://www.secondchanceaihadogs.com/hemopetresources/
Amber, I’ve never felt so terrified as I did with Bingo’s illness, and it leaves a scar even now that he’s doing great. We all totally get your rage and despair. I don’t think anyone else really does. This will make you an even better therapist, I’m sure.
Vally & Bingo
xxx
Amber,
I’m so sorry you are going through this. I think that we all have. I really did have to step back eventually and make myself just stop, do some soul searching. I was laying down around 1 AM and then staying up on my phone until 5-7AM reading story after story on different websites of peoples journey with this awful illness.
Anything I could find, I would read. I would fill with hope then crash over and over again, reading those stories. You need to read some, there is valuable information you must gather, but it reached a point where I wasn’t learning anything new and just putting myself in a constant state of limbo where I wasn’t being happy that Sassy was with me at all, I was just 100% focused on her illness and not her.
I just kept thinking she’s going to relapse tomorrow, etc. So I stopped cold-turkey and only saught out things when I needed to know something, and left all groups I was participating in except for this one (in my opinion, the ladies here are much more optimistic and encouraging/knowledable than I encountered in most other places, that’s not to say they weren’t good groups, I just experienced much more hope here).
I started pouring all my energy into enjoying Sassy while I had her incase something took a turn for the worse. Treasured everytime she wanted to play, or be pet. While I still worry in the back of my mind every single day, still check her gums everyday, I can say that this helped me greatly to move forward in a way and stop crying every single day. Sassy and I are in a much better place now, she is my compainion again and not just my sick dog.
Does this seem like a good oil? Sorry, I am so bad with picking stuff out like this!!
Is the coating okay for her to eat or do I puncture these and put it on food?
Alyssa,
I use Nature Made Fish Oil. It is the only USP certified brand that guarantees mercury free.
http://www.naturemade.com/fish-oil-and-omegas/fish-oil-and-omega-3/fish-oil-1200-mg#Xk8D1QgD6qOLGo7r.97
The best part is that stores often have it BOGO so it doesn’t cost a lot. I go through 8 a day in our house between the dogs and me!
Don’t use burpless, dogs don’t like th taste of the capsule.
Either puncture the capsule and squeeze on food or give whole.
My dogs come running when they hear that bottle rattle.
One morning when Willie was little and I was asleep I woke up to that sound out in the hallway. Willie had gotten the whole bottle down off the counter, opened it and had eaten at least 200 of them. That was a funny but frantic vet call! Guess it would make a great commercial!
My best patrice
Hi Patrice, after cutting away all the excess on her paws and I picked up a balm called “paw soother”, her feet seem much better. I haven’t saw a limp since I did it. I’ve been putting the balm on every other day and she seems good in that area now.
But… another problem! :( This one is pretty awful. She did a number on herself over night, and destroyed her tail. I suspect she got chiggers after going outside. It’s the only thing I can think of that we did differently. We went in the back yard for a little while, and we usually never go back there. Otherwise maybe a flea bite, but I have not saw a flea on her in years. Or a hot spot. We don’t know for sure. I suspect chigger because of where we went, and also shes got bumps on her inner thigh that look exactly like chigger bites. These don’t seem to be bothering her but they showed up at the same time that she destroyed her tail.
Now, I don’t know what to do. We had to go to the vet, and he numbed the area with lidocaine and shaved it – before the lidocaine he couldn’t really even touch it without her reacting. And her tail looked so much worse than I thought it was going to look, I started crying in the vets office. I can’t believe she did this to herself OVERNIGHT while I was asleep. I feel so horrible.
He gave me gentaspray topical spray, which is a Cortisone spray. Now here is my dilemma : he also wants me to give her Prednisone for 10 days. Should I do this? I’m so absolutely terrified to get that to her again if I don’t have to. I’m not suppose to start it until tomorrow. He also gave her an injected steroid already. I just don’t know if I should give her the prednisone. Has anyone else had to do this? A short 10 day course? He kept it as low as he could; 20mg and she is 78lbs. 20mg for 3 days, then every other day until gone, are the instructions.
I also ran CBC while I was there and her levels are all good including the white count (10).
Here is a photo of her tail (warning: graphic)
http://i.imgur.com/lmlDqf4.jpg
It is like that all around.
![bingo-14-5_1200x775](https://www.secondchanceaihadogs.com/wp-content/gallery/aiha-dogs_2/bingo-14-5_1200x775.jpg "Vally\'s Bingo \\"Smile\\"")
![Brigitte_Cleo_Ripley_Enzo_4](https://www.secondchanceaihadogs.com/wp-content/gallery/aiha-dogs_2/Brigitte_Cleo_Ripley_Enzo_4.jpg "Brigitte\'s Cleo, Ripley, Enzo and Guest \\"Rockin\\"")
