greyhead

Wonderful news! Thanks for the update.

OMG, what a handsome boy and what lovely earsies! I'll pray twice as hard now! :hope :hope

Sending lots of prayers for you and King!

OMG Sherry, it's so good to hear from you! And please know there's not a one of us with an IBD dog who doesn't understand what you're going through and just how tired you are! So while we may worry when we don't hear anything, please do only whatever you need to take care of yourself and Harley. We'll be here when you need us or feel like updating. I've only had one experience with Tramadol, with our non-IBD dog Shane. His poop got runny for a day or so, even with his always superb digestion! Hopefully, and with partial pills, Harley will adjust and firm up again. That's great about the Z/D! (Thank you, Robin!!) I was going to suggest it but assumed that one of those vets already thought of it and ruled it out for some reason. (Sometimes the thought is that prescription food is too bland and won't tempt a dog who isn't eating.) But I think sometimes they don't eat because what they're being offered is too rich for their queasy tummies. My husband (Skip) just came in the room for a Harley update. He says, "Come on, Harley, I'm pullin' for ya." To which I can only add that we're pulling for you too, Sherry! Hope somebody can take a shift for you so you can sleep at least 5 hours at once! :hope

Gorgeous boy, and I love his first name especially! Welcome!

My heart sank to see Lincoln's name here. You and he fought hard. He had a wonderful life with you, and that's what matters most.

: I'm very sorry. You and Mary take care of each other.

So sorry Aaron had to leave this life so soon. But he knew a loving home. :

I'm so sorry for all your losses. It's greyt that your BF reappeared in such a timely way and is being so supportive. Take good care of yourself. Run free Major.

Silly me, I assumed his personality from his name. I do hope you can get him squared away. A lower dose sounds promising.

Sounds like a good plan! Acupuncture/chiro have done wonders for our LS dog for two years, right after the first treatment, no meds at all. We skipped the MRI for the same reason. And Depo-Medrol will only work for a year or so, as I understand it. So starting with "chiro-puncture", as we call it, buys a lot more time! But the steroids may make drinking/peeing a problem again, so I hope you don't have to use them long.

The personality change can just be from what he shows when he's too tired to care (hypothyroid) to what he shows when he he suddenly has the same level of hormones as everybody else. Now he has to learn to manage himself with the full complement of thyroid hormones. You can help him with that by calmly correcting his snarkiness and letting him know that it isn't necessary or appreciated. Over and over until he gets a handle on his new self. I know before my hypothyroidism was treated, I had the patience of Job. No really. It was ridiculous. I didn't have the energy to sweat the small stuff, and it mostly all seemed like small stuff. But after being treated for it for a few months, I noticed that I wasn't all that patient anymore. In fact, sometimes I'm grouchy and or impatient toward my DH. I always catch myself and apologize; it's just a question of how fast. I realize that nobody snatched my old personality and hid it somewhere! But I do react a bit differently, and it has taken some getting used to. Mostly, now I have the energy to object to things I would previously have let slide. So maybe Eyore was never really Eyore-like by nature; but that's all he could be with the limited energy he had. And then there was the snarly/vicious way he was when he got *really* low and felt impossibly vulnerable, as an animal would in that condition. I have worked on training myself to manage this extra energy better, to recognize it when I'm edging into irritability and do something else -- give myself a little time out, for instance. DH is very kind about waiting for me while I take a deep breath and a moment. He knew me "before" and knows I'm committed to gentleness as a value and a way of behaving. So he didn't divorce me when I "changed." Personality is grounded in our individual chemistry as much as in our experience of ourselves and the world. When our chemistry changes -- whether it be from thyroid treatment, puberty, menopause, or the flu -- our personality changes too. And we always have to learn to manage it. I hope you can help Eyore manage it. Or try a lower dose if and when you and the vet think that's what you need to do.

What different roles do Drs. Wade and Martinez play for Harley? Is one of them an internist and one his regular vet?

Thank you for sharing that loving tribute to your lovely Ladybug, Jan. I'm so very sorry. :f_pink

Sometimes when Spencer doesn't want anything for breakfast, he'll gobble up Ensure! We stick with the regular, not the Extra Super-Duper stuff, whatever they call it. Also, B-12 injections spur appetite. If there's intestinal malabsorption for any reason, he'll be needing those. Soonest.

Hooks can develop some resistance to Panacur, so following that with Drontal can be more effective than just repeating Panacur. However, you should know that hooks encyst themselves in the body and hatch when they feel like it, so hooks can be a recurring problem as they do. Meds don't kill the encysted critters. (I think Drontal Plus has an additional ingredient for tapeworms.) Fecal tests can be iffy because they only detect eggs, not worms. If eggs aren't being shed when the test is done, the test will be falsely negative. AFAIK, treatment doesn't hurt the dog even if he doesn't have worms. Does he do anything else that might indicate hooks? For instance, does he cough up and swallow immediately? (This is not the backward sneeze but could be mistaken for it.) They do this when the hooks have migrated to the lungs, which they do pretty easily. They cough them up and swallow them back to the intestines. Biting at their sides or suddenly jumping for no apparent reason are also signs of more advanced hookworm infestation. I just mention these things as additional signs you might look for, though I really wouldn't wait for them! Btw, my hookworm dog couldn't handle white rice from the beginning, though he could handle brown and other grains. Later he developed IBD and can't handle any grains. Last but not least, your dog may have an intestinal infection. It could be a SIBO-type thing (small intestinal bacterial overgrowth), especially if his food sensitivity got his tummy out of whack. That would require an antibiotic. Most vets will throw Flagyl at it. If that doesn't work, you need to do a culture and sensitivity on a fecal sample to see just what the bug is and what med will kill it. You don't want to let this get away from you. Our dog started with hookworm, which we had a hard time getting the vets to diagnose much less treat aggressively, followed a few years later by SIBO with an unexpected germ, intestinal malabsorption, and IBD. So consider the source, but my advice would be not to fool around with diarrhea!

I hope Dr. Wade calls you early and with some good ideas. Tell her the Harley Fan Club is watching! :ph34r

Such a beautiful dog still young. I'm very sorry for your loss. :

I'm so sorry, Pam.

Thank you for sharing that lovely tribute, Jennifer, and for giving Comet such a greyt and loving home. I'm so sorry he had to leave.

Lots of love and prayers for you and Lincoln, Trish.

Speaking for the Harley Fan Club, we're hoping and praying that everything is okay.

We've been dealing with both issues ourselves in Shane. He doesn't have LS, but he has skewed hips that mess him up for walking well. We're going to do rehab for that but have been getting him by on acupuncture/chiropractic the last two years. He'd become "incontinent" about nine months ago, at age 7, and the vet said it was probably age. Didn't do well on Proin either. But she said she looked at the urine and was *sure* it wasn't a UTI. So we took her word for it. Finally, about three months ago, he refused a meal for the first time and got kind of lethargic. I requested a urine culture at that point and it was positive for E. coli. He's now on his fourth round of antibiotics. (Sometimes I find I just have to tell the vet what I want done. It's our dog and our money!) But to address your main question: yes, whenever Shane's UTI has flared, he has had a hard time jumping up the three stairs to the deck as he usually would, and his walking becomes very much slowed. It also seems to cause him some pain even though there's no apparent kidney involvement. And I do think it's possible that when the nerves and/or bony structures at the dog's back end are out of kilter, it can affect the efficiency of the internal plumbing because the dogs don't hold themselves as squarely. For example, the MRI we had done recently showed that only his right anal sac was distended, not the left. Btw, although the hip skewness was visible to the naked eye, it didn't show up as much on the x-ray, which is why the vet recommended the MRI. The MRI showed it very definitively. It appears to be an old injury that has healed, but the "wear and tear of life" since then has led to a cascade of dropping muscles and shifting bones. Our other dog does have LS, as far as can be determined without an MRI. Acupuncture and chiropractic have gotten him along very well for the last two years too, and he hasn't needed any medicine for it. So I do recommend that kind of treatment if you have a certified practitioner. And I do think a urine culture would be a good idea. Unfortunately, those cultures don't always find infections even when they're present; so you may have to repeat it later if things have persisted. Hope everything comes together for you and Emily!

I'm so sorry, hon. You and Gracie both did all you could to keep her here.

Wishing you strength as you and Sparks work through this, Kari. I'm so sorry it wasn't better news. {{{{{hugs}}}}}