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Oh Sue, how wonderful to "see" you again! :) And thank you so much for your kind words :) You and sweet Zoe are still such a big part of my life and time here on the forum...from day 1 and all days after that :)
Big hugs from me to you,
Sas and Quincy :)
Dear, sweet Leslie I am grateful beyond words <hugs> You have so much on your own plate and nevertheless, always available to those of us who need your help, thank you! :)
About Quincy's food, right now she is on Royal Canin Hypo-allergenic dry food, twice daily, to see if that will bring a change (food-allergies) and I supplement it with salmon oil for the omega's 3 and 6. We're 3 weeks on the way now...so need to keep it up another 3 weeks. The vet gave her a cortisone injection and a 2 week course of Cefaral and a shampoo Sebomild-P. He did a skinskraping and found some dead (so, NOT alive) parasite eggs but he couldn't tell which parasites. Quincy has been treated with Stronghold in case of parasites and the finding of dead eggs suggests she did have some parasites but they now are killed by the Stronghold. It's not Demodex since she doesn't have the hairloss at the typical Demodex areas...
The vet said that for now he wants to see if this course of treatment will do the trick and if not, if it returns, he wants her to be seen by a dermatologist. All her infections are more than likely secundary and it's key to find the primary source of her weakend immune system.
Tomorrow, it's close to midnight now, I will look into all the info you gave me and start translating all the different herbs. I recognize a few like echinacea, ginseng and chamomile but the rest is abracadabra to me :) Just like the slippery elm you mentioned previously... When I finally found out what it was, it turned out it isn't available here :)
So thank you, thank you, thank you, Leslie :D And Marianne too...I'll make sure to check both your links :)
Big hugs,
Sas and Quincy :)
Good evening to all :)
So far, things are going well here. Quincy is her usual, happy, loving to please, cudly self :D She took her last antbiotics last Monday evening and so far she is still doing well, itch wise, I so hope it stays this way...at least for a while :) I supplemented her food with the help of all the tips Leslie gave me and she now gets echinacea, chamomile and carrot flour in addition to the salmon oil.
Today we had our weekly class and Quincy did some jumping :D
http://youtu.be/XoaFD5qWCOM
Also, we keep training and she now also gets the dry laundry of off the rack :)
http://youtu.be/eqaVgI_8_dw
Last week, a cute teenage girl came to my house asking if I wanted to help her...? She's in her final year of "vet tech" school and she is supposed to do a presentation on a subject she could choose. She chose "service dogs" and asked if I wanted to help her...answer questions and be there the evening of the presentation (in front of fellow students, parents and teachers) and if possible, if I could give a demonstration with Quincy... Well, of course I will help her and come give a demonstration :D This will be January 15th, 2015.
And, this evening, a Facebookcommunity (in the USA), called "For the Love of Service Dogs", featured Quincy...so now she is going international ;)
So we're keeping busy and happy, hope the same goes for all of you!
Sas and Quins :)
What wonderful and fun news. Some very exciting things coming up for you and Quincy. She is certainly our star, and yes international! How exciting. She is definitely a leader in her field. I'm so glad that she and you are being recognized for such stellar progress. Hopefully this will encourage others to look to the rescues for their service dogs and find that fit, to not give up when it seems that there isn't one and keep on trying.
So happy and proud of both of you.
hugs
Sharlene and molly muffin
Oh, I love these updates on our girls!!!! :) :) :) :)
Just as Sharlene says, so proud of you both! ;) :D :D
Marianne
I am so glad she is feeling better and that you found things available there for her to try. I love the FB tribute, too, and shared the story on my page. ;)
Well, we did end up at the Dermatologist...which is okay :) This way we can hopefully find a treatable cause for her itching and recurring ear/skin infections.
The dermatologist is a very kind and sweet young lady (not too young though) and she took one look at Quincy's skin (which according to me looked very well...) and immediately said "yes, this is a dog with at least hypersensitive skin and probably allergic as well :eek: I mean, that skin looked perfect to me...nevertheless she saw right away there was a skin problem :)
So anyway, she gave me the allergie lecture, causes, treatment options etc and then said that it was the wisest thing to first rule out (or include) food allergies. So now, Quincy is on a 8 week strict diet of only RC An allergenic kibble. The newest version of dehydrolysed diet with the proteins cut up in the smallest possible parts (even smaller then in the time I had the allergie issues with Sogno) Smaller also then the Hill's Z/D, also a hydrolised diet. It's hard on her and difficult for me to watch her...:( But it's the way it is and I will stick to it for the next couple of weeks, no other option.
On a much brighter note...today we had our sports course again and it's so much fun :D I made a short video of 3 different elements we did today. In the first you see a "boring yet needed exercise"...quincy laying down in a marked square while I drive around it in my wheelchair :) The second clip is a personal touch I have added to the training to prepare Quincy on "working with distraction around her" :D In this case she needs to take off my wrist brace and hand it to me... The third clip...was her favorite and something we hadn't done before...crawling. She has to crawl underneath a plank but the puppy class is right next to us so you'll also see her going for it (Quins and "other dogs", thats a bit of an issue, hahahaha...she just loves other dogs and to keep her attention can be very hard. She just wants to run over and say hello :p) Anyway, it was a fun class :) And mind you, October 18th, still no coats required, that's crazy but awsome :D
http://youtu.be/SWN5g31-chY
Also, I uploaded a bunch of new pictures of Miss Quincy, the adorable one :D
http://www.k9cushings.com/forum/album.php
And Thursday, the mantrailing instructor is coming for coffee and to talk about ways that I and Quincy can enrole in the "fun trailing" course she will be giving this winter. It takes some adapting for her mostly but she is bending over backwards to find a way to make it happen for Quins and myself...how kind is that? :) So hopefully we can add funtrailing to our "things that are fun to do" list ;)
Have a wonderful weekend all...we love you!
Sas and Quincy :)
Soooo, "mantrailing"..... is that like speed dating? :pQuote:
And Thursday, the mantrailing instructor is coming for coffee and to talk...
Your girl is absolutely gorgeous and coming along so well. But who's surprised at that?! Look who her mom is! ;)
Hehehehe Leslie!
I agree completely Quincy is just so smart and has so much fun doing all the tasks. This must be heaven for her living with you. It's like the two of you have come together at the right time and right place.
Fun trailing should be a blast, hope you guys can figure that one out too.
hugs
Sharlene and molly muffin
Hahaha Leslie...:p I thought it was an English word and didn't think to clarify, sorry :) Mantrailing is a seperate division within the SAR (search and rescue) branch. And with a nose like Quincy's, it will be soooo much fun to put it to good use :D It's the division that specialises in lost, living, humans. In forrests but also in urban area's etc. So it's not after disasters like an earthquake or something but simply missing persons. The lady who runs the hydrotherapy where I have been with Sogno, Yunah and Mhina, is thé expert and leading authority in the mantrailing field in The Netherlands (and far beyond) And she is coming to talk about if we can make it work with my wheelchair :) Of course we're not going to take the course (well, hopefully we can) to become an official mantrail team... It would be just for fun. (ask me again about the fun part when we're training in the middle of winter with temperatures below zero and the wind howling through the trees :eek: )
Hope this has convinced you I am NOT going speed dating...geezzzzzzzzzzz :rolleyes:
Sas ;)