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Oh Julie,
I sure hope you dont get this warm front because now our yard is a wet, slimy mess- must be great for Zoe's paws!!!:eek::eek::eek: and Hannah will not be happy either. I hope you do not have to deal with it. Yuck.
I found I have to wipe Zoe's privates once to twice a day with the baby wipes to keep that licking at bay.
The paw thing is weird. With Zoe it just escalated so. She never chews the back ones.
Hang in there sweetie!!!!
love,
addy
Welcome as a Forum Host, Julie! :) We are all so glad you accepted and are proud to have you on board. :)
Hugs,
Leslie and the gang
whootwhoot!!!!! way to go Julie!!!!!!!! your passion and compassion will reach many.
high paw fives from the girls and hugs from me!!!!!
Thank you to those of you who have congratulated me or welcomed me as a forum host. I haven't really lived up to my "job" this week, as I have been feeling horrible (sick) and having a terrible week at work. I hope to return to the rest of my life and the forum this weekend.
Julie
Hope you get to feeling better soon and Congrats. :D
Julie
Hope you feel better very soon and hope work gets better also!!!!!
hugssssss xoxo
Taking care of yourself should be your first and foremost priority! Although we will miss you, come back when you are feeling up to it. ;):)
Sending lots of healing energy, hugs, and love...Lori
Jean Donaldson's Culture Clash opened my eyes to a new way of looking at Zoe. I read all her books. Pat Miller's too. I think "training" has to fit the dog. What works for one may not work for another.
Zoe is fearful. She also is very smart and wants to be a higher rank female.
I learned clicker training and free shaping- rewarding good behavior with food. She works for food and I don't apologize for it. My weakness is probably I do not cut back and pay her a reward as intermittenly as soon as I should. But she is always sick.:rolleyes:
I got both pups happy to go in the kitchen by happily calling them to the kitchen and spreading treats around the floor and then closing the door for short periods of time. Almost like a giant crate.
They now love being locked up in the kitchen. The have toys, a blanket and they pretty much settle on their blanket together and go to sleep. Sometimes they wait for us to leave because they want to go into the kitchen:rolleyes::)
The biting she is doing now is because she does not feel well. When she is well, she does not bite me like this.
The muzzle is going really well. Thank goodness I introduced it as a game. I have no problems putting it on her while I swab her feet. I am amazed at her willingness to put it on.
I can't trust Zoe with children unless she is supervised closely. When my youngest grand child comes over, I remind her to not go close, to ignore Zoe and never put her face near Zoe. I never leave them together alone. I know it is hard. But I need to protect both of them.
Not sure if any of this helps. It is what helped me.
love,
addy
P.S. I was typing this at lunch and ran out of time, Julie, did not mean to sound short but wanted to finish before boss came back :)
Hi all,
Here's an update on Hannah. Last Friday we went to my vet for a laser treatment on her back. (It has been fine since the shaking incident from the black lab, thank God!). She is walking fine and doing well, but I wanted to see if I would notice any difference from doing this treatment, or if it would perhaps relieve some pain I don't even know is there. It was only $60 for one treatment and it only lasted 4 1/2 minutes, as opposed to the acupuncture for $80 which lasts about 20 min. It is hard to know if anything changed, as she was already walking well and I no longer let her do steps or any jumping. She seemed much more relaxed with this treatment than with the acupuncture, however. The laser does a better job treating inflammation according to what I have read and to what they say. This vet actually said there is great benefit to using both, which I probably would if she has another issue. I know some vets combine the two. The laser can also be done a few days in a row, which is nice. The acupuncture vet had suggested doing some "tune ups" periodically over the winter, so I tried the laser as the first one. I'm glad it went well.
We have about a week left on the Denamarin before we need to check her liver values again. I'm hoping the ALKP comes down and we can continue on this, rather than going back to Anipryl, just because I like the idea of a supplement so much better. Then I don't have to worry about any interactions with other meds. She is also on Cosequin DS. I just ordered more, which also has MSM.
The itching is still bad at times. We ran out of Hydroxyzine and I am trying Benadryl for a few days to see if there is a difference. At this point, I do think the Hydroxyzine may be better. I would love to get the itching/licking under control, but at this point I am just glad we have gone about 6 weeks without any sort of infection.
The vet that did the laser treatment also does rehab. She said we could consider doing something to build up the muscle in Hannah's back legs. I mentioned that sometimes she seems to readjust as she is urinating (but not all the time) and that she sort of "marches" with her back legs when she poops. This has been going on for several months, so I have no idea if it is related to Cushing's or her back, or if she just does it. Her legs don't shake, and she trots around just fine, but I worry that they may be getting weaker. I watch her like a hawk, of course, so I may just be noticing things she has always done.
She did jump up on a couch with no problem at my parents' house a couple of weeks ago, even though I don't want her to. The vet said it is much worse for her to jump down, but that I am right to discourage both. We keep our throw pillows across the couches at all times, and the ottoman on our chair unless we are using it, just to prevent her jumping.
She still loves to eat and does bark at me at night until I give her a bone of some sort to chew on, but she seems content with that. Her drinking is not too bad; I notice she drinks more when she is licking or chewing a bone, but otherwise it is not out of control, and neither is the urinating. She has no problem holding it while we are at work all day or overnight. I leave potty pads out and they are always dry and I checked the rug for accidents and there are none.
So, all in all, I feel like Hannah is doing pretty well. She definitely is showing her age a bit, as she doesn't hear or see well, and we are obviously dealing with lots of health issues, but I am happy she is still with me and that she is happy. I'm hoping she will be stable for a while, and that we'll get some good news on the liver values.
Julie & Hannah
Forum Host now... so you've joined ranks with the angels... Cool! My Kira might get laser treatments too. Glad to hear that went well.
((((((((hugs)))))))))