Quincy, from Polish straydog to Dutch service dog

OMG!!! Love the Quincy videos!! Such joy, such love!!! :p

I love that Quincy is such a cuddle bug! :D Keep the videos coming -- I love watching them.

Quincy's story is new to me, as I just joined in the spring when our adopted Gizmo died. I found it fascinating to read all the back posts and to learn what a struggle finding a perfect service dog match can be. The many videos of her made me smile. She's so smart and such a love. Thank you for sharing all these months.

Time for a Quincy update :) Winter is posing new challenges to Quins her itching. It took me a while to realise and understand what was going on (what a confusing and frustrating condition, this atopy) Anyway, Quincy started to itch noticably more and I noticed she drank more water too and she was constantly cold...even indoors. Couldn't be the pollen since it's too early for them, couldn't be the dustmites since nothing has changed there, no mold in the house, no bacteria, yeast or other infections on her skin.... what was going on? Till I realised the air is much, much dryer in winter :eek: And that explained the increased drinking as well and her being cold all the time. Since the skinbarrier is "broken" in atopic dogs, they loose more fluids through their skin. With this dry air, she lost (evaporated) even more fluids and thus the drinking more. Also, to cool down, we sweat, loose fluids through our skin...right? So, Quincy loosing even more fluids through her skin then normally, made her cool down more also. This showed me again, that atopy is not "just" an allergy problem but even more so a skinproblem/disease :)

She now wears sweaters indoors as well to help keep her warm and they also help preventing loosing so much fluids through her skin :) (and indeed, she is not so cold and not drinking as much anymore) Even more laundry to do with the sweaters now as well but hey, we do it all with love, right? ;)

Now that we're on the right track again, itch wise, it's time for a few new video's :D

Here's Quincy fetching me my migraine medication and putting them away afterwards :) (I do get migraines with an aura which in my case means I temporarily loose my vision and it's hard to get around in a wheelchait with no vision :p Therefore I taught Quincy to go get them for me in that situation)
https://youtu.be/5zXkt_I6-48

This is after we went for a walk and stopped by the farmacy on the way. She gets my medication basket and then gets the pills from my shopping bag :)
https://youtu.be/jTp1MN7JvvQ

Here she gets me a banana and helps me peel it :) (and helps me eat it :p )
https://youtu.be/_4mrGV9lpI0

Here we just came back from a walk, Quincy took of my coat, I take of her harness, she then go gets her sweater, goes to her very own "ball drawer", gets a ball out and just doing her thing :) Not hard to understand why she is the love of my life.. :)
https://youtu.be/REXuiZQOsEY

And of course, when the weather isn't too bad, we still go for our long walks in the countryside :)
https://youtu.be/wY4oXeKMz_Y

And here she helps me with changing the bed in the livingroom... :)
https://youtu.be/sDGlRfxJcN8

Atopic or not, as you can see, she is very happy, very lively and enthousiastic, always in a good mood, always eager to help, always happy to go for walks an be active... It's "hard work" to keep her this comfortable with everything that needs to be done for her to help her and her skin, but soooo worth it, (eventhough it's costing me a small fortune) both for her and for me :) I love her to pieces...

Saskia and Quincy :)

Saskia--as always, I was enthralled watching Quincy work. He is remarkably agile. I have to say that peeling the banana was my favorite! :D

Quincy is just a joy to watch. She is so happy and so pleased to do anything at all for you. A perfect match for sure!

Sas, I am always amazed by your videos. Quincy just keeps getting smarter and you just keep getting prettier? You really are beautiful inside and out.

Thank you, Judy, Sharlenen and Glynda...Quincy is indeed a joy to have around :) And smart, and happy, and agile, and....just everything I could ask for :D And not just to me... :) Every other day I go to see my parents (they are both 84, turning 85 this year) because my mother is suffering from Alzheimers. My dad is the primary caregiver and when I am there, I spend time with my mom and my dad will play and cuddle with Quincy :) She gives him distraction, a sense of normalcy in otherwise complicated days with the care for my mom, she gives him companionship and friendship, she brings him joy... So also in that regard she is priceless :) Against all "service dogs rules" I make sure he always has a can with treats and he is the only one allowed to give Quincy treats, as much as he likes :D No wonder Quincy adores him, he's like a candy machine to her ;) Quincy is a ray of sunshine, wherever she goes, wherever she is...

Sas and Quincy :)

Oh my, Quincy is such a precious girl!!! As always, your videos made my day, and I love hearing about the joy she brings your parents. My mom is here with us again this weekend, and it's the same way with her and our girls -- there is a special bond there that is absolutely heartwarming.

And although I am sorry it is so, it is interesting to me to read about Quincy's winter itchiness because Peg's itching has always been far worse during the winter, too. Over the years I have come to the same conclusion -- that what I blamed on allergies may have much to do with dry skin alone. The combo of the cold, dry air and the furnace make my own skin dry, so of course it can be affecting Peg, too, if she has a natural tendency toward skin issues. We have thought about trying to add a humidifier to the furnace or buying some individual room units, but there can be home environmental issues with those, too, so we've been dragging our feet. Plus, overall, Peg's itching has been less since switching her to the Douxo sebhorrea shampoo and being consistent with the oral omegas. And it's so interesting to me that, even with her staph issues, Luna is never itchy at all at any time of year. The skin is certainly a complicated "organ," all on it's own!

Anyway, once again, thanks so much for brightening my day with your videos of sweet Quincy! She is an fur-angel, indeed! :) :)

Marianne

Let's start with some update about Quincy's itching. It stayed problematic and we were running out of options...that is, options other then putting her on oral steroids or some other immune suppressor. Thankfully, my dermatologist sugested a new product, Cortavance (by Virbac), a corticosteroid spray. The spray gets absorped in the skin and stays in the skin, only 0.2 percent of it actually reaches the bloodstream. That is a lot better then oral corticosteroid use :) And Quincy responds to it very well. I spray her most itchy areas (underneath her tail and her ribcage) and she is itchfree for 24 hours :) We are now using it every other day and still it goes well :) So maybe this would be helpfull for some others on here... If you really have no choice but to use steroids, remember the cortavance spray, it's still steroids but a better option then the oral form.

Now for Quincy... :) She is still her happy, lovable and enthousiastic self :D Unfortunately, we didn't have much of a winter, or rather, we didn't have any winter. We just had 1 day of snow, very little snow but the only snow we had ;)
https://youtu.be/4MilnRm7HCI

And as always, she loves to help. Here she collects the bathroomrugs for me so they can be washed :D
https://youtu.be/AnZ7CZTPse4

And right now, she is sleeping, curled up against me, underneath the duvet :D And that is where she will stay the entire night...making sure we make physical contact and both underneath the duvet. Awwwwww, I just love her so... :)

Sas and Quincy :)