happy day after Julie! glad Hannah's eye is ok
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happy day after Julie! glad Hannah's eye is ok
Good morning everyone!
I have a question and one happy story to share. First, do any of you give your dog probiotics? What do you use? Any suggestions? The more holistic of the two vets left a message yesterday telling me that she thinks Hannah should be on a probiotic and also that I could mix one part apple cider vinegar with four parts water and wipe her chin with that 1-2 times per day to help clean the area she is still itching. (Either her allergies have not fully subsided, which the vet said is possible, or I'm thinking we could have a yeast issue going on). She wants to see how Hannah is in a week, unless I see something that looks bad. But then also recommended a probiotic.
Yesterday when I got home from work and my husband and I took the girls for their daily (short) walk, Hannah was moving at such a quick pace. She was way out in front of me on her leash instead of just kind of going along with me like usual. And on the way home we always stop and smell a light post and fire hydrant, then cut diagonally across the street to go home. They both know the routine and Hannah usually likes the going home part. Yesterday she tried to RUN the rest of the way home!!!:eek: I'm talking the bounding run-first the front feet, then the back. I have not seen her try to run in YEARS. Of course, I'm not supposed to let her run because they don't want her to hurt her back, so I had to hold her back and eventually pick her up because she really wanted to run!
All I could think was well, her back sure must be feeling good, and she sure isn't acting like a dog that's got problems! It made me so happy to see her like that. You would have never known she was 13 1/2 years old!
I should hear from my regular vet today about her thoughts on a plan of action. I have some recommendations from the other vet. Once I have both I'll make a decision. I may be back later to get your thoughts too! :D
Have a great day!
Julie & Hannah
Hi Julie, I'm so happy to hear that Hannah is feeling so perky! :)
My non-Cushpup Peg has been taking daily probiotics ever since her pancreatitis attack last year. Vetri-Science makes probiotics in both chewable and capsule form, and Peg gets the chewable "Vetri-Probiotic Everyday." It's more expensive than the capsule, but it is so easy to dose her with it that I haven't switched. I'm sure there are lots of other good products out there, too, but I've stuck with this because her GI issues have been calmed down for months now and I don't want to rock the boat in any way! I give her a little less than the recommended dosage for her weight in order to stretch the product a little bit :o, but so far she's done great on it.
Marianne
Run, Hannah :D
It sure makes us feel good to see them happy and playful. That is wonderful, Julie. Enjoy every minute. That is like Zoe the morning after her Tramadol and she is trying to do roll overs in the kitchen:D
I've tried a few probiotics on Zoe. The one that has worked best for her is Gentle Digest Ark Animals. I give it to Koko as well. They get one a day and make sure the probiotic is given a few hours before or after any antibiotic.
I tried some human ones as well but with not as good of results. The holistic pet store told me that is the one she reccommends and that all her customers have good results with it.
Happy Wednesday!
That is such a happy post! Yay! go Hannah! don't you just love their little wiggle butts when they take off like that! hahahahaha
hugs,
Sharlene and Molly Muffin
Hi Guys,
My sweets was super quick again today...not quite as much attempted running, but still a little, and she is perkier than ever.
I talked to the other vet at my regular office today and she was so helpful. We talked for 25 min. and she answered all of my questions and was very direct and specific with her thoughts. What's even better is that she and the other vet (holistic-traditional) agreed on two things: 1. I can just redo the regular blood work on Hannah and see if the level is still high before doing anything else, and 2. They would both do the ultrasound next because they feel it is more helpful to know if there is a tumor or something visibly wrong, rather than doing the bile acid test first. Both seemed to think the bile acid test is still a valuable piece of the puzzle, but thought the ultrasound would be more helpful.
So, it's good to have a plan. I decided to just repeat the blood work next Thurs. (That will be two weeks since the last test and one month since the first elevated ALT level). She recommended that I do the full panel, which also includes the AST and GGT liver enzymes, just to get even more info. They were both glad to hear Hannah is happy and not symptomatic whatsoever.
There is one other thing I'm worried about, regarding Hannah's allergies/itching. I am suspicious she may have a yeast infection on her chin/neck. She is still wearing the e collar, but just goes crazy trying to itch there whenever it's off. That's been a problem before, but it seems worse now, and she just finished antibiotics a week ago (and the area was looking pretty good a week or two ago). I may need to have them do a chin scrape to see. The vet recommended giving it a week to see if it is allergies unless it is really irritated, red, or stinky. I keep trying to smell it, but don't know what it would/should smell like. I almost think I should just have it checked because if that's the main issue maybe I can get her out the e collar sooner. Anyone have experience with yeast infections on the chin/neck area? Any sure signs?
Thanks again for your advice! I'll be looking into the probiotics more this weekend. I want to see if the holistic vet recommends any of the ones you guys have mentioned.
Julie & Hannah
Renee's angel Snoopy had a red yeast problem. I dont have a chance right now to do a search for it, I'll look at lunch.
Julie- what is in Hannah's food as I know some yeast problems comes from diet, the probiotics should also help.
They ususally change the diet, give probiotcs, use the cedar vinager, if I remember, Renee dabbed the spots with the vinager as well but that must sting because, I know I tried it on a spot on Zoe and then dapped some on me and it did sting.
Just a quick update from me....
Hannah does have yeast on her chin/neck. They did an impression smear (just pressed the slide on her skin) and then lightly scraped her skin with the edge of the slide and it was positive. Because her liver is out of whack, the vet did not want to try oral ketoconazole first, so we are using ketoconazole wipes on the area.
She is so itchy on her sides too...and frantically bites at her feet when she has the e collar off. I am worried she may have yeast all over....but she doesn't have any bare spots, or oozing, crusty sores....at least not yet. Just her neck looks kind of irritated at this point. She is getting a haircut on Sun. so maybe I will see more then. I did a bath with ketochlor shampoo on Sat. and that evening she was itching worse than ever with inflamed skin. Not sure if that was from the shampoo, the bath in general, or being outside on a walk. Ugh.
I am sort of irritated that my regular vet has never checked for yeast before and wonder if this has been a problem for a looooong time. I don't know if I should have them test other areas on her or what. It seems like my other vet just gave us an antibiotic for an infection whenever they saw irritated skin, and now I realize that can contribute to the problem!!! I'm glad the vet that also does more holistic stuff told me to use the probiotic and also said to use 1 part apple cider to 4 parts water and to wipe itchy areas. For now, I am doing that on her sides and feet until I figure out what to do. I am so frustrated because I want to help her but then the treatment can also hurt her.
She is getting her blood test again on Thurs. I am planning to do the ultrasound after that, unless things have resolved. I feel like I need to know more so we can move forward with an oral anti-fungal if we need to. I won't let them biopsy anything, so I realize we may not know, but hopefully we can rule out a mass. I'm worried the ultrasound will hurt her back again, like the xray did last summer. We had a month of acupuncture after that. She needs to be in the same position (either on her side, or on her back in the foam). I have a call into the vet to see if we can give her a little Xanax first.
I'll keep you posted. I'm just really frustrated right now. She isn't miserable but I can't help but wonder if this whole itching mess is all about yeast! But I feel like I would see worse symptoms.....it's a mystery.
Julie & Hannah
dang, I am so not good with these searches. I cannot find Rene's posts on how she successfully treated Snoopy's yeast problem. Rene thought it started from sweet potatoes in her diet.
I hope Hannah does not have to have another ultra sound, it seems her back is better and it is so good to read about her feeling frisky .
Maybe the weather will break and we will get a hard freeze. My allergies are terrible and now even Koko is sneezing:eek::eek: Another friend's pup is itching like crazy! Here we go again, a repeat of last winter:rolleyes::rolleyes:
hang in there, winter break is around the corner, can you believe that? Didn't school just start?
Hannah is getting her blood work checked again today to see how the ALT is looking. My mom is bringing her in for me this morning. They are doing a bigger panel this time, and adding all liver values. I also asked about having her thyroid checked, since I don't know that it ever has been. After reading about thyroid issues on here, I thought it might be worth checking. I've asked them to ask the vet what she thinks. If things are still the same (which I assume they will be) we will probably move forward with the ultrasound. I'll let you know what I find out.
Julie & Hannah