My Lovely Angel Luna

[molly muffin]

I will keep my fingers and toes crossed Marianne athat she continues to do better and no more lesions show up.
Hugs

[Budsters Mom]

How are the girls? Luna's crusts? Peg's paw? Both's mobility? What is happening in lab land?

[labblab]

Luna's original spots are still somewhat crusty but they stopped spreading after the first bath, and we've not had a new spot break out ever since starting the treatment. YAY! Her third bath will come on Saturday, and she still has ten days left on the antibiotic. Oh, and the culture was indeed negative for ringworm.

Peg's paw is still pretty much the same. It actually looked better for a couple of hours one day after she had a chance to lick it for a while after pulling off her sock without me noticing. It seemed as though the little abscess had drained. Hubby said it must be the healing power of dog spit!

But by the next day it had filled back up again. It's so frustrating because it is really such a tiny little cyst. I'll go ahead and finish the final week of antibiotics, but I don't think that is going to do the trick. Maybe out of desperation I'll leave the sock off and just let her go to town on it for a while, just to see what happens.

Thank you for asking!

[Trish]

Hey Marianne

Sounds like all going pretty good, those cysts can be such a nuisance at times when they refill like that. Flynn hates me meddling with his paws, they get tucked under so I cannot get at them and doing his nails is a vet only job haha he has never forgiven me for cutting one too short and making it bleed when he was a young'un! Memory like an elephant! I remember reading once that they used to get dogs to lick wounds (on humans!) to clean them something in the spit lol... trouble is they sometimes to town so much they do more damage. If it is tiny would she let the vet nip it off under local to get rid of it once and for good? x

[labblab]

Well......just found another stinky, goopy sore on Luna.

Just to bring things up-to-date, here's a note I had posted on Peg's thread about a week ago.

I'll quickly comment on Luna, although I should probably write about her on her own thread. But after six weeks without any new skin outbreaks, we just now found a new dime-sized sore this morning when we bathed her. We were very bad and let her go for three weeks between medicated baths, and I think we are paying the price. Of course, the bigger issue is that since we found a new sore today, it means the spring outbreak was not just a one-time episode and we have to wonder what is at the bottom of it. But if we can keep ahead of the overt problem by bathing more often and doping the spot up with a topical ointment, I may put off getting started with a bunch of involved testing. She otherwise seems perfectly fine (I've stopped worrying about her peeing), and I just don't have it in me right now to head in to a specialist. So I think we'll stick with "wait and see" mode for a while longer. I'll talk it over with our vet when I take Peg in for her labwork.

So, today "Nurse Peg" found another spot on Luna (I've discovered it is NOT a good thing when Peg starts sniffing Luna's back! ). More of the same, so I guess at a minimum we need to go ahead and get this stuff cultured. Unfortunately, my car is in the shop right now and won't be fixed until at least Thursday. And then there's the holiday -- don't know if the vet is open on Friday or not. Plus, that darn new canine flu has just arrived here so everybody is panicking about exposing their dogs to sick dogs. Soooooooo I am guessing it may be at least next week before I take her in to be seen.

Just wanted to go ahead and whine a little bit now, though. Dang it!!!!!!

[molly muffin]

oh man, hoped there wouldn't be any more show up, but has to be some reason for them.

I know I would be nervous too about taking a healthy dog into where there might be the canine flu. arggghhh alway something to worry about it seems.

Still, maybe you can get her in and out and no kenneling.

Crossing fingers for you and Luna Marianne

[Budsters Mom]

Whine all you want to Marianne. It is a scientific fact that whining does help.

What is hubby's take on all of this? I know that you handle most of it, but he is generally pretty helpful and levelheaded when it comes to his fur babies.

I think we've all been hoping that this situation would somehow just resolve itself, but I do believe it's time to look a little deeper into what is causing these nasty outbreaks.

Keep whining, I mean updating us on our Lovely Luna

[Squirt's Mom]

I'd whine, too, Marianne....in fact, if you need harmony, I'll whine with you. These sores are enough to worry about without the added fear of this flu. Let us know how sweet Luna is doing and what the vet has to say when you get her in. Does anyone know why cars end up in the shop at the most inopportune times? Is that in the owner's manual anywhere?

[labblab]

Luna sprouted several more spreading spots over the last couple of days, so I took her in this morning for a culture and sensitivity. Regular vet is on vacation, so somebody else did the sampling and I didn't try to discuss anything else in detail. I'll await the culture results and our regular vet's return.

In the meantime, we are to increase the baths to twice weekly. At the vet's, I was dismayed to find that there were more crusty infected areas under her fur than I was even aware of. So I got her into the tub all by myself the minute we got home and tried to scrub her back as well as I could (usually it takes two of us to wrangle her). But she was a good girl for me while Peg stood at the side of the tub and supervised.

I am expecting it to turn out to be staph. As to what we do next, I don't know. But at least it will be good to have it identified. So we shall see.

[Budsters Mom]

I just got back from the vet with Rosie and this is not the news that I wanted to hear. CRAP!! It looks like those yucky,crusty things aren't going to go away on their own.

You are a super mom! Wrangling that 80 pound baby into the bathtub by yourself! I would have loved to see that on YouTube with Peg so closely supervising the whole ordeal!

Is Luna looking and feeling okay otherwise? Keep us posted. OK?