Hooray! The weather in Massachusetts has been OPPRESSIVE since Saturday. Yesterday, FINALLY the air felt a bit better.
Needless to say, other than the earthdog training we have been doing a whole lot of nothing and that is just the way the boys like it at the moment! Dogs and humans alike have been lolling about in front of fans and Honor has been coming to work. Tuesday afternoon the heat index was 100 degrees, so class was cancelled. Ike said, "Thank the dog gods!"
Yesterday I took the Bug and Carmen to see Dr. Anne. Honor is just about finished with his adjustments and considering he is battling a Lyme infection I am amazed that it has gone so smoothly. I brought Carmen in for a "tune-up" after her first two trials and to find out if she is allergic to anything in her current kibble.
I think I mentioned that Honor tested high positive in his SNAP test? Katrin recommended having a C6 done so that if he went lame or started acting wonky we would have a baseline for his antibody count. Well....his Lyme antibody count came back last week and it was pretty high (at 325). This was completely unexpected. The Bug is not showing any signs of fighting an active infection - we just did the test for a baseline. Due to the high count, the vet wanted to start him on 30 days of double-dose doxy. I was really hesitant to do that where he is primarily asymptomatic. Nowadays they do not recommend treating for Lyme if the dog is not actively presenting signs of infection. Fortunately I had an appointment with Dr. Anne last Wednesday.
Dr. Anne felt where Honor's first chiropractic adjustment had held, even though we missed our follow-up due to Alley's death, that his body is doing a good job fighting the infection. It was the left side of Honor's pelvis that was out of alignment and that side is tied to immunological health.
Dr. Anne recommended a homeopathic regimen. I was really torn (that's why I did not post about it). On the one hand I really did not want to put Bug on 30 days of doxy. On the other hand I do not want to put his health in jeopardy! I spoke to my vet about Dr. Anne's recommendations, mostly as a courtesy as I was leaning towards the homeopathic approach. He said go ahead and try the homeopathic regimen and do a new C6 in 4 - 6 months. He told me if he felt I was kidding myself and Honor was showing signs that I was just refusing to see, he would tell me. HOORAY!!
And of course, if anything changes in Honor's behavior I will reconsider.
As to Carmen - she has held up remarkably well. Such a good girlie. Anne tested her food and she is not allergic to it or to grains. She feels her beard is more likely due to an imbalance in her gut and recommended a supplement called Canine Enteric Support which will help balance her gut. I told her about the WOW! Whitener and I am planning on bringing it and Carmen next week to ensure she isn't allergic to it. Knowing me, I will probably be impatient and try it before I see Anne, but I will try to hold off!
Carmen starts The 5 Directions class tonight, so I will likely post again tonight or early tomorrow morning.
2 months ago
2 comments:
I thought the C6 recheck was to be in 4-6wks not months, or am I remembering wrong?
glad the visit went well
Hey Katrin, You may be remembering correctly - I might have mis-spoke to you. My original intention was to retest in 6 - 8 weeks but the vet said I wouldn't see a big enough change at that point. He said if I wanted to re-test in 6 - 8 weeks I might as well just do the doxy because I wouldn't see any change yet and I'd think the homeopathic remedies weren't working.
He said even with the doxy you might *see* the difference in the dog but the antibody titer would sill be high. So they recommend waiting six months before re-testing. He said if I didn't feel comfortable waiting 6 months to see if the homepathic remedies were doing the job we could test at 4 months and would see a significant enough change (or not) to know if it had worked.
That's where most of my anxiety comes from - having to wait so long to know if it is the right decision. However, considering the intention was never to treat him, just to get a baseline, and he is asymptomatic, the vet doesn't feel there is any harm in trying Dr. Anne's remedies first.
By the way, how did you convince Monty it was a.o.k to be picked up? ;D Honor isn't so fond of it currently - he will let me but he looks at me like I am torturung him!
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