Easton's ears

A trip to the vet here in Phoenix has revealed that Easton's ear problem is caused by an infection that is resistant to his previous ear drops. A special formula was designed based on a culture taken from his infected ear last week. Antibiotic capsules and special ear drops have arrived and hopefully this will knock it down. He is a little uncomfortable, but not in pain that I can tell. As usual, he is his happy, playful self and is incredibly tolerant of me fussing with his ears. He is such a good boy.

Easton update: feeling better, however....

The word came from our Vet late this week that "Easton needs surgery" to repair his right-rear ACL. We talked about the pros and cons of the different surgical options/techniques. The Vet clinic uses a visiting surgeon who has excellent results with (what I call) The fishing tackle technique. During Easton's most recent examination, our Vet encouraged us to research completely the subject of ACL injuries in dogs via the reams of information and opinions offered on the Internet. Here are a collection of interesting clinical descriptions and well thought out opinions on the subject.

Is surgery really necessary?
Drs Foster and Smith chime in
Video news report - surprisingly well done

First let me say; our Vet highly recommends the fishing tackle technique which the surgeon they use has had tremendous luck with over the many years they have been working together, servicing the needs of the clinic's patients. Our Vet has accumulated a massive amount of "trust capital" with us; caring for Cosmo, Devo, Lady and now Easton. We trust her implicitly. If and when Easton has surgery, her recommendation will be our course of action.

However, as I talked about in the previous post, Easton has been resting and only gets very focused and specific exercise (on-leash from the time he leaves the house, out the back avoiding stairs for shorter walks). This is to allow Easton a chance to heal and to get use to a more sedentary life, free of the impact and risks that originally injured him. We have two doggy gates on order to permanently block/control access to both sets of stairs. He just can't sprint up and down the stairs following our every move.

The good news is that he appears to have recovered to the point that he is not limping at all and walks exactly like he did the day we brought him home!! He likes to lead the way; and atypical of my normal dog walking disciplines, I let him! He has always occasionally scraped the tops of his right paw toenails as we walk. It is no better or no worse than on April 14th (our first walk together).

Bottom line: I don't want to put him under the knife unless his quality of life is severely threatened. We'll continue to watch him closely and will create an environment for him so that chances of further aggravation to his knee is as close to zero as humanly possible.

The Easton KNEE !

I feel like this every time I sit down to write!

Pet Food Primer Part-2

By popular demand - looking at ingredients of grocery store brands.

The care and feeding of your best friend is a personal decision. It never hurts to be educated on the finer points of what you are really getting when you purchase that attractive bag of food with the slick picture of the cutest dog you've ever seen.

Pet Food Primer Part-1

IMHO this is the finest overview of the options we have when it comes to feeding our dogs. Right up there with the work that Whole Dog Journal does. The presenter has impeccable credentials (she is a Vet) and is well spoken. You could easily watch this video 3 or 4 times.....really! This is Part-1 covering the best types of foods and their ingredients. Part 2 (I will post soon) is the horror story (my words) of supermarket brands. Do you want your dog to "just survive" or "thrive". That really is the question.

Lady not feeling well....

Lady is 11 or 12 years old

It’s been a couple of weeks now that Lady has just not been herself. We've been together almost 3 years. You really get to know the energy and personality of your adopted senior dog after just a few months. One thing that Lady has always had is spunk! You can see it in her eyes, the way she carries herself and how she affectionately greets every human she comes in contact with. Recently when I was sick with the flu, she seemed to be unusually reserved. It was obvious that Lady was not use to me spending days in bed and shuffling around with no energy, so I didn't give it much thought. Shortly after I began to recover, she started to turn away from her food. THIS was very unusual, but I thought at first that she had tired quickly of her new food (extremely high quality, but had a slight fishy smell). We quickly went back to her favorite venison and sweet potato, but her inattention continued.

Trip to the vet: X-rays and blood test, nothing jumps out to indicate infection. Valley fever test was negative. However, the x-ray indicated that Lady has an enlarged liver. Explains why she has lost interest in eating. Monday we will go to an internal medicine vet who will examine Lady with an ultrasound system. Hope to know more then.

Here is the best on-line reference that I have found on this subject:

Canine liver disease

If you know of a better one and/or a naturopathic resource that you trust, please send it on.

Now that I think about it, the last few weeks her belly has been a little “tighter” than normal when I give her the belly rubs she loves so much. Lady still eats a little, several times a day. She is happy and as enthusiastic as she can be about going for walks. She loves me feeding her chicken and applesauce by hand (hey, who wouldn't). Her energy level is way down, but she still displays her happy tail.

I’ll post again after Monday’s appointment.