Heinz 57 Ketchup

This is a Heinz 57 Ketchup post.....oh, I mean catch up post. Tee hee. With the dawn of Facebook I don't tend to blog often. Where to start? Let's start with the kids.....

Spencer's doing better with his seizure and auto-immune disease. No seizures since starting his medications and his itchy/hurting mouth is much better. As of this moment he has started a second anti-convulsant medication. Our hope is to acquire a stable state on the second medication and wean him off the first medication. We're doing this to protect his liver long term. After the change, we'll then start the transition off of one steroid to the other for his auto-immune mediated disease.

Jax. Well everyone knows he has FIC (Feline Interstitial Cystitis), however over the past 2 months he was coughing/sneezing. We initially thought it was hairballs and treated as such. It continued, so we went ahead with a workup with radiographs. We found he had no problems with digestion and tried a few trials on medications with no success. With the process of elimination and watching his symptoms he was diagnosed with feline asthma. It is a condition that needs to be addressed. If it is not addressed it will get worse and can be fatal. If you do treat, it will still get worse, but you can help to control it. We went ahead with an injection of steroid to give him relief. It helped. Not only did it help, but it definitively diagnosed the asthma since he had a positive reaction to the medication. There are several treatment options but most consist of being on some sort of steroid regime. As with Spencer, and any other animal, you want them on the lowest effective dose. So only time will tell as we go through the next few months, but hopeful we'll get a handle on his condition as we did with Spencer.

I've posted before, but all of our animals have some sort of condition. Most have multiple conditions/diseases. When I told my mom about Jax, she couldn't believe it. She said, "Only your animals." Most people have pets that may have one to two major health problems in their life, ours keep adding. I'm just thankful that our pets are with us. They are worth it.

David's still a vegetarian. Actually he's a vegan. He doesn't want to say he is because there's a stigma that comes along with it. In addition, although he's strict with his lifestyle, he knows there's room for error. I'm amazed at his transition. I would never have guessed he'd go down this road, let alone as fast as he has. In addition, he's soda free. Yep, you read right....no soda pop. That in itself is amazing. Although he drank a TON of water, he also loved his soda. So giving this up is huge. He loves where he's at and I don't see him ever looking back.

As for me, I'm still dabbling in the raw vegan world. Actually, I have transitioned from high raw to low raw. Basically what that means is I've moved from using a lot of nuts to focusing on fruits and veggies. I was 100% low raw for a month, felt great, doing awesome and last week had a bit of a hiccup. I don't want to call it that, but have no other word. There's too much that goes into this lifestyle that it's hard to explain here. But, in a nutshell, it's all raw, no added spices (including salt, etc), focuses on LOTS of fruit and veggies, and LOTS of water. I plan on keep on keeping on with it, but not as strict as I was initially. I have an addictive personality and cold turkey is the best way for me to do things. Unfortunately cold turkey changes don't always make for the best long term changes. I ulimately would love to be 100% low raw and know I'll get there, since I've already been there and have felt the amazing changes. But, for the time being I'm going to work towards that target and feel positive that I'm moving in the right direction.

I've gotten back to running pretty solid. In addition, I got a Trek bike for mother's day and plan on biking to work this summer.

I'm glad for the positive changes in our lives. I'm grateful for everything in our lives. After these recent changes I've realized that not only do I need to see what I'm grateful for, but also verbalize it. Hence, my daily "4 gratefuls". It's not about throwing stuff in people's faces (the I got this and you don't type of thing) it's about being positive and spreading happiness. Maybe if more people did it, the world may be a better place. Wishful thinking? Meh, maybe, but it's worth a try. It's easy to see the negative and get down on yourself. When I first started my gratefuls I found it hard to think of 4 for each day. Now I go through my days constantly thinking, "I'm grateful for this...." It's hard to narrow it down at the end of the day oftentimes. That, or trying to remember all what I said I was grateful for during the day.

Well, I believe that's about it for the catching up. Until next time...

Spencer's Results

Spencer's results arrived this week. We had several possible diagnoses and one was proven correct....lymphoplasmacytic neutrophilic gingivitis. It's also known as Lymphoplasmacytic Stomatitis (LPS). It's a for of immune-mediated inflammatory response. Unfortunately there is no known cause. In addition to occurring in dogs, it can also occur in cats. With cats, often full mouth extractions are necessary. With dogs it usually is easily controlled with excellent dental hygiene, antibiotics, and long-term steroids. Other changes (i.e. diet) can also assist in treatment.

Unfortunately, treatment for Spencer may not be so easy. Considering his previous diagnosis of epilepsy and already being on an anti-convulsant we'll have to make some changes to his pre-existing medications. There are many ins and outs of his treatment, but I'll simplify it.....Due to drug interactions our current plan is to wean him off of phenobarbital onto potassium bromide while on prednisone (steroid). After changing, if steroids are required long-term, we will then switch to a different steroid. In addition, he will be put on an antibiotic for the next 3 weeks since an underlying infection was also found.

We're hoping that this treatment will give Spencer some relief. Something to keep in mind is that there are possible side effects from long-term treatment of both of his conditions, so we can only hope for the best. Although we haven't been down this road before, it's all too similar having been down another road with our other pets, especially Lily. But as we've found, this too shall pass. And if it doesn't pass, we'll adapt and overcome. We're thankful to have an answer and thankful to have a plan so that we can make Spencer feel better.

One Month On Phenobarb

Quick update on Spencer: He's been on the phenobarb one month. I must admit we were getting worried for a bit there. He couldn't make it up the steps on his own without falling, so David was having to carry him up to bed every night. Of course David can easily carry him, but at 83 pounds, that's a little rough on me. He was in a a generalized fog and would crash (as in sleep) one hour post pill. Thankfully, he's evened out and seems to be doing excellent. He's still on the medication but is back to his old self. Knock on wood, no seizures either.

Worth It

Things are content here the Henry Household. Spencer has been on his medication for a week now and has had no seizures. He's a little doppy (maybe I should say more doppy....greyhounds aren't always the most gracious) due to the meds, but he's getting by. Jax had another flareup with FIC, but I think we had it back under control. We've got him on daily meds and the cats both on a different diet in hopes of curbing the flareups.

With everyone (animals and humans included) I've finally broken down and purchased a dry erase board for the refrigerator to keep track of who's gotten what. Some things/doses you can miss, others you can't, so although I have an excellent memory, this will help us keep track too. In addition, David will know if I've already given them meds, etc. and not have to ask. Even with my memory and the dry erase board, I have no fear that Spencer will not let me forget his medication. That boy has an internal clock that's amazing. If it's time for him to eat, he follows me until I feed him. If it's time for meds, he follows me until I give it to him. I've been giving him his meds in cheese for the time being to make it a positive experience, so of course he's after the cheese and not the meds. Even so, he cracks me up.

One thing is for sure, these kids keep me busy. Last week I had to run a few errands after work. Could you believe that 2 out of the 3 stops were for the animals. Ha! It's alright though. And although it may seem like I'm complaining, I'm not. I'll be honest, as with everything you sometimes hit your limit and get frustrated, but 99.9% of the time we know that they are worth it. We wouldn't have them if we didn't think so. Speaking of, it's 7am, time to feed the birdies and time for Spencer's meds.

Update On Spencer

A quick update on Spencer. After reviewing his history the doctors have determined that yes, Spencer, our 3 year old greyhound, has epilepsy. We ran a bit more bloodwork to compare back to the bloodwork ran in August and we have decided that it's time to get Spencer on an anticonvulsant medication. He will be on this medication daily, for the rest of his life. As with many disorders/diseases there is the ability to control, not cure. We will continue to monitor any further seizures and will also monitor bloodwork in the future in hopes of controlling Spencer's symptoms.