The tale of the bum stick and the homeopathic vet

In the three weeks since my last post, I've learned a lot about the importance of Lady's diet to her healing and longevity. Since I am careful with my own diet, this should be a no-brainer, right?

Not at all - the experts who do the marketing for commercial dog food make us think that we are giving our pets what they need when, in fact, it's really the opposite.

After the last scare with Lady, I took her to see Dr. Jeff Feinman. Dr. Jeff has a fabulous web site chock full of links and resources. He and I spent a lot of time talking about Lady's behavior and diet and he explained to me that commercial dog food is mostly carbs, which a dog's body isn't built to process. We also talked about keeping a journal of Lady's behaviors - this reference will help me see any changes that may be an early warning sign of something we can treat before it gets out of control.

Specific to Lady's leg, Dr. Jeff gave her a homeopathic remedy - symphytum. I've given her three doses in the past three weeks and he felt that the diet combined with the remedy would give Lady's body the kick in the ass it needed to start healing and lay some new bone on that bum stick of hers.

The diet change has made a tremendous positive difference in her energy and her coat is so shiny and soft. I am feeding her Nature's Variety raw diet. I also have Dr. Harvey's power patties. They smell disgusting but are SO HEALTHY for Lady. She gobbles them right up. Dr. Jeff also gave me some anti-oxidant supplements.

Some other things Lady loves to eat: tomatoes, bananas, blueberries, apples, peanut butter (and she's even eaten a peanut) carrots and celery.

If you've ever wondered if you can do better for your pet, you most certainly can. I highly recommend finding and working with a homeopathic vet and getting your dog OFF of commercial dog food. There are plenty of great books and resources on Dr. Jeff's site for you to check out.

This morning I dropped Lady off at Dr. Palmisano's - it's been 8 weeks and they will x-ray and see if they can begin taking apart the fixator and de-stabilizing the leg.

Keep your fingers crossed!

Fixator +5 weeks

After Lady's bandages were changed, we noticed that she wasn't using that leg as much anymore. The new bandages were very snug to the pins and her leg, so I just figured that there was some rubbing/irritation. I didn't want to disturb her leg, so I gave it a week. When there was no improvement - in fact, it got so bad she would just walk outside and sit down, I grabbed my scissors, cuticle nippers and tweezers, and started trimming the bandage back. I found one pin spot very swollen and another starting to get red. Nothing was oozy, so I took that as a good sign. However, I was paranoid that the fixator had stopped working and her leg was out of alignment again.

Tuesday after Labor Day, I called the VR&EC - they said to bring her in ASAP. So, Thursday, Sept. 8, we hauled her down there again. She was examined and x-rayed. Everything was still aligned, but at 5 weeks there was no sign of new bone growth. Dr. Palmisano said he wasn't surprised, since she is an adult dog and her leg has been through a lot of trauma. He said in 3 weeks they would check again and begin to de-stabilize the leg to stimulate healing.

In the meantime, I've been researching therapies to complement her course of treatment. I've consulted a canine acupuncturist/chinese herbalist and a homeopathic vet. I think the right choice is homeopathy, so I'll be taking her to see Dr. Jeff Feinman (homevet.com).

More to come...