Dakota update - October 2008
The summer has been a little difficult for Dakota who has had continual skin infections due to her immune system being suppressed because of long term steroid use. The steroids are essential for her health as they keep the cancer in remission so the side effects are the lesser of two evils. She is starting to look old and has certainly looked very moth-eaten since May when the skin problems began. Her belly is extremely distended, again due to the steroids but in herself she seems happy. She is certainly still very active and joins in with all pack interaction etc. She has recently been displaying an odd behaviour of wanting to eat cut grass and along with her other health problems it was decided to call in her vets for a meeting and review her condition and medications.
Julian Slater, our main vet and Nick Thompson, our homeopathic and nutritional consultant met with the welfare team and both vets were very pleased with her general condition. They were amazed she was doing so well and was still with us over a year and a half after diagnosis (some dogs with her condition only survive for four months post diagnosis). It was felt that the grass-eating and skin problems could be helped by some new remedies so she now has more support for her liver and also a higher dose of the natural food supplements we use which has stopped the grass eating.
Since the review she is looking a lot better and has put on some weight. Sometimes, in the bad weather, she gets a little cold so 24 hour access to the warm, dry kennel is available and she takes full advantage of it. Let’s hope for a mild winter.
Article created on: 11 Oct 2008