March 05, 2016

Heidi's Health Mystery Continues

After having a lot of days in a row of good skin, today after lunch I noticed that Heidi had chewed a spot on her upper right front leg. Plus her skin had redness on the rear legs again. Instead of doing the Epsom Salt soak, I decided I wanted the vet to see what the skin looked like when it was irritated. I also wanted to check her weight and get a check-up since her last trip to the vet was last June. Plus she was due for her annual rabies vaccine. I also wanted to see if they would cut her nails further back than I do ... I found out they cut just as much as I do, not more.



After seeing three different vets since October 2014 and no changes in her skin issues, I had decided for my next trip it would be back to the original vet that Heidi had seen since I got her in July 2011. For the same reason I chose to go somewhere else in September 2014 I saw and heard the same thing today ... very little discussion on skin possibilities, and was just going to give her an allergy shot without very little discussion. I told her she the last shot she gave did not work longer than 7 days. So no allergy shot was given today. I told her the different medicines that had been tried since October 2014 and what the results were.

It might have been me taking their attitude wrong but I had the impression as I was telling the vet this information, she didn't really care since it was done at a different vet clinic. Could that be possible?

The focus was more on Heidi's thin appearance and what might be the causes. No test was given on her thyroid because the vet said in the cases she had seen with thyroid problems, the dogs were extremely overweight. She was more concerned about her liver, kidneys functions and any possible tumors. She squeezed her stomach hard, pushed and probed ... found nothing and there were no signs of pain from Heidi.

She suggested blood work. I told her last year the test results were normal ... but go ahead and try again. The results came back with normal readings. Liver and kidneys functioning normal. White and red blood cell counts in the normal range. So the good news was ... the blood test showed nothing was wrong internally.

Heidi left the vet clinic once again with a clean bill of health and no answers about her weight problem.

Although she has normal stools, just to make sure Triwormer was prescribed. She also prescribed Hema A Spike which is a potent concentrated liquid that spikes red blood cell production, supplies essential irons, folic acid and Vitamin B12. It is also contains manganese, cobalt, copper and zinc. Basically it is for older dogs that just need 'a boost' as well as dogs that have had surgery or a serious illness. It will be interesting to see if there are any improvements.

At 35 pounds, her hip bones are extremely exposed, spine is expose but you can feel muscle mass on her upper rear legs, neck and upper shoulder area. She weighed 34 pounds in June 2015.

That's about all I have for today from 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.


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