Heidi's Medical History

I bought Heidi in July 2011 from the Guardian Angel Basset Rescue. Their link is on my left sidebar under "basset hound rescue". It was documented in her medical records and her paperwork that she had skin allergies and would need monthly treatment during the high allergy seasons. I had no problem with that.

July 30, 2011

Here is a list of medicines given to her with a short summary of each.

June 29, 2011
2.25 cc
Steroid - anti inflammatory for allergies and skin conditions.

Given only one time prior to my ownership.

June 2011 - February 2013
200mg
Anti fungal for fungus infections

Months Used - Oct, May, Sept, Nov, Feb

Stopped working after 7 days.

March 2013 - September 2014
Dose amount not known

Steroid - Rapid Relief, treats inflammation and skin conditions caused by allergies.

Months Used - March, June, August, October, November, May, September

Stopped working after 7 days.

New Vet
October 2014 - December 2014

Use along with Atopica Treatment. Shampoo was used until the bottle was empty around May 2015.

This shampoo irritated her skin more than it help as if it was too strong.

October 2014 - December 2014
100mg daily

Immunosuppressive to treat skin conditions. Plan to cut dose gradually.

Great results with daily does but bad for long term use and strong side affects.

While trying to reduce the dose to every other day, skin condition went back to where it was when started.

New Vet
January 2015 - March 2016
500ml

One time injection to treat demodectic and sarcoptic mange

Was recommended as a "just in case" situation.

No change in skin condition.

February 2015

Her skin was in such bad condition, the worse ever seen, this shot was given only for rapid relief.

It did give relief and reduced the inflammation.

February 2015 - May 2015
.1ml - 1ml
Non-Steroid
Regionally Specific Immunotherapy

A gradual build up in dosage, weekly shot. After 15 weeks no improvement.


Between September 2014 - May 2015 her weight dropped from 49 to 36 pounds. From May 2015 - March 2016 she has remained at 36 pounds.

After trying all of these different treatments and her skin showing signs of being the worse conditions ever from September 2014 to May 2015 I decided to take her off of any medication. I wanted to cleanse her system. I also wanted to go to a dog food that had just one protein source and off of grain free.

To help her immune system which was obviously out of sync, I bought Probiotic Miracle to add to her food. I told the vet what I was doing and he approved.

I started this supplement in September 2015 and still give it to her today. I am not sure there is any way to tell if it is working. The vet that I had in 2015 and her original vet that I have gone back to in March 2016 both said it would be good for her and wouldn't hurt.

During this time nothing has changed as far as her skin.

When I bought her in July 2011 she had been eating Purina One with Chicken. I moved her to what Sadie and Winston was eating. I was rotating Diamond Naturals and Fromm for Large Breeds ... both with grain.

From July 2011 until September 2014 her skin rashes were only mild due to allergies and most of the time the Ketoconazole and then the Vetalog did work. Her skin rash would go away. It was toward the end where it would stop working about 7 days with her skin going back to being bad.

For some reason that four different vets have not been able to figure out, her skin condition worsened in September 2014 and it has been an ongoing battle every since.

I have tried single protein source food, grain-free foods, grain free without potatoes. Vet #3 in February 2015 recommended duck or venison as a protein source. Neither of those made a difference.

Protein sources have ranged from chicken, lamb, duck, bison, wild bore, salmon, venison.

Different lotions, creams, salves, have been tried with a zinc oxide base. Aloe vera gels, K9 Klearup and now Wounded Warrior Ointment.

I have also checked to see if her bedding might be the cause. She has slept on Mexican wool blankets, flannel blankets, cotton sheets, nylon on the outside of a sleeping bag, fleece blankets ... there were no changes in skin condition.

As of this morning her skin does not look any different than it did in September 2014. Something happened yesterday to take away what little improvement was seen. As always during this 20 month period, her skin always looks it's best first thing in the morning after she wakes up.

Any comments or suggestions are welcomed.

Heidi's Basset Hound Skin Issues Stabilize

About this time last year I was taking Heidi to her 2nd new vet in 4 months. The vet changes were an attempt to find the cause and solution to Heidi’s Basset Hound skin issues that exploded at the end of the summer in 2014.

When I adopted her in July 2011, vet records showed she did come with skin allergies that would require treatment. In certain parts of the year, those treatments might be a monthly shot. At the time she was prescribed Ketoconazole but had a steroid shot of Depo Medrol the day before I picked her up.

Over the next 20 months Ketoconazole lost it’s effectiveness, meaning the treatment was not working longer than 2 weeks compared to months in prior years. Her treatment changed to Vetalog steroid injections.

Like the medication before, it eventually became less effective. Her last steroid shot did not last 17 days before her skin was back to where it was before the Vetalog injection. I decided I needed a 2nd opinion.

In October 2014 after an examination I was given a choice between two treatments for her skin condition. I chose Atopica, along with a shampoo prescribed 3x per week. The prescribed plan was daily capsules for 1 month and then decrease the dosage. Her skin never looked better after 30 tablets. I was happy with the skin improvement but she was very lethargic and that concerned me. Due to the severity of long-term use, plus side effects (Heidi was showing), I was reconsidering the choice of having her on a daily dose.

Before Atopica Treatment

After 6 Weeks of Atopic Use

After 6 Weeks of Atopica Use

The goal was 1 tablet per month. We would start cutting back dosage to every other day, then twice per week. Within days of changing the dose to twice per week, her skin condition flared up worse than what it was months before. The vet wanted to move her back to a daily dosage.

With Heidi showing signs of some of the listed side effects, namely very lethargic. She barely made the walk to her food/water bowl, along with zero activity. I decided to discontinue Atopica. Her tail was always lowered and she never did her routine of daily morning sprints around the living room. What I was reading about long-term use was turning me off on the medication.

My decision was not to continue giving her Atopica.

A neighbor is a vet but his office was 16 miles away, a direction I rarely traveled. I decided in January 2015 I’d have John look at her. Basically Heidi’s 3rd vet in a 6 month period. ALL of this is discussed in detail on my blog hosted by Blogger — the older version of this blog.

At that time Heidi’s skin was so bad he did not think she would ever grow hair back on her paws and rear shoulders. Even though he found in his studies that only 3% of canine skin allergies were food related, he suggested a ‘grain free’ dog food, one that I had been feeding her for the past year. I changed brands of ‘grain free food’, with very little improvement.

February 2015

He thought her allergies were more environmental allergies instead of dog food allergies (only 3%). From February until May 2015 I gave her a daily shot of RESPIT. Yet, I was told I may not see any signs of improvement for 6-12 months.

With little to no visible improvement from February – May, I stopped the RESPIT injections. With more research, more emails to friends … I decided to change her food to minimal ingredients and only one protein source. I also decided to take her off all medications.

May 2015

May 2015

May 2015

We traveled west for a week in June 2015. There were no signs that her skin was getting worse in a different environment and a change of dog food to Fromm’s very basic blend with chicken, chicken meal and grains.

With a change back to basic food, with rice and barley, chicken, chicken meal and no medications of any kind … her basset hound skin condition did not get worse. Looking through her file of photos in date sequence I could see slight improvement with hair starting to grow back on her paws, rear shoulder plus her stomach started to clear up.

August 2015

Upon a recommendation from someone who had positive results on their basset hound’s skin condition, I changed to Earthborn Holistic Dog Food, grain free. Multiple sites ranked their food 5-stars. All ingredients are USA based. It is manufactured 70 miles from me, so the cost is below the standard price for dog food of that quality.

I liked the changes of Heidi’s coat and skin at first. After a couple of months she started itching more, almost obsessively, along with a ‘greasy’ feeling to her coat, I could smell yeast from her ears (first time) and skin. I decided it didn’t matter if it was rated 5-stars, I was going to change food brands.

I tried their different protein sources … with the same results.

It was also in June 2015 that she became “skin and bones”. Was it the stress of the camping trip out west? Was it the RESPIT shots I gave her for 90 days? Was there not enough carbs in the ‘no grain’ food to help her maintain her weight? All blood work showed normal readings. The vet could not come up with a reason for her 13 pounds of weight loss in 10 months. In the 2 months prior she had lost 7 of those 13 pounds.

In the past couple of months I have mentioned without going into detail, that I had changed her dog food back to ‘grain’ dog food with only one protein source. I started a probiotic supplement with her food for her immune system in October 2015. Her skin has shown improvement with that supplement and has stabilized. My spreadsheet log for Heidi’s skin condition that I update daily, shows there is not a difference in improvement between ‘grain free’ and dog food with brown rice and barley included.

In fact I find that her skin looks better — longer — feeding her Diamond Naturals with Chicken and Chicken meal as the only protein source. I tried their Lamb blend but within a week her skin flared up enough that I stopped feeding her lamb and lamb meal immediately.

The times I tried Fromm for Large Breed, with duck, chicken and chicken meal being the protein sources, her skin would become red and inflamed within a 7-10 day period. Changing her back to Diamond Naturals, her skin improved.

It is interesting that as the day progresses, not every day, her rear hocks will become red and inflamed. I have changed blankets from wool to cotton — no difference. I have periodically have soaked her with Epsom Salts with mixed results. Sometimes it looks like it makes a difference, other time it looks like the skin is irritated by the Epsom Salts soak.

Bottom line … feeding her Diamond Naturals, with chicken and chicken meal along with the probiotic supplement, there is NO yeast smell coming from her ears or body. Her coat is shiny and soft but not oily and does not smell. Hair has grown back on her paws but not with the normal thickness. Her belly is clear and normal skin color. Her rear shoulders have improved with skin texture that is now the normal softness even though parts of it are bare.

January 2016

Remember the vet in February 2015 didn’t think hair would ever grow back on her paws and rear shoulders based on the severe damage she showed. In that January 2016 photo you can see the white hair on her rear shoulder has tried to fill back in, where in the February 2015 photos above, you can see the hard crusty elephant type skin.

I forgot to add, currently her energy level has never been better … like a puppy. She IS gaining her weight back slowly but surely, 2 pounds at a time it seems. Her tail is wagging and she does her morning sprints around the living room until Stella decides that she wants to play … then Heidi stops.

So, we will stay with the same dog food currently fed. She will still be supplemented with Probiotic Miracle. I have noticed she doesn’t really like having her picture taken with the Nikon D3200 but with an iPhone I no longer have, I am not able to get a picture of her before she moves. Consequently, less really good photos of Heidi are available.

I will continue to post photos and updates on Heidi’s skin condition.

Good Weather Makes the Mind Wander

I actually believe that winter is officially over here in the 'tropics' of Southern Indiana. It's 58° right now on a bright sunny Sunday and a forecasted high of 68°. Although in past years I have seen weather like this in mid-March and have a snow storm weeks later ... in this case I am believing the "global warming" stories and am planning that the 2015 spring is here for good.

Not a lot going on as usual. Not really a lot to blog about, so this is just a short update for the past few weeks.

About 10 days ago when the snow was so high, Heidi did what she rarely does, she peed on the concrete. That was a blessing in disguise. As I was about to pour water over the urine to get it off the concrete, I see a puddle of blood in her urine. This poor basset hound is having a rough winter.

By the next morning we were at the vet to check that out. She had a urinary tract infection and the vet said it was not surprising with all she is going through. With a weak immune system, the infection didn't surprise him. He sold me some Baytril tables that she ate like candy for the next 10 days. Within 24 hours of the first two tablets, she was back to her normal self sprinting around the house after her first trip outside in the morning. I could tell she was already feeling much better.

The vet was happy with the improvement she saw on her skin. This is not clearing up her skin as fast I want nor as the Atopica did back in November and part of December. At times she looks like she is improving and by the end of the night, she looks no better than last October when this skin rash mess started.

Very frustrating to say the least.

The weekly shots of RESPIT are increased on schedule by .1ml until we get up to the 1ml weekly injection. Basically that is an immune program that fights all allergies that are geographic location specific. It will take almost 140 days before any improvement will be noticed. Still, it is not damaging to her kidneys or liver that long term steroids would do nor the reports of what long term Atopica would do. So I guess the wait is worth it, even though that is hard to do.

We have just passed week 6 of the treatment or as of today it's day 46 days out of 140 before noticeable results.

Would her skin problem heal or be a potential problem with location changes, environmental changes, while traveling?

Temperatures are getting high enough for me to finish the last few things on my list of house 'to do'. These things on the list have been held off until the temps get warmer. There are a couple of things I will have to wait until the ground dries out. The ground is extremely saturated with the melted snow and then two days of rain this past Thursday night and all day Friday. I'm not thrilled about getting under the house to inspect, especially with a rising water table. It's not a crawl space under there but a huge dirt hole about 4' deep and I have seen it after there are heavy rains.

As every spring, improving weather generates mind cell activity. I start thinking of traveling, and it has happened every spring since 2012. Of course two of those three years I was still working, so it wasn't possible long term. Last year I was very close with the Chevy pickup truck I had bought and the search for the right trailer. I only kept that truck for a month and a half before buying what I really wanted ... the Toyota FJ Cruiser 4x4. I still love that vehicle.

I still cannot understand why it seems to be so important what I do or don't do to some readers of this blog. I've always done what I want, not what someone else tells me to do, even at work. I've never followed the path of the yellow brick road and white picket fences around the 2-car garage house... or even the plans required to move up the corporate ladder. All of my moves have been location/recreation first ... job second. That is until this last move back to Indiana in 1994, that was job related. Even then I've pretty much followed my own path.

Based on just a few past comments and emails I have received, my traveling decision seems to be more important to them than me ... I find that very strange.

So, yes I am talking and thinking of traveling again ... dogs and all. I am also seriously considering selling the house and moving west and have thought of that most of the winter. I just need to complete those 2-3 things on the 'to do' list that I've been needing warm weather to complete. Then I can turn the house over to an real estate agent. I don't need to be around to sell the house. With no mortgage payment, I can leave the house empty, put my furniture, computers and bikes in storage and hit the road. They can show and sell the house empty. That seems to be my most consistent thought.

I still think it would be a quick sell based on price, size and location. There are not a lot of good quality houses around here in the price range of the asking price. It would make a great house for a young or older couple. The area has extremely low property taxes and the house requires little maintenance but more than I am wanting to do. I'm just not into the normal house maintenance that is required with ownership.

I've looked at willow.com, realty.com and houses.org for houses in Arizona, New Mexico and Utah recently. Once again I can't really make a decision where to go until I could get there and check the areas out. I am also not sure I want to be a homeowner once my house would sell. I'll decide that later.

I had a friend wanting to buy my Mini Cooper and all was looking good until she couldn't find someone to give her a loan. That seemed strange to me because she works where I did and is paid well. Two income family with two kids and a house. After she later told me that she had just had transferred $20,000 of credit card debt to a loan, the answer was pretty obvious.

The Mini Cooper will sell quick after I detail it, get the winter grime off of it, park it down by the highway for all to see with a for sale sign on it. I will also list it on Craig's List. Over the past few months of my blogging vacation and reduced computer time, things have getting downsized again, some detailed inch by inch house cleaning, and some minor repairs fixed.

Computer time has still stayed low. I survived the winter using little heat as possible, thus heading for a big refund in May for overpayment of my utility bills. I pay a fixed amount every month and then settle up every May. My vehicle license plates are due in April as well as my property taxes ... so basically all of the small stuff will be taken care of for the year before I hit the road.

Before next spring I would expect that my legal residence would change. With my military retirement health plan, TriCare, luckily ObamaCare is not an issue for me. With that not being a factor I can still have about any state I want as a legal residence for full time traveling.

All I know is I am tired and have been of the daily routine living where I do and the responsibilities of home ownership.

Changing Heidi's Treatment

Before we get into the reasons why Heidi's treatment is changing direction, I thought I'd post a picture of Winston and Sadie outside on Christmas day with very unusual weather ... like high 40's.

Since they know the weather should be colder, all three hounds have done their annual migration to the leather couch. Luckily when I want to sit there to watch a game, a movie, or read a book ... one of them will move to another chair or spot on the floor.

Like I was saying, Christmas Day did not feel like the typical Midwestern winter day. It was just a few years ago we had over 24" of snow and I was clearing driveways a couple of different times due to the non-stop snowing. Not this year.

I think you will agree this next picture looks like a cool November day in the Midwest.

Christmas Day 2014

Sadie doesn't like the iPhone camera but loves posing in front of the Nikon D3200

I made a mistake in my last post when I wrote about Heidi's Atopica dose. I had put 500mg per day but it was 100mg per day, I've corrected the previous post. Huge difference. That comes in a very large capsule. Since it has to be given 1 hour before her meal or 2 hours after her meal, hiding the capsule in cheese or peanut butter was not an option.

I am not even sure if that would have worked, since she is very good at separating what she doesn't like to eat. Luckily she is a very good dog when I open her mouth and I can slide the large capsule down the back of her throat without her trying to bite me or fighting it.

With the daily dose of Atopica I was seeing improvement like I wrote about the last post. Our goal was a gradual decrease in dosage from daily to hopefully 1 per week or 2 per month.

December 12, as per the vet's instructions I decreased the dosage to every other day. Within a few days I started seeing her itch more, and she was back to chewing her feet. Her spots were not nearly as bad as they were October 28 when we took the initial trip to the vet but her rear hocks were still hairless and red as well as her armpits. 

I had mentioned the armpit issue in my last vet visit November 29 but was told due to the excess skin a basset hound has it was having a hard time drying out and healing after the medicated shampoos. That seemed strange to me because her armpits have never been a problem until October. I can't say I was thrilled with that answer at the time but nodded my head and moved on.

When she recently started itching again, chewing herself again after 8 weeks of treatment ... I decided to read more about Atopica. Back in October I had read about any possible side effects Heidi might have taking Atopica plus what the long term effects were. All the information I read in October seemed to show it was the drug to use for allergies without using steroids. It had been used in people for years but not dogs and cats until 2003.

Someway in that initial research I missed the long term effect  that Atopica had.

Last week I did an internet search for "Is Atopica safe for dogs".  A lot of links showed up, some dog forums where dog owners were discussing their results and of course places to buy it online. The majority of people on the forums and customer reviews said Atopica was great, they had used it for years and they had given their dog a better quality of life by controlling their allergies. All said their dogs lived to be 9 years or older.

Like any medication for dogs, unless it's something out of the ordinary, if a dog lives a healthy life while on the medication and dies at the age or 9 or older, who can say the medication had anything to do with failing kidneys, or a bad heart?

These are the two articles that made me ask myself if I was giving her the right medication. They made me reconsider different options for treating her allergies. I decided a different direction in her treatment might be best:

Atopica: A Dangerous Path - click here 

Is Atopica Safe? - click here

Also the websites you find in searches, I'm using DuckDuckGo instead of Google now, how many of those sites discussing the reasons why you should not use that specific drug are really trying to steer you to buy their recommended dog food or products? As an example when I bought Dinovite last summer, a food supplement that did not work ... all of their email replies were telling me to stop all dog food and use their raw food formula along with their other supplements.

It's like a Catch-22. Which should you believe?

I decided the plan I chose at the vet October 28 was not working as well as I expected. Yes, she did give me 3 choices  to TRY to treat the allergies and I chose the Atopica plan. She also wrote in her notes to call her if Heidi's condition worsened or failed to improve.

"failed to improve" ... While on a daily dose, it did improve but not everything I expected. If Atopica was to help stop the itching and chewing, why was I having to continue Benadryl to stop the itching and chewing?  Like I said, her rear hocks were red and hairless and her armpits were hairless and at times red. 

So I decided that after 8 weeks of treatment, $300 worth of Atopica, plus Benadryl every 8-12 hours to prevent itching ... the current plan was not working.

The Benadryl was suppose to be used up until the time there was improvement yet the itching never stopped after 8 weeks.

I told my problem to a friend of mine that rescues dogs and cats. Some of her dogs have had medical problems and with her medical background she is very informed about different medications. She replied later with a long detailed email describing what Heidi was doing or really what her weak immune system was doing ... along with what Atopica was doing.

She agreed with my idea of changing treatment plans. Instead of just putting a "band aid" on the problem, try and strengthen Heidi's immune system through a diet change and possibly adding pro-biotics to her food. As I said in a different blog post, Heidi had these allergies when I bought her from the Basset Rescue. She was under regular medication, which was later changed by my vet to a different pill, then finally steroid shots after the pills were no longer working more than a week or two.

I spent days reading all I could about Atopica, visited forums that were linked in these articles and also looked again at the dog foods I had fed her over the past three years. I found some interesting things on a forum of Scottish Terrier owners where Atopica was discussed. That is where I read where many owners were happy giving their dogs Atopica, with good results.

There were 3 other owners that stood out. 

They stopped Atopica due to the same problems Heidi was still having. They changed their dog food with some great results. None of them worked for the dog food company, nor were affiliates. All three thought it would take months before they might see improvement but they were shocked how fast they saw change. One of the three said she even saw improvement after two weeks of feeding Merrick's Pork and Sweet Potato blend.

Pork is one ingredient I have never considered in a dog food. I've always fed good quality dog food to my hounds, or at least those that are highly rated by Dog Food Adviser. I've gone back and forth between grain free and regular food as long as it did not include wheat, corn or by-products. Most of those dog foods were Chicken and Rice or Lamb and Rice blend. Most had fruits and vegetables added to the ingredients.

After years of researching dog food ingredients, even filling out a spreadsheet of their first 5 ingredients so I could compare foods at a glance ... there was one thing I didn't consider with Heidi ... maybe she has a chicken allergy.

Was she allergic to Chicken or chicken products? Or was the Canola Oil I found in the Taste of the Wild no grain food causing problems. I normally feed the Diamond Naturals Large Breed with Chicken and Rice or Fromm Chicken and Rice. When I decided at different times to go to a grain free food, thinking that might be Heidi's problem I buy Taste of the Wild .. not paying any attention to Canola Oil that was in the Salmon blend.

Last week I didn't like what I read in either of these two articles about Canola Oil now being added to dog food. Taste of the Wild has added Canola Oil to a lot of their different blends of dog food.

Canola article No.1 - click here

Canola article No.2 - click here

So the search for a new dog food was on. I hate the thought on how much dog food costs now, as they raise prices while reducing the size of the bag but I decided I would go with grain free, no chicken an no lamb. Since three of those people had results with a specific kind of dog food I decided to go with Merrick's Grain Free Real Pork and Sweet Potato. This blend also has Salmon Meal and Salmon Oil.

Yes, all of her allergies could be environmental and probably are but the issue is what I am doing now isn't working. When I combine what my friend told me about allergies and immune systems with the three people that got results using this specific food, I have to try it.

So to finally end this longer than planned post, I started the new treatment this past Saturday by giving her the medicated shampoo bath. I am mixing the old and new food 50/50 while gradually changing to 100% new food over 3-4 days. As far as ingredients such as Canola Oil, or Rice, etc...you might think those are small amounts and may or may not have an effect. I asked my vet the first visit if the Wheat in the Milk Bone brand bone would have an effect on her, the vet replied that even if the dog licked the bone, it was enough to be absorbed and be a potential problem. So, that is the way I look at individual dog food ingredients.

After 8 weeks and 60 Atopica Capsules, this is what Heidi looked like on Saturday:

Rear Hock

Armpit

Atopica did improve her paws and neck area. So that improvement that made me consider that still being an option. Yet, treating her without harsh drugs is my first choice. I do not expect instant results and not even the two week results where those forum owners spoke about. All dogs are different as well as treatments. I plan do this food combination for months before I decide if any changes are needed.

I have started the Merrick grain free pork and sweat potato dog food and for relief of any skin rashes I will be using Baby Spa Shea Butter Diaper Cream based on my friends recommendation for dog skin care.

Below are the before and after pictures.

October 28

December 27

October 28

December 27

I'm In Total Hibernation

It looks like it has been a while since my last post, that talked about being a nester or an explorer. In the past 18 days since my last post I have turned into a serious hibernator more than anything. It's not even snowing yet, temperatures are fantastic for this time of year but that hasn't got me outside a lot. It's like I am almost house bound and I'll tell the reasons further down the page.

The hounds and I are fine and still get in the daily dog walk unless the ground is so saturated where it is just too muddy, soft or wet to walk through the field. With Winston's belly so close to the ground when he walks, it doesn't take much to get his whole underside wet if the hay is damp when walking. Sadie will walk in snow, rain, wind or fire ... she just doesn't care what the weather is doing when she hears the word "walk". Heidi on the other had is strictly a good weather walker. If she finds herself having to 'tip toe' through the yard or field, she does a 180 and sprints for the house and refuses to go.

Heidi and I went for a vet followup visit on November 28 to check on her treatment for erythema and alopocia. There was improvement but not as much as I thought would happen after a month of daily doses of 100mg of Atopica, medicated shampoo baths every 4 days and diphenhydramine (benadryl 50mg) every 8-12 hours to prevent itching. Yet, the vet was very happy with the progress. We walked out with a $16 bill or a 'check-up' visit and a month supply of Atopica worth $150 for free because he had started the treatment process. She wanted me to continue the daily doses for 2 more weeks than move to giving the Atopica every other day.

I will say in the past week Heidi has looked the best she has in a long time, skin-wise. All 4 of her paws have a thick growth of hair, along with under her neck and her rear hocks are starting to show a layer of hair coming back. Of course whenever there is some kind of allergy involved, the question lingers in back of the mind asking, is t the medication working or is it the season change where allergies are not as prevalent?

Anyway, either way she is looking much better and it's nice to know that steroid shots were not needed for the improvement. We go back January 9 for a followup. After that I am hopeful the skin problem will be under control with doses of Atopica maybe every 3-4 days from then on. The vet says that is the plan and it should work out to less dosage year round for her allergy control.

One thing I like about blogging is the function of record keeping. When I glanced back through 2011-2013 in the month of December I saw that last year I only posted one time in December. It was on December 9th, a picture of the Coachman was sitting in the back covered with 12" of snow. I had forgot that it snowed that early in the month. After seeing that I was pretty happy with the current daytime temperatures in the low 40's most of the time. Also it also showed me that I rarely posted during the month of December, 3 times in 2012 and 5 times in 2011 only a couple of months after starting the blog.

So I guess for me it's just normal not to post much in the month of December.

I do write on two other blogs that I have now. One is a personal journal that I write in every morning. I started that journal in late August. I like doing that because it kind of clears my mind. Plus I wanted a way to record my mood swings and health conditions. It will also give me a record for any computer issues and solutions, and a history of what the hounds have done. That blog is in the private status and I decided to use that format because it was much more convenient using Blogger rather than Microsoft Word.

The other blog was just started this week. As you know I am a sports junkie. Over the years I would send out an email before every game IU played in football or basketball, to a group of friends I went to college with, back 40 years ago. These emails would cover stories, statistics or previews. This year the 'roar' seemed to get louder from the small group of friends saying "you need to start a blog and write about all of this".  I thought about it off and on but thought 3 blogs were too much.

Then I decided why not? The purpose would be a little different than the private journal and this blog about my rv research, retirement life and future travels. Unlike this blog, I also wanted to add some Google Adsense and some sports affiliate links for some possible income. So this week I decided to take the plunge and started a new sports only blog, talking about no specific team or sports, just sports in general.

That small group of friends liked the first post so much they passed the blog link out to their sports friends and family scattered all over the USA and it is showing me through google states I am getting some pretty good traffic after just a couple of posts. One friend even said that I might have to go into hiding after writing in such a controversial tone about our favorite team....lol. I even signed up for a Google + account, put all the settings to public to get the blog spread out as much as possible.

No matter what time of the year or where I am, my interest in sports is always there and I am always reading about it or watching it, so the sports blog should be pretty fun. I'll not have any problem finding something to write about.

Speaking of those Google stats that are provided to bloggers using Blogger as their blog platform, behind the scenes on your blog traffic, it showing this past month that the Ukraine not only passed Canada in number of visitors but also moved to the #1 spot above the blog visitors in the USA. How strange is that? Are they trying to hack me or do they just like the hounds? I don't know.

So I have added a couple of new blogs to the list of blogs for those that are interested in security news, online or shopping. One is the LastPass blog. It is the free service I use for all of my passwords to my banks, and any other sites, all encrypted passwords. The other blog is about security not only on your computer but also credit cards. That blogger usually has a new post every day M-F with some great information. Like today I found out that my browser updates did not run and install automatically along with the Microsoft Office for Mac. His blog will always be near the top of the list because he blogs frequently.

Since I am hibernating there might be some readers wondering if I am sitting in front of my computer 15 hours per day or am I still using that Nikon D3200 camera I bought a few months back and if I am why not any pictures?

I am spending very little time on the computer. Just enough to write, read blog updates and sports news. The rest of my day is including a lot of book reading, more than I had planned on but I can't stop reading and am finding books that I have bought but never read until now. I am still downsizing plus some normal indoor maintenance/updates that comes with home ownership. I pop in an occasional movie. I finally sorted all of my DVDs alphabetical. That will prevent this older brain from buying duplicate movies which I found about 7 different shows where I did that after I sorted them.

I use the camera almost every day but those photos are not much different than what you have already seen of the back field, sunsets to the west taken from my yard or the hounds. The hounds are not really doing much besides winter sleeping. Sadie won the war on changing the dinner time for her and the bassets. When we "fell back" in the fall for the time change, she would come and sit by the desk at 3pm not 4pm if she had not been fed yet. Then as Heidi started feeling better she started barking at 3pm wanting to be fed and Winston walks toward his bowl but just sits and stares as if to say "what are their problems". So we eat by 3pm based on the bloodhound's demands. So much for the time change.

I will say there have been a couple of close calls but I have NOT dropped the camera or lens, I haven't dropped the new iPhone or iPad Mini. I love the Mini iPad even more than the larger, heavier 1st generation iPad that I used previously. The retina display is fantastic and I can tell the difference with my eyes. My glasses are not needed to read the smaller fonts.

Well it looks like I have rambled on enough here. I'll try to load some photos on my next post and will try to start blogging her more. It's hard to decide sometimes what is boring and what is interesting to readers since my current lifestyle is pretty mundane.

I do enjoying reading my blog list to keep track of everybody. Weather-wise it sounds like the best place to be most of the time is in Gulf Shores, Alabama.

Heidi Has a New Vet & New Treatment

As you may remember a few posts back I talked about Heidi's ongoing problem with allergies that have become worse over the past year. It was noted when I bought her from Basset Rescue (GABR), along with her medical records, that she had an ongoing allergy problem. So it is something we have been dealing with not every month but usually 6- 8 months out of the year.  Over the past year the treatment from my vet had changed from a pill to a shot. I was under the assumption it was an allergy shot, like you or I would get if we had allergies. Months ago after I dug a little deeper on the internet about the ingredients of the shot, I found they had changed from a pill for allergies to a steroid shot.

I didn't like that change so I started looking at other alternatives last spring. No one or no test could pinpoint what she was allergic to. Was it a food allergy, grass or walking through the hay field, environmental or seasonal.

I always suspected environmental because it didn't last all 12 months of the year but also occurred at different times through all 4 seasons. I had also tried different types of dry food, grain free, lamb based, duck & chicken based and even salmon based dry kibble. Last summer I tried a food supplement called Dinovite without any change in her skin problem. These past couple of months I have added coconut oil to her food with nothing really working.

No change ... so I didn't think it was food related.

Throughout the past year I had tried different antibiotic sprays, specialized shampoos with oatmeal or aloe vera. As one reader suggested I tried a solution to treat mites. Nothing improved. Last week I found some antibiotics left from Winston's script last spring and gave Heidi the last of those, which amounted to 2-1/2 days of antibiotics .... improvement.

Since her annual check up, annual shots and the steroid shot in late September I had decided for the first time in about 8 years that I was going to look for a different vet. There were other reasons to look somewhere else besides the treatment. Due to my location, plus living in a small town, there are different vets to choose from but 16-25 miles away. I do have a local vet but stopped going to him 8 years ago. I was about to chose  a vet that is my neighbor but has his office 18 miles away. He is more into the treatment of farm animals for the local Amish/Mennonite farms 18 miles away but also uses alternative treatments for dogs. For some reason I had not called his office for an appointment yet.

Heidi's skin problems came back very rapidly after the antibiotics were stopped and was in the worse shape I had ever seen. To help relieve the redness, swelling and I'm sure soreness, I gave her a bath where not only did she soak with the shampoo but also a nice soak in warm water after the shampoo rinse. She laid in the water up to her neck almost dozing off.

I had decided to call the next morning for an appointment for the new vet 18 miles away. It was after their office hours so it would have to wait till Tuesday morning before I could call. I guess timing is everything. Late Monday night I received an email from my friend that lives in that town 18 miles away, where my neighbor's vet office is located, asking if I had seen the new vet in my town. I had passed this place twice in the past month on my way out of town but had not noticed the house that had recently sold was turned into a new veterinary clinic. I had missed their sign in the front yard.

I spent a few minutes reading their website about their business, the staff, their services and treatments. They sounded like they had a good business plan along with being a paperless office. I made my appointment online, after midnight. They confirmed my appointment by email and a phone call yesterday morning. I normally wouldn't write about a vet visit in detail but in this case I am. Not a lot of detail but just a few highlights that stood out, changes from my past vet and finally some answers after years of asking if there was anything else we could do for her besides just a shot that was no longer working for a month or so but closer to 2 weeks. Was there a different kind of food I should be feeding her?

This older house had been remodeled into a vet clinic ... very nice design and workmanship. After the receptionist double checked my address, phone number and email address that I had posted online ... Heidi and I proceeded to our treatment room. Soon after the vet tech stepped inside, sat her laptop on the table where you would normally lift your dog or cat for them to inspect. But she sat on the floor to get to Heidi's level ... asking questions as she petted her. At no time was I asked to put Heidi up on the table so she would be at the vet's level. We covered a lot of information with questions and answers. The only time I saw her go to the computer was after she took Heidi's pulse and temperature. That is something I want you to remember for later in this story.

Next the vet came in. She also sat her laptop on the table, where I would normally lift my hound for them to look out. Remember this is a paperless office so they had laptops and no folder with written files. The vet also sat on the floor at Heidi's level and gave her a thorough inspection while asking questions and giving me answers to my questions. A lot of information was covered between us. Not once did the vet go to her computer to type what was being said. She left the room after we were finished our discussion and her inspection of Heidi then came back with 3 options for me to consider based on her analysis.

Steroid shots nor allergy shots were an option.

During our discussion I was really impressed with her answers because not only where they detailed answers but the reasons why things were happening and how to treat it. They were the same questions I had asked my previous vet over the past 3 years of having Heidi treated for allergies ... only this time I had answers and not another steroid shot for the "quick band-aide" fix.

She recommended a medicated shampoo to be used only until the other meds started to work. I found out it was not a food allergy. It was not something that could be cured and gone for good, it will be an ongoing problem just as it has been the past 5+ years for Heidi. I also was relieved to find out it was not a grass or a hay field issue. It is most likely an airborne environmental issue like any person has and can be treated with medication without steroids.

What is going to be different is getting her away from those steroid shots ... which is something I wanted. It is also going to be a program where once under control, it would not be something that would flash back after 3-4 weeks causing her pain, swelling and soreness ... it would be under control. At the same time it would be a treatment only when the allergies are active.

I chose the Atopica "The Comfort Club" program. It's a modified oral capsule (cyclosporine) USP for dogs, the same ingredient you or I would be able to take for skin issues. I also left with the Antiseptic Shampoo along with 50mg capsules of Benedryl for her itching, to be used only until the Atopica took effect.

Since it was a paperless office I only walked out with the medications and a small debit card receipt, knowing my invoice would be emailed to me in a pdf file. That was nice because I am also a paperless person and always took those receipts in the past and scanned them when I got home into pdf files. I had their invoice in my inbox within 10 minutes after leaving the office.

The surprise came around 4:07pm when I received an email from the vet office and an attached pdf file named "Heidi's Health Report Card". All of the discussions with the vet tech and the vet were typed in a detailed summary. (They were paying attention to what was said). They even included what kind of dog food she eats and what the main ingredients were. They included the vital signs with temperature, heart rate, respiratory rate, pulse quality, CRT, hydration, and body condition. They listed her condition in a categorized list based on their observation...even noting her ears were clean, something they mentioned at the time that they don't normally see in basset hounds.

They asked me if they could take a couple of pictures of Heidi's skin issues for their files and website, as they wanted to track improvements of her condition.

Heidi was cooperative throughout the visit, even rolling over on her back to show the vet her stomach and legpits issues ... without asking.

I'll update my leaf removal process in my next post.