Sick Dog, Sad Dog

Look at this face. I had to look at this face for two weeks.

I give my animals a good week to start resolving their health issues on their own before I start interfering, and this guy had been getting increasingly miserable for more than a week. When he was mostly laying around moaning, I decided it was time to take him to the veterinarian.

The vet diagnosed him with what I knew he would diagnose him with, a sore back. Jimmy is an older dachshund, and they are susceptible to broken backs. I also knew what the vet would prescribe: gabapentin, a muscle relaxant, and, western medicine's poisonous go-to for all things, steroids.

This time however, the vet had some additional news. Jimmy has an enlarged liver.

As the vet handed me the meds, he said "I suspect Jimmy has Cushing's disease. If so, the steroids will make it worse."

After the first day on these three meds, Jimmy felt much better. Steroids do that. But by the second day, that effect had worn off, and he was back to miserable. By the third day, he was so swollen and in so much pain he could no longer lie down. He spent hours standing and moaning. It was awful.

When he lays down, the swelling is easy to see as something other than just too much weight

Let's think about this

I knew that, if the liver were involved, pushing toxic meds into Jimmy was aggravating that condition. I began to taper off the steroids sooner than the vet prescribed, and discontinued the other two meds. This helped some, but the poor guy would still not go for any walks, which previously were the highlights of his days.

What else could I do for this animal?

I started cooking for him.

And I learned something I already knew very well when it comes to humans.

Health is nearly all about what we eat.

I have long known how to identify, via elimination diets, which foods challenge humans. I began feeding Jimmy only "safe" foods, foods that generally don't challenge anybody. Right away, the swelling went down some, and Jimmy began to perk back up.

When I had seen significant improvement in Jimmy's condition, I started testing his food tolerances, by introducing possibly challenging foods and watching for reactions.

One lick of raw milk cream did him in, and that meant no more dairy for Jimmy. Jimmy likes his dairy. Liked. With a reaction that strong, those days are over.

I haven't yet tested for his reaction to gluten, but so far there seems to be only one other class of food that makes Jimmy miserable. If he eats even just a few bites of this type of food, he can do nothing but stand and shake and moan. It is a terrible thing to see.

What is that food people?

Dog food of any kind!!!

And I buy the good stuff. The expensive frozen raw stuff. The dried raw stuff. The best-of-the-best kibble stuff.

I now know that ALL OF THESE ARE CLEARLY HARMFUL TO THE LIVER. Jimmy had been eating this stuff for nine years, supplemented by human food scraps.

I wonder how long it will take me to undo nine years of damage, or if I even can.

What am I doing about it?

I'm cooking meals that are loaded with nutrition, contain detoxifying foods, and are as devoid of toxins as possible.

EVERYTHING is organic, bio-dynamic, pastured, or foraged.

EVERYTHING is prepared by my own hand with love.

One or more of shiitake, maitake, cilantro and chickweed are now present in every meal. All of these have liver detoxifying properties, and loads of nutritive value.

I make sure he has at least one 12 hour stretch, each day, of no food at all.

I add a drop of vitamin D3 with K2, and a few drops of a tincture of milk thistle and dandelion, to most meals.

I put a bit of zinc in his filtered water with every change.

I measure and record his girth often, and have found him to be the least swollen in the mornings, before he eats.

I take copious notes about what he eats or does, and note any possible reactions.

I've started giving some thought to homeopathic remedies, and will choose one for him soon.

I love him up good.

In short, I am doing what I would do for any sick human, starting with cleaning up the food.

Three days later

By the third day on his new diet, Jimmy had some pep back in his step!

Some of the meals

_{A quick egg dish, with leftover veggies}

_{This dinner of veggies and chicken scraps was not his favorite.}

_{His favorite so far - ground beef, shiitakes, chickweed and carrots - cost me $20 but only lasted one day!}

_{I keep a stash of veggies in the fridge to add scraps to, in this case, salmon skin}

_{This was his second rice challenge, and showed that rice is OK!}

_{Jimmy eating Momma's chicken soup, but eating carefully, because Momma heated it up for him.}

I am making this up as I go along folks.
If any of you have any knowledge, suggestions, inspirations, or advice of any kind, I would be grateful to know.

all images are mine