Five Dog Quartet

You have seen her picture in a previous post sitting with Basil. She is the foster dog that never left. The day we met, she had been abandoned in her carrier at Austin Humane Society in the middle of the night. The accountant, who often worked through the night, found her as she was leaving at 7 am that morning and placed her, carrier and all, on the counter in the receiving department.

When I came in at 8 am, I peeked into the carrier and saw the tiniest little dog I had ever seen. She was hairless, with little holes like swiss cheese at the tips of her ears..... and she was growling at me! We ran her immediately into see one of the shelters’ partner vets, who actually knew who her owners were because he had seen her the previous week, At that time he had skin scraped her and found nothing, and told them they should do bloodwork and have her ears cropped and biopsied. Her previous owners had apparently decided they could not afford her medical care and instead decided to dump her outside the shelter in the hopes that we would look after her.

The fates were smiling down on her that day because I decided to take her home and foster her. Though honestly, I thought I was bringing her home to die. At 6 months she didn't even weigh a pound, with her hair loss, her ears, and the fact we couldn't get her to eat anything, I really thought I was going to bring her home and keep her happy until she passed on.

Well, it's over 3 years later and Princess Pea (nut) is still here. She has the will to live like no other animal I have ever met. Several hypoglycemic episodes, an ear crop, and several dentals later, she now weighs 1 pound 7 ounces, and has grown lots of hair though she is still not completely covered. She is not like a dog in any sense of the word, she spends the majority of her time laying in a fleece bag on top of a heating pad and only coming out to use her puppy pad, eat, and get attention when she demands it or I force it on her.

I can honestly say she's happy, though I doubt she will ever be normal. All the vets who have given their time and expertise to treat her all say the same thing; Peanut is what happens when you attempt to breed dogs down smaller and smaller with no regard for health. Basically, she is a genetic screw up. How she even lived through birth and the first few months no can even begin to fathom.

No one can guess how long she will live, or how long her health will continue to last. We will just love her for the time we have her, and continue to use her as an example of why "teacups" really aren't a good idea.

East meets West, it took me a long time decide on this approach. What East Meets West means to me, is that I would try and treat Basil in the most natural way possible, but I would not discount allopathic medicine. What I have learned, the hard way it seems, is that allopathic medicine does have ia place in Basil's treatment plan, and I don't have to feel guilty for making that decision. It was actually a blog post written by the owner of a yahoo list I'm on that gave me a kick in the head, and brought me back to my senses. Thank you, Christie. If you are interested, you can check out Dogged Blog here. I highly recommend it.

Now back to Basil:
Many of my co-workers had their opinions on how I should treat Basil, however, many of my friends work in Animal Welfare just like I did at the time, and though it isn't the best thing to do, we throw a lot medicine at shelter dogs when we are preparing them for adoption. It is very easy to fall into the mind set of "more is better", to treat before you actually do any testing, and give medication before waiting to see if the animal can shake whatever ails it on its own. I understand this; those who work in shelters are playing a numbers game, and the faster an animal is better; the faster that animal can find its forever home. Time is just not a luxury many shelter dogs get, and shelter workers fight against time everyday. However, the "more is better" logic was not how I wanted to proceed with Basil, but I was definately fighting an uphill battle. I quit vaccinating, they thought I was nuts, I started feeding raw, they were sure I'd gone crazy.

I either read or bought just about every natural pet care book on the planet. I started using a homeopathic vet and felt I was getting results. When he crashed one day with labored breathing, I did attempt to treat him homeopathically. Twenty-four hours later when his fever was STILL 105, with pale gums and his breathing extremely labored, I ran him into the Emergency Clinic. At the time I felt guilty, I felt like a failure. One of my dearest friends, Colleen, said Basil wouldn't still be here without emergency intervention. My homeopath was disapointed, "they" (the allopathic vets) gave him medication, possibly steroids, "that is what they do" she said. I was miserable, I couldn't eat, I couldn't sleep, and I didn't know what to do next.

Then Christie Keith wrote a blog post titled, "20 years out, and what do I know", and it stuck a chord with me. I was one of those people who had fallen into a trap of holistic verses allopathic, stressing about the details. I'm not a stupid person, but by trying to treat Basil in a way I felt was best for him, I had quit THINKING and placed his care in the hands of another!! What had I done all that research for!? What was the point, if I was now not going to use what I had learned! HUGE wake up call. All this time, no one really KNEW what was wrong with him. My vet Dr. Farmer had tried to point me in the right direction, "go to the specialty hospital" he said. My best friend Kelly had been pushing me, "just go see what the specialty vet says, it doesn't mean you have to do anything". So I did just that, I got online and googled every specialty vet in town and decided on Dr. Caplan. She was perfect, everything I wanted, a good mix of east and west. I followed my instincts, did my research, and made (what I feel) was a good decision. (imagine that)

I quickly found that my instincts were right, because on Basil’s first consultation she told me she was not a respiratory vet, she was a surgeon. That yes, she had dogs she was currently treating for the same issue as Basil, but that she may not be the right vet for me. She offered to not charge me and refer me out to a well known cardiologist in town, but I declined because I already had my heart set on her, for several reasons. The first being that she is trained and certified in acupuncture and has been doing it since the 80's. Number two being that she is almost completely certified in Chinese medicine, and is very open to other modalities of treatment. The fact I fed Basil raw did not bother her, and the fact that I was supplementing him with vitamins and herbs didn't bother her either. She even offered to look at his diet and help me tweak it, if it needed tweaking. Finding a vet like her is hard, especially a specialty vet, and not to be taken lightly. Dr. Caplan was open, she is honest, and I wanted her to treat Basil because I wanted a vet who wasn't going to give me shit every time I had a question, but was also willing to tell me when I was being just plain crazy.

Currently, Basil has just finished his month of cipro, and has been getting nebulized twice a day for twenty minutes. He's doing really well. Today Dr. Caplan is going to decide if we should start weaning him off of the cipro. I'm hesitant to do this. Yes, I want him off the antibiotics, but I don't think we are quite there yet. He is doing much better, but I would like to see a little more improvement before we start weaning him off of his meds. The past week or so I have finally started to see marked improvement in his cough, and I would like to go two more weeks and see if the cough will get even better. We'll see, Basil is at the vet as I write this, so hopefully I will have an update after lunch.

[update 1] Just spoke with Dr. Caplan. She says that Basil looks good, a little more snotty than usual. Given his allergy test, she is pretty sure that the grass (one of his high allergens) is the cause. We are going to continue nebulizing him, keep him on the antibiotics, and add some chinese herbs. I spoke with her about starting acupunture and she said that was definately an option. She wants me to call her next week and let her know how the herbs are going. She said his attitude is great, and that his personality is "filling the clinic". So, mostly good news. Dr. Caplan said if does start to get worse, she IS going to send me to the veterinary cardiologist. sigh Hopefully we will not have to go that route. We are still hoping to knock out this bronchitis, but if there is for sure an allergy component, it will turn into a management issue. So the saga continues...........

So, that little cough that didn’t concern me much? Well, it had turned into pneumonia. A few chest x-rays to confirm diagnosis, some antibiotics, a few hundred dollars, and Basil and I were on our way. He took the medication, he finished it. The cough came back. Back to the vet, where we got yet another round of antibiotics. Again, he took the medication, he finished it. The cough came back, along with snotty nose, runny eyes, and itchy skin. Basil was placed back on antibiotics, and given and a depo/medrol shot for the itching. I was told to give him some benedryl if he seemed like he was doing worse. However, he seemed like he was doing okay, so Ben and I packed Basil and the other dogs up and headed to Michigan for our wedding.

Before we left however, since the dogs where going to be kenneled, Basil got another round of vaccines and a rabies. He did ok during vacation, but the cough came back. We got home, the cough got worse. Back into the vet, another round of antibiotics, he had just finished the meds and he got sick, really sick, couldn’t breathe we had to take him to the Emergency Clinic sick. They kept him for the night, did a trach wash, and put him on antibiotics. When I picked him up the next morning, he looked no better. So off to Dr. Farmer, our regular vet. By the afternoon, he had him stabilized and ready to come home. Dr. Farmer sent off the specimens the EC had taken, and got back E. Coli, which is really no diagnoses at all, since most dogs carry it. However, a round of Baytril seemed to help, though the cough did not completely go away. We scheduled an ultrasound to see if there was anything wrong with his heart or lungs, NOTHING. Everything looked normal. AHhhhhhhhhh!

It was at this point, I decided to try something else. Something more natural. Obviously this off again and on again antibiotics was not helping. Basil obviously had something chronic the allopathic medicine could not fix, chronic allergic bronchitis was the hypothesized diagnosis. So I called a homeopath, Basil was started on a regimen, and switched to a raw diet. I purchased almost every natural remedy dog book on the market and I read, and I studied. I scoured the internet, and I looked at the differences in all the raw diets, learned about vitamins, herbs, homeopathy, and Chinese medicine. I learned about vaccines (just don’t do it) and confronted my very real fears of losing this little dog I had fallen head over heels for on our first meeting. Basil seemed to be doing better with our new homeopath, even though that stubborn cough was still hanging around. Basil did fine all through the fall and winter, but when spring in Texas hit, he again got sick again. I tried to work through it with the homeopath, I really did, but Basil just couldn’t breathe. One of my best friends, Colleen, was in town and came over to bring Basil some sub-q fluids. She took one look at Basil, packed us into her truck and drove us to the EC.

I freaked out, now what? My homeopath wasn’t thrilled, saying “they”, meaning the allopathic vets, would just put him back on medication, possibly ruining all the work we had done. However, the x-rays can’t lie, and he was once again down with bronchial pneumonia. It was this trip that the kind vet who owned the EC, Dr. Christie, told me I should see a specialist. Dr. Farmer had also said I should consider it, but the money needed to take him there was mind boggling, and I worked in an animal shelter, it was going to be hard to afford it. However, she did recommend a nebulizing solution, so I called Dr. Farmer and he ordered me some mucomyst. The plan was to treat Basils’ condition like a chronic asthma, and see what happened.

Dr. Farmer also took a nasal culture that day, Basil was placed on a nebulizing solution, and a course of baytril. March 29th 2006, my birthday, Dr. Farmer called me with the culture results, Pseudomonas Ariginosa, a scary bacteria that loves to become resistant. It was susceptible to Baytril, Cipro, and some scary injectables we didn’t want to use, but the real question was, how long to keep him on the meds? He needed to be on them long enough to kill the bacteria, but no so long that he becomes resistant. We decided on 30 days, however, not even a week after he finished the Baytril, we were back in Dr. Farmers office again, Basil not able to breathe.

Dr. Farmer, his vet techs, and I started a huge phone campaign to find a specialist in town who would see him that day. I had to know what was wrong with him, I was tired of working in the dark and we had done everything we could think of. However, that was not to be, there was a conference that weekend, and all the specialists were out of town! I was able to get him into a specialist the following week, but that meant we still had to get through the weekend. I asked Dr.Farmer to please give Basil a Baytril injection, some baytril pills, and send me home.

The following week, I took Basil to see Dr. Caplan. She went over his files, his history, and examined him. I cried. She said that her plan was to find out exactly what was wrong with him and create a plan of action. Dr. Caplan wanted no shooting in the dark, she wanted a true diagnoses. I scheduled Basil for another trach wash, yet another set of x-rays, and bloodwork. The day I dropped him off, I was a wreck. However, waiting for his results was even worse.

Finally, THE DIAGNOSIS, chronic bacterial bronchitis. She said all of his x-rays (four plus the one she took) were consistent with bronchitis. There was no need for endoscopy, and no need for invasive tests. The bacteria, a simple one that was susceptible to the cipro (antibiotic) he was already on. The plan? To nebulize him with a cocktail created by a well known cardiologist just for bacterial bronchitis, keep him on his cipro (antibiotic), and keep an eye on him with frequent rechecks. Dr. Caplan was very hopeful that with a long course of nebulization, and antibiotics, we could at least get him to a point were I only had to nebulize him a few times a week as maintenance. Our hope was to knock the bronchitis out all together.

That is when I decided, it was time for an east meets west approach, and Dr. Caplan was the perfect vet to use for that approach.

I have decided to keep a running log on the goings on with little Basil. (at the husband's suggestion) There is a web site I visit frequently about a little Chihuahua named Nutella, and her ongoing health issues, and Ben says I should do something similar. First a little background on Basil. Back at the beginning of 2005 I had been talking about wanting a longhaired Chihuahua and that I was going to hunt down a reputable breeder to get one. Now, everyone needs to remember that I work in Animal Welfare, and the word "Breeder" is an evil, dirty word. However, I wasn't actually looking for dog number 5; I was just talking and thinking about it. I had no intentions of running out and getting a dog, I was just bouncing the idea around a little bit.

Then one day I get a call from a friend of mine, Stacy, who is the lead animal control agent at Cedar Park Animal Control. Stacy says, "I got in this cute Chihuahua mix, long haired, about 4 months old, cute as a button, you HAVE to come see him. Even if you don't want him, you can take him back to Austin Humane Society and put him in the adoption program, he would be a quick adoption. " I tell her OK I will stop by on my day off and take a look, and if he is a cute as she says he is, I will take him back to Austin Humane Society.

So I stop by Cedar Park Animal Control to see this cute as button, "Chihuahua Mix". Since he is only 4 pounds, Stacy has him stashed in the cat room away from all the big dogs in the kennel. She opens up his cage, and he comes bouncing out, cute as hell, barking, and FULL of personality. Stacy threw a cat ball for him, and as he bounced after it I knew two things, 1, he was going to be a huge pain in the ass, hard to train, stubborn, and full of piss and vinegar, and 2, he was going home with me, screw Austin Humane.

On the way home, I call my husband, who is conveniently away on business. I tell him I have found this cute dog that we are going to foster for awhile. He asks "how long" I said "I don't know, awhile, I want to see if Emma (our schnauzer mix) likes him" and he knew right then, the dog wasn't leaving, say hi to dog number 5. I get Basil home and over the next day or two I notice he has a little cough. I don't really think much of it, in shelters if you've seen one dog coughing you've seen a hundred. I assume the cough will run its course and then go away. At Austin Humane Society, the staff vet says he looks good other than the cough, which she also thinks will go away, so we vaccinate him, worm him, and give him a bath. After a few weeks, the cough got worse, so off to the vet we go, I didn't know then that this little cough was going to turn into a huge deal..........

So my husband says I need to take more time to write in my blog. That I should be giving people updates on my life, blahddy, blahddy, blah. Since he so politely pointed that out, I decided to take some time to write while Basil is in the nebulizer.

Vacation was wonderful, seeing my family and friends was wonderful. Being up at the lake was even better! I relaxed, got a tan, and ran herd on four dogs (god help me). Several comments where made that was I sure I did not want kids, because with all the animals a kid couldn't be that much harder. Ha, Ha, that is so NOT going to make me want kids. Which brings me to another issue I have been having. For some ungodly reason, people think its time for Ben and I to start planning our "little family". In the past few weeks, the hints have gotten more and more blatant and I have lost patience.

#1: I have never liked, nor desired children. While most little girls played house, and had "babies" I always had "animals" of some kind instead.

#2: While most girls babysat for money, I steadfastly refused to do so unless someone was desperate and basically begged.

#3: Most girls dreamed about getting out of their parents house, finding that guy, and having some babies. I dreamed about getting out of my parents house, possibly finding that guy (if I could find one I could deal with) and having as many animals as I wanted.

Finally, #4: Most of the time I just don't like kids, I don't oooh and ahhhhh over them, and I don't go around looking at kids commenting on how cute they are. I love my niece, but at the end of they day, I can send her home with my sister in law, and not worry about it anymore.

When I started working in animal welfare, for the first time in my life I finally met people just like me. People crazy about their animals, and passionate about saving them. I was finally in a place where I felt I belonged. No one criticized me about the money and time I spent on my animals, and no one bitched about how many animals I had. While in the animal welfare field, I honestly felt more at home than I ever had in my life.

My mom says never say never, and my co-workers are all pregnant and hoping I will give in. However, I don't see that happening any time in the near future, if at all. In the meantime, if you want pics and health updates on my four legged children I am happy to oblige you.

We finally made it to the cottage, and I am super happy to be here. I forget how little green growth there is in Texas. Sitting on the dock, with a cool breeze, and trees blowing in the back ground. Nirvana.

Anyway, suffice it to say, I am having a really great time, and it is going to be a bitch to come back to Texas.

For now, I gotta run, I have real issue with being on the laptop while being Up North. It's kind of against my religion....

Well, I made it through my last day in Georgetown, and I didn't even cry. In fact, it was kind of nice to drive off and feel like I was finally getting a break. Besides, with 8 animals at home, it's not like I'm hurting for animals to take care of and nurture. Plus, just today I talked with both Kim and John, so maybe it hasn't really sunken in yet. Anywho.

Of course the big news is the looooong drive up north, and for this trip to Meecheegan(thanks JH) I am attempting to be more organized. None of this last minute running around in the morning trying to get going. Though I am ashamed to admit it, there have been trips that we haven't left until 3 in the afternoon. Not a smart move on a 24 hour trip. But hey, those of you who know me well know I don't exactly run on time. Oh well.

I have once again this year given Ben shit about the amount he decides to pack. Doesn't he know all that trunk space is for dog crates, food, toys, grooming products, and beds? Which brings me to another issue. My husband and I get relegated to tiny bags, with two laptops crammed in, while the dogs get the majority of the trunk space AND the entire backseat. This year we also have to make space for a nebulizer for lung challenged Basily-Boo. Plus all of his meds, vitamins, and special diet. We were able to save some space from the crates by switching to the canvas, tent like ones. Which also weigh a LOT less. Thank god. But I still feel like the majority of the packing I do is for the "children". I have been know to show up someplace minus my blow dryer and a pair of pajamas, but the dogs have all of their stuff.

Well, gotta run now, we're packing the car tonight. More of that attempting to be organized. Next blog entry will be from Michigan!

Tomorrow will be my last day at Georgetown Animal Control, and I just know I'm going to cry. For those of you who don't know, I have spent the last five years of my life working in animal welfare. Translation, non-profit animal shelters. I love animal welfare; I love spending all day, everyday, with animals. The part I hate, dealing with people I don't feel deserve the animals I have spent my time caring for, playing with, and nursing back to health. Lately, I have disliked more adopters than I have really liked. Which says to me, maybe it is time to take a break.

Now, my husband will be the first to say when it comes to my dogs, I'm crazy. Nothing is too good for them. They eat the best food, get the best vet care, both alternative and conventional, and have more toys than most human children. I plan the majority of our life around them, which thank god, he is supportive of. So, the way I treat my dogs is not necessarily the way I think all people should treat their dogs (though it would be nice). For better or for worse, I know I am a little (or a lot depending on your view) over the edge.

I have worked at three different shelters over the past five years, and worked with countless others. Capital Area Humane Society (CAHS) was the first shelter I ever worked at. I loved the people, loved the atmosphere, and after working in animal welfare for this long, feel they have it the most right of all the shelters I have worked for since. CAHS gave me my foundation, and I have not found any other shelter that so closely matches my ideal. I cried when I left there, and miss CAHS terribly.

Austin Humane Society (AHS) was a learning experience. I learned a lot about how I felt a shelter SHOULD NOT be run. However, I honed my dog behavior skills, learned to work with volunteers, learned adoption outreach, how to work with rescue, and how to keep staff happy in the worst of conditions. When I left, a huge weight came off of my chest and I am not sorry I moved on.

Georgetown Animal Control was another huge learning opportunity for me. I learned to work in the confines of a city run shelter, came face to face with animal cruelty, and honed my vet tech skills. I was able to change the lives of Georgetowns' shelter dogs by offering them toys, exercise, and training some good volunteers. I am leaving there with a heavy heart. I thought I would be glad to leave, "time to move on" I said. Now, on the eve of my departure I am feeling extremely sad. Number one, I love the Animal Control Officers, John, JT, and Jam. They make work fun, even when they are driving me crazy. John is full of advice, Jam is goofy as hell, and JT is quiet and serious. Kim, though we had a rough start, had started to work really well together. I will miss everyone.

Tomorrow, I know I will cry, and I know I'm going to be sad, for me, it is the ending of an era. How will I do in the private sector? Will I enjoy technology as well as animal welfare? Will I regret my decision to try something new? I guess we'll see in the coming days, for now, I'm going to try and get some sleep, and try not to worry about the unknown.

My husband decided that he was going to become a blogger, so I decided I should become one too. In his grand attempt to foster me in all things technology, he even bought me my own domain name. Thus, we now own Five Dog Quartet, which is a nod to my four legged children, and my musical past. He's so smart, I just thought it sounded catchy.

So hopefully in the coming days, I will have a place for my family and friends, whom I live so very far away from, to come and see what's going on. Since I am so good at making phone calls. (NOT)