STINKY...

The yeast is apparently making a comeback, because TJ STINKS today. In addition to his belly that I mentioned earlier, his left ear is caked with it today, and there's a lot on both of his hind legs. I'm not sure if that's what stinks, or if it's his entire body -- not really wanting to smell different areas to find out.

It appears that the 12 drops of the Tincture is the right amount ... it's clearing the yeast, but not putting too much stress on his body. I'm wondering if we can bump it up just a little every day, but not sure if that's a good idea.

More yeast

Today TJ has yeast in his belly area again, especially right around his rib cage. That has been clear for days. It's coming out around his whisker area as well, and the area around his mouth is still quite swollen. It might just be from the heat the past few days. His eyes were much better today though. I've been a little worried about them. It's not easy, for me at least, to put drops in a dog's eyes!

I don't think he sleeps much if at all during the night, because as soon as he's eaten and been washed down he passes out. I started to feed him straight food this morning, but I could tell he still was struggling with a lack of saliva, so I ended up making a smoothie again. He also got more green beans. He does seem to be very hungry, and I'm not sure if that's because the food isn't solid or what.

Dave commented yesterday that he has a lot of loose skin on his neck, and it sways when he walks. He's definitely lost weight the past few months, but I think there must be a little fluid built up there, or else it's just that so much of the hair is gone that we see it more.

So much better today!

TJ did so well today. His collar was off the entire day, and he didn't scratch himself once. He slept most of the day. I really think that the combination of reducing the tincture and giving him a couple of baby aspirin did the trick. He ate all of his food tonight, plus a cup of frozen green beans, and he drank a bunch of water out of the hose. Hopefully this trend will continue!

Just before bed last night, TJ was in a different room from us, and all of a sudden he let out two little barks. I came into the room, and he had scratched himself again, although not as badly. By the look on his face, I think he was really upset with himself. He'd been so good all day, I felt sorry for him. Still, it meant he had to keep the cone on for the night.

Mouth and Ears

TJ is sacked out on the floor, and I'm noticing just how swollen his lips are. One of his ears also has a lot of yeast that I need to clean out when he wakes up. I noticed it just as I was getting ready to eat breakfast, but by the time I was done he was sound asleep. His back legs are pretty red again, even though he hasn't had access to them to scratch or lick, and so are his armpits (legpits?).

He drank more food from his bowl again, and I'm really happy to see that. It's been pretty time consuming, not to mention messy!, feeding him ice cubes.

I looked for some new booties for him yesterday that would cover his nails better, but they were $60, and they didn't really look like they'd be that great. The woman at Mudd Bay suggested putting duct tape over the nails, just cutting a little square for each one. We haven't tried that yet. So far today he hasn't attempted to scratch, but I'm still afraid to leave him alone, even though he's sound asleep! It happens so fast...

Better today...

This morning was far easier with TJ than it has been. I don't know if he's actually a little better or if we've just figured out a system. His lymph nodes have reduced greatly, although his neck is still very red. Surprisingly, he doesn't have any big scabs from the three times that he's scratched himself, so I'm very thankful for that. He didn't eat all of his food this morning, but he got through most of it (I put 3 baby aspirin in today, based on my conversation with Erin yesterday). Last night we managed to get him to drink a little bit of water from his bowl for the first time in days. I'm only using 10-12 drops of the Tincture of Black-Leaf instead of 22 drops that we started with. This is the product that does most of the cleansing, and NZymes said that it was probably taxing his system too much. I suppose that means that the cleansing will take longer, but it's nice that he's not in such distress. Maybe we can bump it up a couple of drops every few days. I wish I had a crystal ball and could see what he'll be like 6 months from now. I re-read through some of the testimonials on the NZymes site yesterday, and several of them definitely discuss how difficult the process is, but without being explicit about what they went through. This process takes a lot of courage on the part of the caretakers, and a belief that the pet will get better and be happier in the long run.

When will it end?

Poor TJ is sooo tired. Of course we are, too! Every time we've tried to give him a break from the cone, he stealthily tears himself up. Yet I'm sure it hurts for the cone to rub on those sore places. When he woke up this morning his eyes were totally gooey, too, which is a new symptom. The rest of his body is still doing good, for what that's worth!

He ate all of his smoothie morning. We gave him almost 3 cups of food with as much water as we could put in without it being too watery. He still will hardly touch any water, so we figured this was a good way to try to hydrate him. It's supposed to be 100 degrees today, so I hate for him to get too dehydrated.

I just wish I knew how long this phase would last.

More scratches

Today while I was out and Dave was working, TJ was doing his typical sleep routine. He was being very quiet, and didn't have the cone on. And ... he scratched the left side of his neck just like he did the right side. We'd decided that as painful as it is, we just cannot trust him without the cone unless we are right there next to him.

This morning there was a lot of stuff in one of his ears that I cleaned out, and he doesn't seem to be shaking his head nearly as much. Even though he's miserable, he still has his moments when he looks at us with a big smile on his face, which is probably the only thing that makes this bearable! I can't remember being so tired and emotionally drained... I really hope that this works and he is better soon!

Dog food smoothies

TJ is definitely better today than yesterday. It seems as if the lymph nodes are reducing in size, which is a relief. He still shakes his head, and there was a lot of gook in his left ear this morning for the first time, which is good -- at least it's working its way out. He's still not drinking much and has a hard time eating because he doesn't have much saliva. When he chews up solid dog food it becomes a thick paste in his mouth, sticks to the roof of his mouth, and then ends up all over the floor. I gave him about 1/2 cup of frozen green beans this morning, then made him a smoothie out of his dog food, all of his meds, and a good amount of water. He ate the whole thing. I guess that's one way to get some liquid into him! Dave fed him outside so we could just hose down the mess.

It's going to be close to 100 degrees today, and they say the heat makes the yeast worse. But it was pretty hot yesterday, too.

Frozen green beans

TJ was really panting today. It's 82 degrees in the house and around 90 outside. I tried to get him to drink, but he won't. He ate a little ice that I crushed up in the blender, but not enough to cool him down or quench his thirst. I checked the list of approved foods he can have and saw green beans on the list. Erin used to supplement his diet with green beans when he was too heavy, so I knew he liked them. I put some in his dish still frozen, and he was in heaven. I guess he has some appetite back, which has to be good. I'd really love to get that collar off of him though, because I think it causes problems because the area can't dry off at all. But I can't risk another incident like the one we had this morning.

Here he is with his collar turned inside-out so he could eat. :) He looks like he's ready for the barber.

Emergency

I was on the phone with the NZymes people. TJ was in our room asleep. All of a sudden he ran downstairs, and Dave started yelling, "Deb! I need your help!!" I figured TJ had diarrhea or something like that, but it turns out that he had scratched one of the spots on his neck, and he had blood all over. It looked as if someone had slit his throat. Neither of us is very experienced in first aid, and trying to keep a dog calm while we attempt to put some kind of gauze on it definitely didn't work. How do you wrap a dog's neck? Impossible. We couldn't figure out a way, but we had to put back on the cone, even though it might be painful for him. We put a triple antibiotic ointment on it as well.

The NZymes people said to cut back on one of the products that does most of the cleansing, and that if the lymph nodes don't go down in a day or two that we should take him to the vet. I sure wish Erin were home -- I don't like being responsible for these decisions, and we also don't want to give him any antibiotics if we can avoid it, since that's a huge contributor to the problem to begin with.

NZymes also recommended that we feed TJ yogurt with all of his medicines and a baby aspirin in it since he's not eating. He lapped that up pretty quickly, so I need to go buy more, as well as more Folex (an amazing carpet cleaner). Our room looked like a crime scene. I'm pretty distressed right now -- I can only imagine how TJ feels.

No cone

Last night TJ's neck area was so swollen, I just couldn't bear to put on the cone. I could tell it hurt him just to touch the area. So I put on his mittens, and hoped for the best. I was really afraid of what I'd find this morning, but he did pretty well. Two of his mittens were off, but he only had a couple of very minor scratches. That was a relief. I think he's learned that the intense scratching earns him the cone, so he continues to rub himself against the floor. Obviously it would be better if he didn't do that, either, but it definitely gives him some sense of relief. He's still just as swollen this morning, and his ears are definitely bothering him, too. It's pretty painful to feel so helpless, but I think Dave and I are doing as good a job as possible.

TJ still isn't interested in eating. He managed to eat all of his breakfast yesterday, but it was late afternoon by the time he had done so. I gave him a little bit of food before bed, and he ate most of that, but again this morning he barely touched his food. I still can't get him to drink water from his bowl, but he'll drink out of the hose, and he loves the ice cubes. We're having a heat wave in Seattle, so that may be part of it, but I think he's running a little bit of a fever as well. We're only putting 2-3 drops of Ox-E-Drops in his water, so I don't think it's the taste. I'll try today to leave it out and see how that works.

Lymph nodes

Today TJ seems much better than yesterday. The major complaint today is that the lymph nodes in his neck are extremely swollen, almost like he has a goiter. It's very hot. The rest of his body doesn't seem to be very itchy, and there is hardly any puss anywhere. He didn't eat his breakfast this morning and still refuses to drink any water from his bowl. He drank quite a bit from the hose and ate a whole tray full of ice cubes though.

Vinegar

I managed to leave the cone off of TJ for a couple of hours this afternoon while he slept. I can't imagine how irritating it must be to have that cone on, even though it's a soft one, rubbing right on the area that is the most irritated. He had laid down in the living room and made the most horrible whining sound for about 5 minutes. It was breaking my heart, and it was really hard to know what he needed. It's not a sound that he normally makes.

After the typical itching episode around dinner time, I got the idea to try using a vinegar rinse on TJ's chest. It's so wet and irritated. I had sprayed it with an anti-itch spray first, which didn't appear to phase it at all. So I mixed a little vinegar with water and rubbed it on, and he's totally calmed down again. It looks like it's still irritating him, but he hasn't scratched it with his back paws. I'm sure I'll have to put back on the cone at some point tonight, but I'm going to wait as long as possible, knowing he has to wear it all night.

I'm really hoping he'll be better tomorrow.

The recovery continues...

It's now July 25th. Erin left yesterday for a 9-day vacation, so it's all up to us. NZymes wasn't kidding when they said it would get worse before it gets better. It has been agonizing to watch TJ. The oozing in his hindquarters had decreased significantly, and even his paws don't seem to be bothering him much. However, I can tell that it's moved into his mouth and the skin on his chest, which is soaking wet. It's really hard to keep the cone on him, but without it he immediately starts scratching and tearing himself up. He's had a hard time eating the past few days, and also doesn't want to drink any water. For some reason he'll drink out of the running water from the hose, but he doesn't want to drink out of his bowl, even though the water is fresh and his dish has been sanitized. When he eats, he takes a bite and puts it on the floor, and you can tell that he bites down on it but then has a hard time opening his mouth ... I think because it's so dry. I've found that he likes eating ice cubes, so I've been able to help him that way. I've considered putting his food in the blender, but I don't think he's consume it since I can't get him to drink water either.

When we got up this morning at 7, I took off TJ's cone to feed him, and he immediately clawed himself up, then he became a little vacuum cleaner ... not as in cleaning up everything on the floor, but he was rubbing his chest and chin all over the carpet. There's blood all over it, which we've done our best to clean up. Luckily the carpet cleaners are coming on Thursday. TJ was in a completely frantic state for about 2 hours. I think he had this horrible itch all night long that he couldn't scratch, and by the time we took off the cone he was practically insane with it. Of course we put the cone back on right after he ate. We could tell he was exhausted, and he finally passed out on the floor for a few hours. We were supposed to go to the drop zone to jump, but I just didn't feel that I could leave him in that state. I encouraged Dave to go without me.

At 1:30 he woke up, and we basically went through the entire morning insanity sequence again. It's really hard because he can't drink his water with the cone on, but if I take it off he tears himself up. His chest is still drenched with puss, which I've washed off many times today. I'm exhausted... It's about 3:30 now, and he's just settled down to go back to sleep.

I hate to talk about poop, but today is the first day I can recall that he had 2 firm bowel movements, so I'm taking that as a good sign -- hopefully it's not just because he's dehydrated from not drinking enough water. He seems to have occasional bouts of energy, too, which is encouraging.

Discovering the problem

TJ is Erin's dog, and they've been living with us since Dec. 2007. He turned 7 in May. TJ has always had problems with allergies, itchy skin, etc., and he's been on a constant course of antibiotics and steroids over the years. During the winter TJ "blew out" his ACL and had to have corrective surgery, and of course that also included antibiotics and I believe steroids. He lost all energy, but of course we thought it had more to do with the surgery and lack of mobility.

In June, TJ's allergies were worse than we'd ever seen them. He was lethargic and had diarrhea every time he went to the bathroom. Erin took him to the vet for another round of steroids, which seemed to help for about a week, but then he appeared to get even worse.

Coincidentally, at the beginning of July I saw an article in a newsletter I get from Dr. Mercola that discussed pet allergies and the real underlying causes, specifically an issue with yeast that is exacerbated by the use of steroids and antibiotics, which of course kill off all of the good bacteria in the gut. One comment on the site discussed a company called NZymes that sells a group of products designed to rid the body of the bad yeast and rebuild the good bacteria (see http://www.nzymes.com/pc/viewContent.asp?idpage=16).

Erin and I both spent the entire day researching the company. Their website included a diagnostic page. Basically, if your pet has more than 6 of the symptoms, there's a good chance that the animal has a yeast problem. Erin quit counting at 15. She talked to a few other people that she trusted, and decided to purchase the products. Considering that she had been spending $70 on antibiotics, the $115 cost for 4 products didn't seem outrageous.

The literature was very clear that eliminating the yeast is a long-term project that could take up to a year (!), and that the animal will get worse before he gets better. They were not kidding! TJ started the program on July 14.

Here are some pictures from early July that were taken right around the time we started the therapy. You can see that he has a lot of red patches and thick, leathery areas on his legs, back all around his eyes and under his chin. His belly is also completely black.































After he started the program, he got this thick, oozing puss that seemed to be everywhere in his hindquarters, especially his belly. We started washing it 3-4 times daily with a variety of items: straight water, a mixture of baking soda and water, and, as recommended by NZymes, Listerine, which is supposed to cool the hot spots and reduce the itching. A week or so into it we realized that we also should be washing him down with a 2% solution of one of the products, Ox-E-Drops,, so we've added that now, too. We're keeping a soft cone on his head to keep him from chewing and scratching himself up.

On July 22 he was so bad that Erin was frantic and contemplating taking him back to the vet for steroids. He's been losing a lot of hair, and even came in from outside with a huge hole in his tail, and he'd only been out for about 2 minutes. We still haven't figured out that one. I convinced her to give NZymes a call, as they advertise that they have great customer service and truly want to help . She spent quite a bit of time on the phone with them, and they reassured her that everything that he's experiencing is normal for the process. The hair loss is common in animals with thyroid problems, and he's been on thyroid for years.

He's now been on the program for 12 days. I'll write more in a separate post so this doesn't get too long...