Millie's Story - the reason for this Blog!

Hello All -

My name is Patricia Huff - I live in Connecticut with my two cockers, Millie, age10+, and Sissy age 3. My Millie has been thru a series of health issues which should have shortened her prescious little life - but what instead has happened, is that she is having the best years of her life right now. I wanted to begin a blog about some of the intervention & pro-actions I have taken based on not only great Vet advice, (thank you Dr. Judy Wotton!) but research on my own and my interest in natural supplements & alternative medicines or remedies. My purpose in getting out this story is that the information within this is so powerful, it can not only extend many other dog's lives -but improve the quality of the remaining years of their lives. I am hoping this blog is helpful to you - and would appreciate all comments, suggestions - and your own stories & remedies. I am hoping we can make a difference in the lives of pets where traditional wisdom's fall short. Here's Millie's story:

Millie is a black and white cocker who is the love of my life. She's been with me since 9 weeks (1999) and she was a healthy and normal dog up to the age of 3. At that point we had a vet visit where she tested positive for Lyme disease. At that vet visit I was told she should have the Lyme shot in addition to the Rabies and other shot that day. About 4 hours later Millie became glassy eyed and trembled and I called the ER vet on call. I was told the Rabies and Lyme shots were extremely strong and may have had an affect on her and just to watch her - which I did, canceling plans I had that nite & holding her close as she shivered on and off. In the morning she seemed fine and life went on.

Every year I had her shots on time, as recommended, never missed a beat. Fast fwd to age 6 - Terrifying me as she lay on the floor stiff as a board but shaking profoundly....I was on the phone - and hurriedly called the ER vet. Minutes later the seizure ended...she seemed fine but within minutes later the seizure was back with a vengence, this time she had tried to hide behind a chair when we lay out flat as a pancake with front legs paddeling up and down - wildly. I remember being so scared but grabed her and put her in the car rushing to the vet, calling them on my cellphone as I drove. By the time we got there the 2nd seizure ended and I was in tears.
It was a horrifying experience to see someone (yes a dog is someone) you love go thru this.

Phenobarb is the automatic solution which she was on about a year or more. I read up on the affect the drug can have on their organs and began to wean her off as she showed no signs of seizures. She was off the drug several years without a seizure.

As I read on seizures I found many ties to poor quality supermarket dog foods, and I believe that is a problem as it has junk fillers in it with little nourishment...I began to make my own dog food with a recipe from my Vet to insure support of good health. It was a lot of work, but with any family member who is sick - it's was worth my effort to see her seizure free.

I also read more and more about the link in seizure activity to multiple innoculations in dogs. After scouring research and digesting all the data - I truly believe that multiple innoculations is a huge contributor to seizure activity in dogs....and I believe the link continues thru to Autism in children. We over-innoculate our dogs - I do want to stress that I am not promoting NOT having your dog innoculated - I am saying DO IT SLOWLY AND OVER TIME. Never, NEVER give multiple shots at one visit. What I now do is get 1 shot at the office visit and come back no less than 30 days or 60 days later to see a vet tech for the 2nd shot, and so on. They do not charge me for the other visits with the tech, only the shot cost. It has given me peace of mind for my younger dog.

For Millie it was too late - you can't take a shot back once it's injected. The damage to the immune system is done.

6 weeks before her 9th birthday Millie's mouth was bleeding - little spots of blood were on the floor, smeared. It was a Sunday morning - I took her to the ER vet thinking she broke a tooth on a chewy. The vet said she had ITP - I can't write out the diagnosis, it's a long one - but in layman's terms, we found her platelet count which should be in the hundreds of thousands - 300-400,000 was down to only 4,000. Any bump or bruise or cut - she would immediately bleed to death. When they brought her back into the exam room from having taken her blood for sampling they had green bandages on both front legs because they couldn't get the bleeding to stop. Most dogs die here - right then, right at that point. Yet the dog didn't know she was on death's door and just kissed me wanting to go home....I was in denial, this could not be true, where did that come from, how does that just happen? I was not prepared.

I then prayed for a miracle, she was hospitalized and they began treatment - Mon her platelet count was 6,000 - still too low and too slow responding, but I saw a potential gift here - it was a 50% multiplication, meaning her system was trying to respond....they wanted to run x-rays and more tests looking for cancer. Tests run, cancer was cleared from the possibilities...we proceeded - Tues a.m. her count was 9,000 - my mind, a calculator saw again a 50% increase. The ER vet wanted to give her anti-cancer drugs as the progress was too slow. My response was let's keep doing what we're doing...I don't want any more chemicals in her body than we need to and she's responding, but it's just slow - let's see if tomorrow's count is still at a 50% hike in count which would bring it to 13,500....and Wed a.m. that's the number it was - 13,500. Now mind you I was going to the ER 2'x a day and she wasn't eating for them at all anything...so I bought her the rarest roast beef I could find, I brought her chicken, anything I knew she would eat to give her body the strength....and they let me take her for a walk each day so we did that...by the Fri they released her and the miracle had happened, she was going home.

Home with 13 doses of Rx a day - I had a spread sheet. One of the Rx I wasn't allowed to touch by my hands and had to use gloves because it wasn't good for me to absorb. The doses wained down and within time I had my Millie back....platelet count up where it should be and she was again playing ball and eating chewys, giving lots of kisses and cuddles (that never stopped tho...)

What I want to stress here is that I chose not to speed up her progress, to let the body work with the very basic of Rx we could use and it did it...did it cost me an extra day or two at the ER? yes, probably....it's worth it. To try to quicken the pace ran the risk of a recovery that may have also caused death.

In the year and a half since the ITP Millie has been enjoying the best quality life of her entire life. Unfortunately the seizures came back this past Spring and she is on a very low dose of Phenobarb, she's also on a low dose for her thyroid which she's been on since age 4. I give her Dosquin for her Arthritis - 1/2 tablet in the a.m and I have begun giving her supplements. The supplements are to support her immune system as I have found being low in Iron can be a trigger for problems. Natural supplements should be a no brainer for our animals, particularly dogs....why are we not giving them dog vitamins from the start??

The supplements that have helped change her life are: New Chapter's ProBiotic for Immune System and their Women's Iron product which I also take. Their product is low dose so just 1 x day for the dog is the right amount.

The supplements have helped boost her energy as well as her platelet counts. I have blood work drawn on her for platelet count every 2-3 months as a precautionary measure...since beginning the ProBiotic her platelet count has done 2 things - it's stablized in the 300's and is up 10-15% over where it was before the supplement regiment. Her last count 2 weeks ago was at 380,000 platelets - a long way from the 4,000 18 months ago.

I would like to open the conversation to anyone who is having health issues with their dog and using supplements or has question/answers on keeping a dog healthy.

Pat - aka, Millie's Mommy