Dehydrated Pet Food

My local pet store has dehydrated pet food (http://www.thehonestkitchen.com/).   It's minimally processed so I'm hoping that Ziggy can eat this without it affecting his allergies.  Over the weekend (Oct 23-24), I mixed some samples (the grain-free versions) with his turkey and vegetables (after rehydrating with warm water).  He really likes it and this option fits in with my long-term food storage plan so I could buy this food in bulk, separate it into oxygen-free packages with the food saver and that should store successfully for 20-30 years.  I can mix it with his turkey and veggies or serve it alone if I have no access to those other items.

I also found another dehydrated raw dog food here:
http://www.pawnaturaw.com/organic_raw_dehydrated_dog_food.html

Eventually, I'd like to have both of these in my food storage.

Back on Antibiotics

In September, Ziggy's skin condition flared up pretty badly.  The ears got infected, the skin was icky and the foot was bleeding.  My local vet felt that we really needed to get it cleared up quickly so we did a round of antibiotics (Simplicef) andKetoconazole to clear up the yeast infection.

He's doing better now but the foot bleeding has occurred two more times after that.  It seems to be cycling around about twice per month.  I'm so afraid the cysts are returning which could require another surgery to have them removed.

I made an appt with Dr Loops and I'm hoping that maybe we can find another remedy (or a change in the dosing) to get this under control.

Bleeding Foot Returns

The day after my last post, the bleeding foot returned.  It only bled a little on one day and then it healed back up.  I'm glad that's all it was but I'm concerned that there might be another cyst growing in there.  Other than that, things are good.

Leg and Feet Licking

Ziggy's ears are doing better.  I've made a habit of cleaning his ears every morning with soap and water which helps keep them mostly clear.  There's always still some dry flaky residue but a good cleaning every morning helps prevent it from escalating. 

The foot is doing ok (no swelling or bleeding) but he does still tend to lick at his legs and feet a lot although I don't see him biting at it so much lately - just licking.  I never see any major skin issues that would cause him to lick but I find his fur to be wet when I touch him.  Yesterday I gave him a bath with peroxide shampoo to clean his feet and legs. 

Overall he seems to be doing well at this time.

Wet Ears After New Sulphur

Gave the new sulphur LM/2 last night at 7pm.  He' still licking and biting at his feet a lot and this morning his ears were really wet with a white discharge.  I cleaned them with soap and water.  He rubs his face on the carpet and against the mini-blinds on the door.  They're getting pretty trashed as well.

Increased Potency of Homeopathic Remedies

Ziggy got an infection in his left eye so my local doctor has him on antibiotic drops to clear that up.  Also she said his right eye is not producing enough tears so we're doing artificial tears treatment as well.

I talked to Dr Loops about this eye issue and also mentioned that sometimes Ziggy is licking his feet a lot and biting on his back leg so he decided we should increase the potency of the remedies.  They arrived by Friday and I started him on the new Psorinum LM/4 last night.  I noticed this morning he was licking and biting and I'm starting to wonder if this behavior is happening after the Psor dosage and not the Sulphur.  I'm going to pay close attention to that for the next week.

His ears have been doing much better.  I clean them about once per day and it's not too bad.  I did notice this morning that his left ear was more wet and sticky than usual.  Not sure if that is related to the new dosage but it could be.

He also recently had another seizure during the night while sleeping.  He has had two seizures since we started the remedies and what's different is that normally a seizure occurs when he's sleeping under an open window when it's cold outside.  This is August and we're not sleeping with windows open and it's not cold anyway so I'm not sure what's causing it to happen now.

Otherwise, everything else is ok.  He's eating well and drinking water and pooping normally so overall things are good.

Showing Improvement

I started Ziggy back on both remedies (alternating every other day) and he is doing better.  The foot bleeding stopped and it healed up immediately.   It seems like maybe one remedy works better for his ears and skin and the other remedy works better for his foot issue.  Not sure.  But I do see improvement when on both remedies.

His ears are looking pretty good right now.  He was groomed this past weekend and the hair is out of his ears now so it looks much improved.  I can't tell if the hair in his ears makes it just appear worse than it is.  The yeasty stuff comes out of his ears but as long as he's on the two remedies, it's dry and clumpy but it clings to the ear hair and makes it more difficult to clean out.   Now that the ear hair is gone, it's very easy to wipe clean with a cotton ball soaked with vinegar and water.

My intention was to post more often but I tend to get really busy (two pets with medical needs so it gets a bit crazy) and I also prefer to post when I have something concrete to offer, like if there is a major change or if I start to notice patterns.  Because I modified the frequency of the doses, I was waiting to see what was going to happen... plus I figured things would improve once he got all that hair shaved off.  He gets miserable in the summer when his hair is too long and grooming is scheduled for every 6 weeks.  Maybe I should have him groomed more often in the summer.

Edit to add:  That cyst dried up and fell off during his bath at the groomer.  It never seemed to cause any problems and he didn't even seem to notice it was there.  But it's gone now.