The new mouth sores looked vastly improved this morning, as well, and I'm sure that contributed to him feeling much more jaunty. You just can't keep a happy dog down, and Ty has the market cornered on 'happy'.
He had his acupuncture and chiropractic adjustment, and the vet and I discussed all the goings-on over the past several weeks. We talked about a lot of things, including the possibility that his back issues are related to his auto-immune disease, and perhaps were even a pre-cursor. Certainly the face pawing he had demonstrated in earnest when the outbreak was at its peak was not new, though never to that extent.
Interestingly enough, the very occasional face pawing started about the same time the back troubles started...about two years ago. Also, this was the last time he had a rabies vaccination (required by law).
I'm a believer that vaccination is a trigger of many issues in our canine friends, and isn't it interesting that his back troubles, as well as very occasional face pawing, started right about the time of his last vaccination. Coincidence? Of course, I never noticed anything else, aside from those two issues, and, as time went on, the back troubles got worse, as did the face pawing, until, several weeks ago, we saw the outbreak of Pemphigus. Just a few interesting things to consider.
Among other things, Dr. Leslie talked about the Chinese medicine view on auto-immune disease, which is a 'blood heat' issue. What this entails, I'm not sure, but as she talked, things struck me. She asked, "does he seek warmth or cool?" Well, he always seeks cool, and he is, and always has been, my biggest panter - first to start, last to stop. I have always felt his cooling mechanism is a little off, or perhaps a little lower functioning is a more appropriate description. It didn't occur to me he might have run a littler 'hotter' because an auto-immune response was possibly brewing.
She gave us a Chinese herb called 'blood heat', and is taking him off two of the institutional medications. This is great! I have so wanted to see a reduction of the narcotic cocktail he is required to take, and this is a huge step toward that end.
As for Ty's outlook, and general disposition? He was elated to have an outing. He gave out kisses, and tail wags, just as he always does. He sure has a fast growing fan club.
I also wanted to add a note about breath. For about the last two years, off and on, Ty's breath has gone from a little rancid, to 'OMG, I think I'm going to faint, it's so bad' breath. For a raw fed dog, rancid breath is not generally an issue. I find it interesting that the breath issue is improving, as we treat him for the Pemphigus. Perhaps another sign something was off? Certainly something I won't ignore in the future.
Today I feel lifted, with new knowledge, and a dog who is acting very much like his old self. Nothing can put a smile in my heart faster than seeing my special boy happy, and loving life. Today we are celebrating.
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