Cotton!

[winterswan]

So, this past week we decided to try out a holistic vet for Cotton's progressing arthritis. She had taken to panting all the time, even when it was not hot, and we figured that it must be from pain. I have to admit to a certain level of skepticism when thinking of holistic medicine. That being said, simply drugging my dog did not seem like a great

Comments

[tashewolf]

I have thought of your dear girl when I have imagined, "huh, you know, animal masseuse would be a pretty amazing dream job if I could pull it off."

You have done all the best you can for her with all of the information you have had, and you have continued to seek out more and better information and care. How can you beat that?

And, for all her exaggerated "OH!! no one loves me, you MUST give me your full attention," it is equally clear how much she knows that she is actually very well loved.

[winterswan]

Aw, thanks. It is a tough process, especially when you need to completely change course with care. That being said, she played with her toys for the first time in over a year last night! And the other day, she ran! It's pretty awesome. I'm hoping she'll feel even better after her next appointment tomorrow.

[tashewolf]

That is REALLY exciting stuff -- I'm glad it seems to be working!! <3

[cliodhna]

This may or may not be helpful, but if you find that making Cotton's meals from scratch is too time-consuming, it's my understanding that there are a decent number of pre-made Raw diets which are sold in pre-frozen formats, which can be defrosted/reheated as you need them. Those might end up being more tenable for your and M's busy schedules?

Yay taking excellent care of pets! :)

[winterswan]

I may look into that once we get to that point. I want her on a pro-biotic for one more week before we start the switch to her new food and I hear you need to take a month to switch to the new food which will be a canned diet so that it's close to what she had before. After that month, we will start to look into real food for her.

[marcus_sez_vote]

I hope her fluffiness enjoys all the love and care you are putting towards her!

Be well.

[winterswan]

Me too! I'm really nervous about her starting to hate that vet's office and yet still bringing her every week! Ugh. It's not really possible to be like, dude, this will make you feel better! Stop freaking out!

[gianajho]

We do the best by our pets to our knowledge, the fact you sought out this new kind of help is proof of what an awesome dogglett momma you are :)

My kitties growing up were always out door/indoor cats so they had to have the flea and tick stuff, and like a million vaccines n such. Since Jinx is an indoor kitty, he gets bare minimum rabies shot and nothing else, because just like with my own health, the less chemical intervention the better!

I'm so happy these changes are improving her quality of life, well done! And I second cointeach, there are many better alternatives out there for pet food now as people realize what they actually need :)

[winterswan]

Thanks! :-)

We'll look into other alternatives once we get the basics down, I think. I don't want to make too many changes too fast, but that might be where we end up.

[noradannan]

My aunt used to get acupuncture for her dog, who had horrible arthritis. The dog would sleep the whole 3 hours home from the doctor's, and then act like a puppy and run up and down the stairs again for a few weeks, before slowly having the arthritis come back. It worked wonders. Hope it helps Cotton!

[winterswan]

Me too! It's anecdotal evidence like that which led us to the holistic vet in the first place. Certainly anything that can make Her Fluffiness feel better is good by me!