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Hearing issues, or selective hearing?
What do you think?
A trip to the spaw
Faith here - yesterday, my mom got some kind of wild hair and decided to throw me into the bath tub. I was not impressed. Not one bit. She said something about having to put Revolution on me because of the dermatologist's instructions but wanting me to be clean first. I think being clean is totally over-rated. Now I look like a big fluffy-butt. How embarrassing! To make matters worse, she decided it would be a good idea to take pictures of us in the act.. Why, why why?!
Yes, that is me glaring at her!
It's too bad she knows my weakness.. she bribed me with treats.. darn!
If it wasn't bad enough that I was cold and FREEZING to death, Kosmo stole the warm water.. HMMPH!
You think this is funny, do you?
Ahh fine.. just do what you gotta do, but get it over with!!
After the bath, she made me drip dry, and then called me a "hot mess!" Today I at least got pampering.. A nice brush and some diluted Vellus Satin Cream thanks to Debbie (grrr!! She was being generous and giving us some satin cream but mommy thought it was conditioner and diluted it - whoops! lol).. Oh well now it will last for a long time my mom said, haha. I got some Surolan and some Douxo Sebborhea Spot On ointment for my crazy skin lesions. They are pretty oily looking right now but hopefully with regular administration, we can get them to go away!
The revolution made my hair all stiff and stinky. :( Ahh crap. And if that wasn't bad enough, she put some Burrow's solution in my ears. LOL Hot mess is right! Oh well, now I'm finished and all brushed out and tangle free. I actually like the brush.. as long as treats are involved afterwards of course ;)
Today is another good day for my brother! He had a bit of a period last night but he's been great all day today. This is good news! :)
Hope everybody has a great weekend!
Woof!
Faith
Today is a good day! Faith is still absolutely exhausted from being totally tortured yesterday (lol), and Kosmo is doing well today, too! They are of course both relaxing and sleeping right now (what cavalier doesn't LOVE sleeping!) but later tonight I plan to give them a bath and a nice long walk. :)
It's funny how sometimes dogs react to thunderstorms. Yesterday we not only had an earthquake, but a mighty powerful thunder/lightening storm run through in the middle of the night. Avi laughed hysterically at Faith during the earthquake because she was sleeping on her back and kept moving up and down.. Her lips were vibrating and she was dead to the world.. that's my girl! lol ;) Last night during the thunderstorm, the thunder got so loud at one point that it was shaking the house! The lightening was pretty vicious too. Kosmo got mad at the light apparently and got up to burrow under the covers. Nobody here cares about storms, lol. I have always been a storm lover myself, so if my dogs didn't react well to them, I think I'd cry. I remember with both of them sometimes during the thunderstorms I'll pick them up and plaster my head out the window and let them watch. Maybe they're used to it since they've grown up watching me storm stalk, lol.
I finally got my computer back after a long vacation (bad virus! :( ) and you know what that means?!? PICTURES!
Last week, my good friend Debbie at Bark'N About went to the park around here. I just love good friends and walks in the park. Life would be perfect if I could convince MaryBeth at Embee's cavaliers to move out here and share park trips!!
My attempt at getting the 4 of them together:
Kosmo and Faith in front of the fountain.. I must have took 10 pictures here and yet I still couldn't find one I liked that well!! 
And saving the best for last....
Here is the beautiful MysticMoon Dancing Queen a.k.a. Becky - Becky is being shown this weekend at the Cavalier Fanciers of Southern Ontairo specialty show.. Wish her luck!! Kosmo and Faith will have their paws together in support.. Go Becky, you'll do great!! 
Today we are thankful for all of our good cavalier friends!! We love you all and can't wait to see you soon! :)
Dermatologist
Naughty girl jumps in the dryer to lay on my clean clothes!! lol
Today was the ever-so-anticipated dermatologist appoitment for Faith. Avi decided to wake up and take me in this morning which was very helpful - our follow up appt is NOT at 9am!! LOL - traffic was awful!! Our dermatologist is a very nice guy and he spent a lot of time with Faith. We got a few answers, but mostly more questions than I had anticipated getting. For starters, he doesn't seem to think that Faith's main issues are allergies - actually he went as far as to say he's not even interested in doing allergy testing until the histology report comes back on her skin lesions (the second report) and she gets some blood testing done. That's fair to me, as I am not sure it all stems from "allergies" either. He confirmed today that she doesn't have Demodex mange or walking dandruff - no scabies either.. Phew ;) He did send off a slide to have a fungal analysis on it though, so that'll be interesting to see what it comes back like. Under his microscope (literally in the back of the vet facility) he was able to see bacterial rods and cones (occasional), along with yeast (!) and white and red blood cells. The yeast was an obvious unexpected finding as he came and met me in the waiting room with that result and said she needed some more meds (surolan applied to the area).
He said if the slides all come back negative then we're perhaps looking at a situation of her immune system not functioning properly. I have thought this for a while now, so it is no surprise to me. Most things have come back negative thus far. He also said he would be looking for papilloma but considering that my original vet sent the histology slides to a very highly regarded pathologist, he trusts she already looked into it. Due to the fact that the skin lesions are so localized, he's going to treat her with some topical medications and we're going to re-evaluate in 4 weeks and see if it's made any difference. She's on a host of topical things for now to see if we can make any difference with her.
One of the things he was quite concerned with is the fact that she has some snorting/breathing problems and I reported to him that my vet said it was red and swollen when she was put under for her skin biopsy. He obviously couldn't look all the way down her throat with her being awake, but he did stick a light in it and he said from what he seen, it is in fact red, raw and angry looking. He has requested that we see an internal medicine specialist to deal with this issue and get a detailed blood work up - and when I say detailed, he wants cholesterol, thyroid, kidney, liver.. all kinds of blood tests to see if she's showing anything abnormal. Due to the fact that she's lethargic a lot of the time on walks, he wants to look for an imbalance. He asked to have the internal medicine specialist do the blood work just in case they have something they want to check, but gave me a list of the things he wants on there, lol. Right now we have an appointment (not downtown this time - thank God!) for July 5th. He wants her to see the internal medicine specialist BEFORE I return to him so they can collaborate and he can see the results of the blood test during the follow up. I don't feel like paying another $150 consultation fee, but if I can get somewhere, I'm all for it.
One thing that he said that was interesting to me is that the medication that Faith has been on for her ears (Ottomax as a preventative 2x/week) is a BAD BAD BAD idea. He stressed that to me multiple times and cited things like superbugs (antibiotic resistant strains of bacteria) and that that sort of "heavy duty drug" shouldn't be used for a maintenance. Instead, she's now on a "self-formulated" sort of Burrows ear drops for dogs. It does have a hydrocortizone agent in it, but it's 1% and apparently very gentle. I'm supposed to put it in her ears twice a day for 2 weeks and then "as needed." If it works like he says it does, I'm going to order it for all of my friends! lol Her ears look good for right now though, but he did say he couldn't see one ear drum due to a big pile of wax. He's hoping this drug will loosen the wax and that he'll be able to see her ear drum next time we're in to see him.
In all, I feel like we had a pretty good appointment. Avi is kind of upset that nothing "happened" but honestly we've got a starting point and that's all I'm looking for! I had Kosmo with me and I had a short talk with the dermatologist about him. I told him it was possible I'd see him again with Kosmo, but in all honesty I'll probably end up going the other route.
Speaking of Kosmo, today is a GOOD DAY!! YAY :) I am excited to report that. A little scratching this morning but none really since then. He has had a pretty exciting day though and is pooped, LOL. ;) Earlier I was on the phone with Debbie *YUP I figured it out.. woohoo - thanks!!* and I said "hmm I hear Kosmo scratching".. Wait.. My house is shaking!! LOL! Holy .. earthquake in Canada?! I'm glad it wasn't Kosmo scratching, and thank God I was on the phone which kept me from freaking out. That was kind of scary! No more earthquakes! lol
I'm DYING to try the Vellus shampoo and conditioner that Debbie gave me (I like this new trick ;) ) I of course just bought a ton of Isle of Dogs and watch me like it more - Murphy's Law! LOL ;) I am considering bathing the poopers tonight but if it doesn't happen, I still have tomorrow.. ;)
Random Ramblings
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Frustration!
Nobody has ever said owning a dog was easy. Theoretically, I also know that whatever "health complications" Kosmo and Faith have I pretty well signed that I will bear the full responsibility of managing them, considering their backgrounds. It doesn't mean it doesn't suck, though! Today's blog will be random health ramblings so I can track things to see if I can notice any kind of pattern. Wish us luck!
Faithey is going to the dermatologist tomorrow. She has some skin lesions.. which funnily enough have decreased significantly since she was taken off of the salmon oil - coincidence, or allergy trigger? Her ears are still bugging her, and she's still breathing loudly, so hopefully Mr. Dermatologist can help us figure out what her issues are. She sometimes acts like she has lost her "zest" for life, but sometimes she's just fine, so this has been one frustrating road for us. We at first thought it was an orthopaedic problem, but after treating her with metacam for a month and putting her on cetylM and cosequin, I'm convinced that although she may have orthopaedic problems, that's not the "cause" of her loss of zest. I sometimes wonder whether she doesn't have some kind of auto-immune disease that's making her feel like crap. I feel bad that her ears are bugging her right now, but I thought about it, and thought that A) should he determine he wants to do allergy testing tomorrow he'll be abe to because she's been off "steroids" for a while and B) He NEEDS to know what happens as soon as she's off of the ear medications. That way, it won't be a description. I hope I made the right choice. We'll soon find out. Whatever Faith's issues are though, I'm glad she's still her sweet little loving self, and thankful she is how she is, because truthfully, her issues could be a whole lot worse.
Kosmo, on the other hand, is an entirely different piece of work. This past week he has completely ripped off half of his ear hair on the one side. It's been a really bad week for us. I've gone to the vet on this issue several times and she's convinced he has allergies. We tried Novo-Hydroxyzine and it did nothing for him. He keeps scratching his ears and it seems like when I talked to the vet she'd say "well, there's something there, but it looks pretty good." Hmm okay well then why is he scratching his ears like mad??!! I eventually got frustrated and left it. I had "the talk" with Avi (daddy) this morning regarding what to do with Kos. I often wonder if he doesn't have some kind of SM or Chiari Malformation pain going on. What I find so interesting in my experience with SM/Chiari Malformation is that just as every person presents illness differently, it seems as if every dog does too. Sure, there are those classic SM signs such as air scratching, but I've learned that every dog presents their case differently. I worry about Kosmo because he seems to constantly be scratching his face, but he doesn't really fit many of the other "symptoms". On the allergy side, he doesn't have runny eyes or tear stains which I would think if he had allergies would be one of the first things he would show. I suppose he could suffer from allergies, but on a more serious note, he could be showing signs of neurological discomfort. This is where the road has taken us, and there is a theoretical fork in it which I suppose we'll have to decide which side to go down.
This morning when I Avi was getting ready for breakfast, Kosmo was "squinting." Not so much squinting full on, but his eyes were not open and bright like they usually are. It was like he had a headache and they were 1/4 closed. If I said his name, his eyes would open fully again, but I wonder if he didn't have a headache?
Lets say he hypothetically has neurologic pain (which could honestly be completely true) - at what point does an owner say "ok this is affecting his quality of life so lets get it checked out." Does Kosmo show enough signs and symtoms to warrant further investigation and a possible medication for the rest of his life? That is one of the questions I've been struggling with for a while now. While I know that Kosmo is my bouncing, happy, fun, I love my life dog, I never have been able to get rid of "that scratch." But on the other hand, even after "that scratch," he reverts right back to his flower sniffing happy go lucky self. What is the "cut off point" for this kind of thing? It's very frustrating and I still don't have an answer.
On the other hand, lets say it's allergies like my vet said - he honestly did get really scratchy on that GI food he was on a few months ago. Avi says his scratching is worse in the spring/summer than in the fall. I know we did have a pretty good period (and his best looking ears ever to show for it!) this winter. How come the anti-histamine didn't work? I was thinking about it and we haven't tried him on Benadryl yet, so I suppose for now, that'll be our next step. With Faith going to the dermatologist tomorrow, it'll be interesting to see if I learn anything new that will sway me in one way or another.
Right now I feel like a helpless sitting duck.
If you've made it this far, congratulations.. ;) Thanks for listening to my Tuesday Ramblings post. It's somewhat therapeutic for me to be able to get all of this "out," and I suppose someday I'll be looking at it and trying to draw connections. If you have any wisdom or words of advice, feel free to leave your thoughts. :)
Botanical Gardens
Today was a different-doggy-day for us! Mom decided this morning that she was tired of being cooped up and doing school work all the time, so she put in a call to her good friends Kodee and Becky at http://barknabout.blogspot.com/ (man, I've really gotta figure out how to say "DOG" and someone can click it!) and we met up at the Botanical Gardens on our end of town! We'd never been there before. It was a beautiful day outside- sun was out, breeze was blowing and best of all, we got to see our friends!!!
Mom complained she hadn't had a photo opportunity with us for a long time so the first thing she did was blackmail us ... 
We walked and walked around the park, sniffed some flowers, and got to go swimming!! A little bit anyways.. Mom pulled me out when she seen me drinking the water.. hey, a dogs gotta drink, too!! Anyways, then we sat down by a nice picnic table. We first noticed how our little friend, Becky has grown!! She's so pretty now! I (Kosmo) would be into her if I hadn't realized I'm 28 and she's 7.. Yuck!! Anyways.. I still think she's totally cute, but would much rather her suitable sister, Kodee, if you get my drift.. ;)
Let us NEVER forget her beautiful sister Kodee!! Kodee was great today.. I seen her sneak a kiss into my mom and I've never seen her do that before!! I think she finally thinks of us as her extended doggy family ;) Pawesome for me!
After some walking and talking, the paw-rents had a crazy idea to try to get all 4 of us lined up together for picture taking opportunities. We can't figure out the silly reason why they feel this is necessary, but they know treats are always our weakpoint, and it's not fair, but they know we'll eventually give in.. :-( They seem to be fairly happy with the results though
After a fun day of pawin around, we were TIRED!! Mom picked Faith up and she fell asleep backwards in her arms just like a little baby does.. Hmm. .. . . Suck Up!!
We're sorry we haven't written in a while, but hopefully now that it's summer time we'll be updating a little more often! We miss swapping doggy stories with all of you and hearing the new innovative ways you've uncovered to butt-sniff!! Tah tah for now!
~ Kosmo
We can't figure out how to mess with the layout of this post because we're very technically challenged and we need to go to sleep. So like I said, TTFN and sorry! Hopefully someday we'll figure it out!
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