Phoenix's story is shared with us by Brook of ruled by paws. Thank you, Brook, for sharing your story!
***
Phoenix is a fourteen and a half-year-old male yellow Labrador Retriever. I received him in July of 1998 from the Lions Foundation of Canada Dog Guides when my first guide retired after only a year of working.
He attended my final year of high school and then guided me through my Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Guelph.
Phoenix was always a great worker and wonderful companion, but he had one worrisome issue, constant ear infections.
For as long as Phoenix’s puppy raisers could remember, he has always had problems with his ears.
They told me that they had to clean them at least once a week and he’d had at least two infections during the year they fostered him. When we were matched, I was shown how to clean his ears by one of the kennel staff members and told that I would need to purchase some ear cleaner and continue the weekly cleaning regiment they had been following because Phoenix had a tendency to get dirty ears.
I did not realize that he would end up getting almost bi-monthly infections, with major ones usually in the spring and fall.
For the first five years, his vets just treated the symptoms, which usually meant antibiotics and Surolan.
But, after having watched me pay pretty much the same amount of money each visit, my now husband, suggested we try looking for a different vet to care for him. Phoenix was about seven and a half at this point and had been having the severe infections a little more frequently.
It didn’t take long with the new vet to have a new attack plan proposed.
After the second time we brought Phoenix in to see him, he suggested the ear infections and constant paw chewing (a symptom his old vets did not notice) could be caused by a food allergy and not just because he was prone to getting them.
Within weeks we noticed Phoenix chewing his paws less and around the end of the twelve weeks, we realized that we hadn’t taken him to the vet in over two months!
We were then instructed to begin adding things back into his diet, leaving about three weeks between each new addition and watching for signs of allergies to return. We were told that if his symptoms returned to stop whatever we had added and only feed the food along with whatever had already been determined as safe for six straight weeks before trying something else.
This process helped us to determine that Phoenix’s constant ear issues were being caused by a gluten allergy.
Phoenix’s ears remained almost infection-free for about five years, only having to take him into the vet for annual check-ups and one or two infections a year – usually after swimming, a bath or rolling in the snow.
He still got itchy ears during the summer, but by giving him Benedryl or Allegra from April until October, he never really had any major ear problems.
Shortly after Phoenix turned ten he broke a tooth and we learned it would need to be removed in order to prevent an infection. We discussed options with his vet and were told it would cost close to a thousand dollars for the procedure. My husband and I were still in school, so asked if there was a way to pay in installments.
The vet shook her head and proceeded to tell us that it had been our choice to keep him and that there was nothing they could do to lessen the cost. We were shocked by her cold response and decided then and there that we would be changing vets because obviously this one truly did not understand the bond between a retired service dog and their human.
Phoenix ended up having his tooth removed by a dental specialist, who charged us half of what our vet was requesting, and while waiting for Phoenix to come out of recovery, we learned of Dr. B and her more natural approach to veterinary medicine.
Even though she does not provide the service dog discount our previous vet offered, we were attracted by the option to have her visit the house and her knowledge surrounding a more holistic approach to veterinary care. We’ve actually enjoyed her service so much that we still bring the dogs to her, even after moving seven hours away.
In April of 2009, Phoenix started his usual seasonal allergy issues and for the most part, we were able to control his ear issues with the daily dose of Allegra.
It would get close to resolving itself and then flare up again, leading us to look at other treatment options. We tried a new ear cleaner first, which seemed to help a bit, but then Dr. B suggested we try a different ear ointment from the usual Surolan we were using.
The new medication really didn’t seem to help much so we returned to the Surolan and just did the best we could to keep his ears from getting any worse.
... Phoenix had shaken his head so much that he had broken a blood vessel in his left ear flap and created a hematoma (his ear flap looked as though someone had inserted a small egg).
We were not able to get to Dr. B until after the weekend so she instructed us to start cleaning his ears daily and try to keep him from shaking his head when possible.
She then flopped his ear onto the top of his head and proceeded to wrap his head in a colorful vet wrap to keep it in place. With time, his ear flap sort of returned to normal, but has more of a crinkled look to it now. We also returned to using the Surolan, hoping it would finally resolve his infection.
Well, on the 1st of December, Phoenix came out of the bedroom, where his favorite spot to sleep is, and began trembling before he fell onto his right side.
He tried to get back up, but couldn’t – we thought he had had a stroke!
My step-dad had been taking care of him for us while we were away, so did all he could for him until we returned the following night.
He explained the whole scene and we rushed inside to be with him. Phoenix could barely hold up his head (which was tilted to the right), he was drooling excessively, his eyes were twitching, his nose was running and he couldn’t get up at all, but he wagged his tail like crazy as I approached.
It was already 10:00pm so we knew there was nothing we could do until the following morning, so we put Phoenix on our bed and tried to rest up for the long drive.
Phoenix was having so much trouble staying comfortable because he couldn’t adjust himself and if he laid on his right, he had to hold his head in an almost upside down position.
Around eight o’clock the following morning, we put all the dogs into the truck and had Phoenix lie on a blanket between us in the backseat while Dad drove.
It was a tense ride, but we knew that we had to do what was right for Phoenix and that if Dr. B said there was nothing we could do, then we had to let him go, it wasn’t fair to ask him to live this way. Well, after a brief stop at his puppy raiser’s house for a “final” goodbye (we wanted them to be prepared), we arrived at Dr. B’s office and carried him in.
She explained that there wasn’t really any treatment and that it would just take time and patience for him to recover almost fully. She then looked him over a little more thoroughly before giving him a homeopathic remedy and instructing us to begin making his kibble into a mushy consistency and adding some canned food for palatability.
She was convinced it would help alleviate some of the ongoing ear issues and because she was concerned that he may aspirate on the kibble when vacuuming up his meals.
Within a few hours of getting his first dose of the homeopathic remedy, Phoenix became more alert and able to hold his head a little steadier.
After about seventy-two hours, he was able to somewhat weight bare and continued to improve steadily from there. He was pretty much back to himself by Christmas and even joined us on a 3km walk we took Christmas Day.
I think the most amazing part of this whole experience though, was to watch Phoenix’s high level of determination to get better and the fact he never once had an accident but instead made sure we knew he had to go out and waited to be set down on the grass.
Since then, we’ve started Phoenix on a raw diet and a semi-regular homeopathic regiment for his ears.
He got his first dose around the end of February and his energy level increased, along with some improvements in his ear health.
Then, around the end of March, we noticed his energy level decreasing and his ears backtracking, so we asked Dr. B for a phone consult. She instructed us to give him another dose of the remedy and then let her know what happened after two weeks time.
It has been three weeks since Phoenix received the second dose, and his ears are now at the same stage in healing, with very little inflammation or discharge – a drastic improvement!
I’m not sure if we’ll need to repeat the remedy again, but since the diet change and the implementation of the homeopathic regiment, we’ve noticed he sheds less, moves around easier and seems more alert and cheery, as well as, being more energetic and having his ears begin to clear up after a year and a half of issues.
Related articles:
Medical Terms That Sound Like A Diagnosis But Really Are Not: Otitis
***
Phoenix and I bonded easily and became inseparable within months.
He attended my final year of high school and then guided me through my Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Guelph.
Phoenix was always a great worker and wonderful companion, but he had one worrisome issue, constant ear infections.
For as long as Phoenix’s puppy raisers could remember, he has always had problems with his ears.
They told me that they had to clean them at least once a week and he’d had at least two infections during the year they fostered him. When we were matched, I was shown how to clean his ears by one of the kennel staff members and told that I would need to purchase some ear cleaner and continue the weekly cleaning regiment they had been following because Phoenix had a tendency to get dirty ears.
I did not realize that he would end up getting almost bi-monthly infections, with major ones usually in the spring and fall.
For the first five years, his vets just treated the symptoms, which usually meant antibiotics and Surolan.
But, after having watched me pay pretty much the same amount of money each visit, my now husband, suggested we try looking for a different vet to care for him. Phoenix was about seven and a half at this point and had been having the severe infections a little more frequently.
It didn’t take long with the new vet to have a new attack plan proposed.
After the second time we brought Phoenix in to see him, he suggested the ear infections and constant paw chewing (a symptom his old vets did not notice) could be caused by a food allergy and not just because he was prone to getting them.
We immediately started Phoenix on an elimination diet and after three days of fasting, he began twelve weeks of just eating a hypoallergenic food.
Within weeks we noticed Phoenix chewing his paws less and around the end of the twelve weeks, we realized that we hadn’t taken him to the vet in over two months!
We were then instructed to begin adding things back into his diet, leaving about three weeks between each new addition and watching for signs of allergies to return. We were told that if his symptoms returned to stop whatever we had added and only feed the food along with whatever had already been determined as safe for six straight weeks before trying something else.
Phoenix’s ears remained almost infection-free for about five years, only having to take him into the vet for annual check-ups and one or two infections a year – usually after swimming, a bath or rolling in the snow.
He still got itchy ears during the summer, but by giving him Benedryl or Allegra from April until October, he never really had any major ear problems.
Shortly after Phoenix turned ten he broke a tooth and we learned it would need to be removed in order to prevent an infection. We discussed options with his vet and were told it would cost close to a thousand dollars for the procedure. My husband and I were still in school, so asked if there was a way to pay in installments.
The vet shook her head and proceeded to tell us that it had been our choice to keep him and that there was nothing they could do to lessen the cost. We were shocked by her cold response and decided then and there that we would be changing vets because obviously this one truly did not understand the bond between a retired service dog and their human.
Phoenix ended up having his tooth removed by a dental specialist, who charged us half of what our vet was requesting, and while waiting for Phoenix to come out of recovery, we learned of Dr. B and her more natural approach to veterinary medicine.
Even though she does not provide the service dog discount our previous vet offered, we were attracted by the option to have her visit the house and her knowledge surrounding a more holistic approach to veterinary care. We’ve actually enjoyed her service so much that we still bring the dogs to her, even after moving seven hours away.
In April of 2009, Phoenix started his usual seasonal allergy issues and for the most part, we were able to control his ear issues with the daily dose of Allegra.
At some point though that summer, he started developing an ear infection and no matter what we did, it just wouldn’t clear up.
It would get close to resolving itself and then flare up again, leading us to look at other treatment options. We tried a new ear cleaner first, which seemed to help a bit, but then Dr. B suggested we try a different ear ointment from the usual Surolan we were using.
The new medication really didn’t seem to help much so we returned to the Surolan and just did the best we could to keep his ears from getting any worse.
In November of 2010, we were still battling the nasty ear infection of 2009 and were met with a new challenge...
... Phoenix had shaken his head so much that he had broken a blood vessel in his left ear flap and created a hematoma (his ear flap looked as though someone had inserted a small egg).
We were not able to get to Dr. B until after the weekend so she instructed us to start cleaning his ears daily and try to keep him from shaking his head when possible.
When we finally reached her office, she inserted an IV catheter and withdrew over 20cc of blood and fluids.
She then flopped his ear onto the top of his head and proceeded to wrap his head in a colorful vet wrap to keep it in place. With time, his ear flap sort of returned to normal, but has more of a crinkled look to it now. We also returned to using the Surolan, hoping it would finally resolve his infection.
Well, on the 1st of December, Phoenix came out of the bedroom, where his favorite spot to sleep is, and began trembling before he fell onto his right side.
He tried to get back up, but couldn’t – we thought he had had a stroke!
My step-dad had been taking care of him for us while we were away, so did all he could for him until we returned the following night.
When we pulled up, Dad came out with a really upset look on his face and said that something had happened to Phoenix.
He explained the whole scene and we rushed inside to be with him. Phoenix could barely hold up his head (which was tilted to the right), he was drooling excessively, his eyes were twitching, his nose was running and he couldn’t get up at all, but he wagged his tail like crazy as I approached.
It was a terrible night.
Phoenix was having so much trouble staying comfortable because he couldn’t adjust himself and if he laid on his right, he had to hold his head in an almost upside down position.
Around eight o’clock the following morning, we put all the dogs into the truck and had Phoenix lie on a blanket between us in the backseat while Dad drove.
It was a tense ride, but we knew that we had to do what was right for Phoenix and that if Dr. B said there was nothing we could do, then we had to let him go, it wasn’t fair to ask him to live this way. Well, after a brief stop at his puppy raiser’s house for a “final” goodbye (we wanted them to be prepared), we arrived at Dr. B’s office and carried him in.
After a brief examination, Dr. B looked up and before I could say anything, told us it wasn’t as bad as it looked.
Phoenix was diagnosed with Idiopathic Vestibular Disease.
She explained that there wasn’t really any treatment and that it would just take time and patience for him to recover almost fully. She then looked him over a little more thoroughly before giving him a homeopathic remedy and instructing us to begin making his kibble into a mushy consistency and adding some canned food for palatability.
It was at this point that she suggested we begin looking into a homemade or raw diet.
She was convinced it would help alleviate some of the ongoing ear issues and because she was concerned that he may aspirate on the kibble when vacuuming up his meals.
Within a few hours of getting his first dose of the homeopathic remedy, Phoenix became more alert and able to hold his head a little steadier.
After about seventy-two hours, he was able to somewhat weight bare and continued to improve steadily from there. He was pretty much back to himself by Christmas and even joined us on a 3km walk we took Christmas Day.
I think the most amazing part of this whole experience though, was to watch Phoenix’s high level of determination to get better and the fact he never once had an accident but instead made sure we knew he had to go out and waited to be set down on the grass.
Since then, we’ve started Phoenix on a raw diet and a semi-regular homeopathic regiment for his ears.
He got his first dose around the end of February and his energy level increased, along with some improvements in his ear health.
Then, around the end of March, we noticed his energy level decreasing and his ears backtracking, so we asked Dr. B for a phone consult. She instructed us to give him another dose of the remedy and then let her know what happened after two weeks time.
It has been three weeks since Phoenix received the second dose, and his ears are now at the same stage in healing, with very little inflammation or discharge – a drastic improvement!
I’m not sure if we’ll need to repeat the remedy again, but since the diet change and the implementation of the homeopathic regiment, we’ve noticed he sheds less, moves around easier and seems more alert and cheery, as well as, being more energetic and having his ears begin to clear up after a year and a half of issues.
I hope that Phoenix's story might help other dogs, who'd been suffering from a lifetime of ear problems.
Related articles:
Medical Terms That Sound Like A Diagnosis But Really Are Not: Otitis
This sounds an awful lot like us and our Felix - we fought ear infections and impacted anal glands over and over and our vet told us we were just "unlucky". When we decided not to vaccinate Felix (he always has a bad reaction to the vaccines), we ended up breaking up with our vet over it. A blessing in disguise - our new holistic vet has made Felix healthier than he has ever been and I feel so much better knowing I'm not pumping him full of chemicals. Bravo to Brooke and her family for finding a better way to keep Phoenix happy & healthy!
ReplyDeleteHi Kolchak, I'm glad Felix's problem got resolved! It is frustrating to be told that you're being "unlucky". We were told the same thing with Jasmine's digestive issues too.
ReplyDeleteIt just comes to prove that when things are not working it's time to move on to different things.
I am sorry you have gone through all this with Phoenix. It is shocking and disappointing to hear that so many pet owners are told they are "unlucky." There are some good vets out there and I am glad you have finally found one!
ReplyDeletethanks everyone for letting me know that Phoenix isn't the only one dealing with issues. I felt bad that it took me so long to figure out what was going on. It's hard when you're young and it's your first dog, now my others won't have to suffer because he has taught me tons :)
ReplyDeleteWe're thankful to have found Dr b and will continue to go to her for as long as we can afford it and make the drive.
We ended up having to give Phoenix another dose of his remedy and I'm happy to report that his ears have not back tracked at all :) They still have a long way to go, but we've come so far with the remedy.
In new news though, his right ear flap ended up engorging with blood a couple weeks ago though, so he's a little unhappy about having to wear vet wrap to keep it in an upright position. We tried putting it up for a week, then letting it stay down for a few days, but it seemed to get worse again, so we're going to try and keep it up for a week and a half or more to see if that resolves things. We don't want to have to drain it and surgery is out of the question since he's older, but it's hard to watch him so unhappy. It seems to be never-ending with those ears of his... At least he's not in pain though.
Took us a long time to figure some things out too - mainly that we need to dig deeper for answers. That's why I started the blog, so people can learn from experience of others instead of having to go through learning things the hard way.
ReplyDelete