I'll try to make this brief...The first week of Jan. I noticed my dog limping occasionally on her front right leg. I completely inspected her paw, leg, etc...and couldn't see anything. She limped off and on for a couple days and I couldn't see why. I was worried so I called a friend who is a vet tech and asked about giving my dog some pain meds I had left over from something she had before. It was Rimidyl and it was expired but I figured that it just means the medication has lost some potency. My friend told me that should be okay. I gave her a ½ a pill which is what the bottle called for. I did that twice so she got a total of one pill in two days. I’ve since thrown the pills away. The occasional limping stopped after a few days but I noticed she has trouble getting up after lying down for a while. Her back end appears sore. Now, I've noticed her itching & scratching, licking her paws/legs, biting her back at the base of her tail and scratching her ears and shaking her head. She seems bored/depressed. That's gone on for about a week or two. I've now noticed she has a 1/2 inch cut in the large pad on one of her back paws that seems somewhat healed so I don’t know when it happened but it must’ve been within the last month or so. Also, I looked over her front leg that she was limping on again and I now can see that one of her nails looks to be pointing a little to the side-like it was fractured and healed crooked. I can't believe I didn't see this before! It never even bled! I've been driving myself crazy researching her symptoms and I think I know what's going on but of course I can’t be sure.Oh-she was at the vet once already last week and I now know I'm switching vets due to the poor diagnosis and lack of knowledge. Through countless hours of research it seems it’s a yeast problem but my vet chalked it up to allergies and gave me a fish oil/Vitamin E supplement (at my request-she wanted to give Benedryl). I'm trying to avoid traditional medications if possible. I feel holistic care is much safer and easier on the body. Also, I spoke to two different people at two different health food stores and told them what is going on and they both said it was yeast-like I thought!! I have since been giving my dog a powdered acidophilus supplement formulated for children once a day mixed in with some plain organic yogurt. This has only been a few times so I haven’t seen results. I quit giving the supplements from the vet once I started the yogurt mix. I also have been giving her unrefined virgin coconut oil for fatty acids, which she loves. I have researched all of this and I feel it’s safe. I would never give her something if I wasn’t sure it was safe. I am soon going to bathe her with an all natural shampoo to ease the dry itchiness and hope it helps. Thanks for any help you can give . I really appreciate it and I'm sure Zoe will too! :) By the way, I'm not attaching a picture of the condition because there isn't really anything visible other than the toenail and that was even difficult to notice! She hasn't scratched herself raw. It's not constant but it's obviously more than normal. The ears/head shaking seem to be bothering her the most.
ALSO:
-she’s vomited a handful of times in the last several months.
-she’s not right at the door when we get home and sometimes it’s several seconds before she shows up! This has been for a few months.
-she’s gained 7lbs. since last spring
-she seems quite thirsty lately in the last couple weeks—due to yeast?
-I recently changed her food for the first time EVER from Purina One Chicken & Rice to Innova for seniors. After all the researching I’ve done I couldn’t continue feeding her a “grocery store brandâ€. I also thought it may help being it’s of higher quality. The switch was gradual over the last couple of weeks. She loved the food at first and now I’m not so sure she likes it. She does eat it though. She’s never been a big eater and she’s always weighed in the mid 30’s until now. I first noticed her weight gain after a few different friends said something so I weighed her and she’s 43lbs! This was in November that I weighed her.
