Wednesday, January 21, 2009

This old dog learned a new (life-saving) trick

Last Fall, my mom took my dear little poodle to the vet because he was acting very lethargic and coughing/gagging constantly. He had some allergies, so I thought it was related to that. In fact, the vet could barely find a pulse, said his lungs were filled with fluid and diagnosed congestive heart failure. He put him on a diuretic and a heart pill.

These worked for a week or two, then he was fading again. We added another heart med. Fortunately, these were affordable treatments; unfortunately, they were not working. I called the vet, who told me to take the dog to a specialist. Yikes. I called and was quoted $800 plus and that was just for tests and the initial consultation. Ouch.

I turned to the Internet. Lo and behold, I found Five Leaf Pet Pharmacy, which sells natural remedies for pets. I read testimonial after testimonial of people whose dogs' health situation sounded like Frazier's. So I paid the $80 to have an herbal heart tonic, human-grade L-Carnitine & Taurine powders sent. Within days, he was improved.

Now, about three months later, he almost never coughs and is as spry as ever. Honestly, it's a miracle to me. We are now going to wean him off the pharmaceutical drugs and see if the natural remedies cut it on their own. I expect they will. Stay tuned for any updates.

1 comment:

  1. Okay, six months later...I took Frazier to the vet. The vet was blown away and said that he would not have believed a dog could improve this much if he had not seen it with his own eyes. First off, Frazier had gone from a chunky 8.8 pounds to a more svelte 6.8 pounds. The vet felt that this weight loss had the most profound effect but was not surprised that these supplements would also help. One weird side effect of the medications (still have him on a tiny bit of digoxin and lasix, along with the natural supplements) is that the hair just above his nose on his snout is all gone. It's all just black skin there now, but it doesn't seem to bother him. His hair on his back is getting black, too. I guess the gray dogs go black as they get older? Anyway, happy story so far and I'd HIGHLY recommend these Five Leaf products.

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