He's 10 years old. He thinks he's still a puppy, but he's had a tough 8 month battle with a nasty infection in one side of his nose that took a village to deal with. Last October, Jeanne noticed that he had a perpetually runny nose and a weird cough/hacking issue. The nose got worse and worse developing into a really nasty discharge and which sapped all his energy. He wouldn't bark anymore, it seemed to hurt his throat. Vets couldn't figure it out. Every test known was performed, MRI's, the whole works. they even took him to a vet specialist down in Lynwood, everyone was stymied. They tried one antibiotic after another but nothing helped and it just got worse and worse. Jeanne was supplementing his diet with yogurt to try to keep his digestive system intact and unaffected by all the antibiotics. She was up at 5 am every day to make sure his meds were given in a timely manner. She was beside herself, thinking she may have to put him down because she would not allow him to suffer. He is such a trooper, he would try to play a bit, but his heart wasn't in it and after a minute or so would plop down amd sigh. I was making daily trips over there to give him puppy massages which seemed to help take his mind off his misery.
Vets had performed several tests for fungal infections, but they kept coming back negative. But ultimately was the only option not tried, so in February they put him on an anti-fungal and we crossed our fingers. It took about 3 weeks before we noticed any real improvement, but it was obvious that it was working, albeit slowly.
Today his nose is almost completely healed. The discharge is gone, he barks again, his energy is back and we are celebrating!
This is the puppy we know and love:
2 comments:
So glad to hear this!! YAY for Palmer!! And yay for not giving up!!
Good news, my friend! I know you were concerned. Quite a journey . . .
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