Shaking Up Mia's Treatment

Sometimes it takes a storm to see the pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. Such has been the case with my holistic treatment of Mia, who was exposed to kennel cough (totally my fault, and I've been beating myself up ever since). It's been difficult to tell where the bordetella ended and the mitral valve disease began (or vice versa). There were days when Mia was like a ragdoll with no energy. I kept her hydrated with coconut water and fed with chicken-and-veggie organic baby food, to increase her energy level. As she's moved through the kennel cough--which basically has to run its course with some nutritional and supplemental support from me--the coughing didn't improve; in fact, it changed and became a dry cough. And that brings me back to her heart disease. The thing about mitral valve prolapse is it can seem like it's getting better, because, as the disease progresses into congestive heart failure, the murmur isn't as defined as before. I'm no doctor, but from what I understand, that's what's called a soft prolapse as the valve tissue deteriorates; it masks the seriousness of it. That seems to be what's been going on with Mia. And it took Mia's bad cold to bring it to my attention. We didn't get much sleep for a few nights, because Mia would sleep 30 minutes and wake up for two hours, coughing. Then, she had a great day and I thought we were over the hump. But, once again, she had a bad night. That's when it hit me that it's not just the kennel cough; her heart disease is progressing. A vet tech friend told me I should put Mia on heart meds. But I don't want her to go through renal failure (a side effect to some meds, which I imagine is painful). If Mia dies of anything, it will be congestive heart disease and not a fatal side effect to prescription drugs. So, I got back on the Internet. I found a site--Canine Heart Health. And that's when I discovered the benefits of cayenne for the heart. Here's something about its reported benefits:

One of the greatest herbs in the world, used by the famous Dr. Richard Schulze and Dr. John Christopher to heal thousands of people and animals from heart disease, circulation problems, internal and external bleeding etc. Its healing power is only questioned by those who have not used it. The hotter the cayenne, the better; it is natures heart food. Cayenne not only feeds the heart, it stimulates circulation (a must for any disease) and therefore gets more oxygen-rich blood to the oxygen starved heart... . It intensifies the metabolic action of the other herbs. It is extremely safe and should be used daily. To show what a miracle worker cayenne really is, Dr.Christropher related the experiment performed by medical doctors in the eastern United States--and printed in the medical journals. They put some live heart tissue in a beaker filled with distilled water, and feed it nothing but cayenne pepper, cleaning off sediments periodically and adding nothing else but distilled water to replace that which was lost from evaporation. During the experiment, they would have to trim the tissue every few days, because it would grow so rapidly! Having no control glands (pituitary and pineal) the tissue just continued to grow rapidly. They kept this tissue alive for fifteen years. After the doctor doing the experiment died, his associates kept it alive for two more years before destroying it for analysis. This shows the tremendous regenerative and healing power of cayenne, especially upon the heart.

If successful, it could be a major turning point in herbal support for Mia. Tomorrow, I'm adding cayenne, along with ginger (which complements cayenne), to her daily supplements. I'll let everyone know how it goes. Fingers, toes and paws crossed!

Mia Improves!

Mia -- finally -- is stabilized. Between regular applications of stem cell-derived cord blood serum (exudate) on her chest and more pure (CarniPure) L-carnitine, along with twice-a-day doses of ubiquinol CoQ10, vitamin C, E and magnesium, Mia now goes half a day without coughing. This morning, she didn't cough at all. And the crackle sound in her lungs is gone -- at least for now. I had run out of the ubiquinol form of CoQ10 and was using up a bottle I had of regular CoQ10, and she wasn't coming back as quickly from the bronchitis. So I bought a new bottle of ubiquinol. What a difference! Also, instead of giving Mia coconut water from a carton, I've been getting baby coconuts and giving her fresh coconut water (and also giving it to Rosy, my basset-heeler mix who has melanoma -- but so far shows no signs that the cancer is progressing). Mia likes the fresh coconut water much better than in a carton. It costs me a dollar more per day for the fresh coconut, but it's worth it. I also give her half a teaspoon of coconut oil twice a day. She hates it, so I open her mouth and pop it in (it's OK; she gets a big hug afterward). The way i've been able to manage Mia's disease is to periodically shake up what I do. What worked yesterday sometimes doesn't work today. My plan is to try my best to keep her at this level, where she's comfortable. When she has a set back, it takes about two weeks to pull her back to where she was before. She's a little trooper; it's as if she knows that the few minutes it takes twice a day to pop in her supplements are good for her. When the supplement bottles come out, she walks over, sits next to me and waits to take them. It's just part of our day. She used to cough for a few minutes at the start of our walks, and she's not doing that now either. So it feels like she's in a good place. All I have to do is monitor her and try and maintain it. Photo, top, of Mia at a book signing for Pawprints of Katrina, and, inset, Mia on a walk in Sunset Cliffs in Ocean Beach during a recent trip to San Diego.

Well, hello, Dolly!

Mia has another new friend, this one a special needs partially paralyzed chihuahua -- and Mia's none too thrilled about it. That's because Dolly is still a puppy and wants to chew on Mia's legs and play nonstop (it's easy to tell Dolly's paralysis doesn't hold her back from much). We're looking for a forever home for Dolly. Here's a story, below, I wrote about her for Best Friends Animal Society's Web site. I'm also including an adorable video of Dolly that will make you laugh. Tiny rescued dog displays a big heart By Cathy Scott, Best Friends staff writer (Courtesty of Best Friends) A tiny paralyzed puppy -- found all alone on a city sidewalk -- has a new lease on life, all because of a kind veterinarian and Best Friends volunteers. Dolly, a partially paralyzed long-haired chihuahua, was found last October abandoned on a street in Riverside County, California. Just two months old, she was taken to an animal shelter, where a volunteer veterinarian was asked to put her down because of her paralysis. “The staff fell in love with her, but she was deemed special circumstances due to her legs,” Dr. Ron Friedlander says. “Her greatest feature was her attitude; she did not know she was not a normal dog.” Because she weighed around just three pounds at the time, she was kept in the shelter’s receiving area. “Many people were able to play with her,” Friedlander says. “She would sit in the palm of your hand and try to lick your face. If you put her on the floor, she would scoot across the shelter almost as fast as a normal dog.” Once the shelter’s five-day hold was up and no one had applied to adopt Dolly (previously known as Twinkle), Friedlander took her to his emergency veterinary clinic. Three days later, Catherine Macias, who volunteers with Best Friends’ Los Angeles Programs, walked into the clinic and was told about Dolly. She found a temporary foster home for her. Because of a sore on her leg that turned gangrene, Friedlander removed one of Dolly’s rear legs. Now, because there’s no possibility of rehabilitating her remaining rear leg, that too is being amputated, so she can scoot around better without the leg -- which is straight and in front of her -- getting in the way. In Las Vegas, Cassandra Schneller took Dolly in to care for her following the surgery. “She has an enormous heart in such a tiny dog,” Schneller says. She took Dolly to work – diapers and all. “I brought her with me to work every day and any public place that allowed dogs,” she says. “Dolly had a passion for life and loved every part of it -- people, dogs, toys, treats, outings. If she wasn’t in someone’s arms, she was moving faster than I could keep up with her.” While with Schneller, she even learned to play fetch. Now, Dolly is staying with my dogs and me. The exposure to and affection from people she received from the moment she was plucked off the streets has paid off. She’s a happy, active, well adjusted six month old who adores people and other dogs equally. The one thing missing in Dolly’s life is a forever home with someone who has experience and is dedicated with caring for an incontinent, disabled dog who needs regular diaper changes. “Her good looks and charms make it impossible to not want the best for this little doll,” Schneller says. Click on the image to the right to see a video of Dolly in action.