Wednesday, February 04, 2009

Healing After Distemper! Some Improvement In Carmella's Myoclonic Jerking!

Did I mention earlier that the left rear leg jerking that had just started before Carmella had her NDV treatment in the central nervous system is gone?!!! That was the newest damage she'd obtained from the Distemper virus, so it's logical that it would be the first to heal.

The biggest hurdle is the jerking in the right, front leg which was the most severely affected. I have noticed just a little change there. It used to be more pronouced when she was asleep than awake, but now if she is deeply asleep it will become much milder and for short periods even stop temporarily!

The day after I noticed this improvement it seemed she stepped on a rock in the back yard in the past day or so and bruised the pad, so is limping and holding it up. Her stepping on that rock with that foot could mean she's not favoring it as much (which is both good news and bad). Clearly she's not as careful with it as she has been, thus the injury. I hope that bruise resolves soon so she can start using it again. It's important for her healing myelin that she stay active. It's been bitterly cold and she really didn't want to limp out there to go to the bathroom tonight and has been whining when I'm in the computer room and she's in the kitchen. She's gotten used to keeping me company lying on a wicker chair in here while I'm doing my work online.

Her Demodectic Mange is still itching her somewhat but I think she's over the worst of it. This past Saturday she went back for her third dip. Dr. Norwood didn't see her because they want to wait to do another skin scraping.

Next time when she has the skin scraping I need to talk to him again about the research paper.

It will be vitally important that he and Dr. Muller stay on this and share their data and submit Carmella's case history to medical journals because there are still ignorant people out there, those who not only do not know about this, but who want to see it fail for personal dysfunctional reasons. I think that is very sad. I ran across someone on one of the dog forums who was not genuinely interested in this treatment but went out of her way to try to debunk it. Her dog had myoclonus in her back leg which will most likely do her in as it progresses to full-blown seizures and/or paralysis if left untreated.

This particular woman is one of those people who has an emotional need to use her dog to hold on to an "illness identity". This is common in the human disease community but less so in animals, but I believe that when it is projected onto an animal it closely approximates Muenchausen by proxy. People like this resist or sabotage treatment in order to prolong the secondary gain they get. In humans they actually make their children sick by giving them toxic substances or not giving them needed medication, etc, but I think the principle in denying an animal medical care that will resolve a disease is the same principle. Animals depend upon us to take care of them just like children and when they're sick they are at the mercy of the owner. If the owner thinks of the animal's needs first they are taken to the vet and everything possible is done to cure or at least help them the best they can.

When somebody continues to post on forums that they or their dog doesn't need treatment and tries to prevent others from getting lifesaving treatment when there is something they can do about it, then that is just flat-out medical neglect; sabotage and self-sabotage!

The sad thing is that her dog has no voice in all of this. The dog is the real victim while this woman gets all this attention by dragging out the duration of the dog's positive Distemper status, asking pointed questions while her dog waits, just to try to pull others into a fight, and discounting any proof we offer her. Apparently her own vet has been indulging her in casting these aspersions.

Well, it's like this; one can either see the glass as half-full or half-empty. Medical cures are a beautiful thing and everything should be done to support them and boost them up when they come along. I can tell the difference between real interested questions and pointed questions which are really snide statements masquerading as questions. The latter has no intrinsic value. It seeks to tear down a good thing; not learn about it.

As a matter of fact I received one of these zingers by somebody tonight who read about the requirements of the Etsy street team I run for jewelry artists. Since I didn't feel it was a legitimate question I simply answered by saying that what she was saying sounds more like a statement than a question. Again, another form of self-sabotage on her part. If she'd wanted to apply for membership in some indirect way this was not winning her any points. If she didn't like our requirement of listing at least 1 or 2 items a month (which I think is very lenient if you ask me), then she should have just applied to another team. Instead she went out of her way to seek me out by convo and get nasty to me. Maybe she was bored and had too much time on her hands. I don't know, but clearly she was not using that time to make jewelry, LOL.

I surely did not need this after being sick again the past few days. I came back online feeling better, answered my e-mails and convos only to find what amounted to a verbal fart or dog-doo in the flaming bag in my Etsy convo inbox! Usually people are writing to say nice things about the team and more than willing to accept the requirements to get in.

On a happier note; I finished several more pieces of jewelry and got them listed tonight! I've had to catch up on my jewelry because of all the time recently spent on Distemper-related activities, and it was a relief to have some new things completed and ready for sale in time for Valentine's Day. I hope to finish a few more before it gets too late for customers to order.

The Facebook Distemper group continues to grow. We had one loss recently. The woman in Indonesia received the NDV and her vet gave the first part but then balked when it came to injecting it into the spinal canal and at that crucial time began calling around to University vet schools to get some other vet to take the risk. Unfortunately the owner lost hope and decided to have him put the dog to sleep. I still find it perplexing that vets are willing to kill dogs on purpose yet they are afraid they'll kill them accidentally while trying to save them.

Carmella is over here in the chair fast asleep right now and her jerking has really slowed down. If that's not proof her Distemper is cured I don't know what is! It was clearly the NDV that caused the improvement because as fast as her disease was steadily getting worse before treatment it was not about to slow down right up until October 1, 2008 when she had the CSF tap procedure. It is clear that the collision course she'd been on had been aborted when I brought her home from the vet, and then it was all over but the healing! What Dr. Sears said about it being a minimum of 4 months before I would see any noticeable regeneration has born out to be true. The next 8 months could be quite exciting as I watch for even more!
http://Giftbearer.etsy.com/

7 comments:

woolies said...

Your poor baby. I hope you continue to see great improvement!
(we have four doggies...)

Giftbearer said...

Yes, she got cured of Distemper and then mange hit her after a few months. I think alot of these shelter dogs have genetic predispositions to various illnesses. I hope that soon she'll have smooth sailing. Keep reading! I think the best is yet to come.

Lisa said...

This is such a great journey, thank you for sharing it with the world. I'm glad to hear Carmella continues to improve, and I think you are amazing for helping her through this.

My Inspired Reality said...

I am so glad that you are seeing improvement and shall keep my fingers crossed for more good news:)

Unknown said...

Hello Art Life... Just wanted to encourage you with your the distemper challenges you have with your sweet looking dog. I found a little abandoned puppy while living out of the country. As in most countries outside the U.S., I received the typical remedy from the vet to "put her down." I reluctantly decided against this advice and found an American trained vet who helped my puppy recover from the last and most critical stages of the disease. She did make it through! And she has fully recovered.. But just so you will know... It took about 4 years and the reprocussions from the disease horrific in the beginning. I began praying over her and telling her that she was going to live and not die... Now after 4 years she has totally recovered. At first her back legs were almost completely paralyzed. Slowly she started to walk with this pathetic little gimp leg. People would stop me on the street and tell me I was cruel not to just put her out of her misery. She looked really bad. Even after she was walking, a second vet said she would never be able to walk correctly or run up the stairs.. which concerned me because in the beginning I had to practically carry her everywhere...she couldnt step off or on a curb or get past any obsticle. To my suprise after only a few months, she just decided on her own in a sudden burst of energy that she would drag that gimp leg up a flight of stairs. For no apparent reason she just took it upon herself and she has been doing it to this day. Since that day she has been in steady recovery.. Still, in the beginning, she had the worst case of chronic Myoclonus seizures the vet had ever seen. (He told me she might get over them, but I didnt really believe him.) Today, she only has the slightest "tick" and the twitch is only something you can barely notice when she is sleeping. In the beginning She had internal problems; Pancreatitis, papaloma virus that produces dracula teeth like warts that hung out her mouth like fangs, screwed up gums, skin problems, a dazed a confused look... and totally untrainable passive lethargic spirit... Today, after many many hurdles she is in her second puppihood... (Well, she never really had a first puppihood cause she was too sick all the time.) She does tricks,barks... sings like a coyote, does cute things goes nuts over balls and toys. I never fuss at her when she jumps on the bed becuase that was something that took her about three years to get the strength and courage to do. Every where she goes, people just love her. She is not a beautiful dog, but she has such a sweet puppy-like demeanor, that she is irresistable. Someone named her Daysi. (I would have never given her that name.) The name fits because she is so beautiful. I think with a lot of love and prayer your dog can recover too. Dont give up.

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Linda puspasari said...

Can you help me..my dog now in a very bad myoclonus after the distemper infection..what should i do?