New Approach To A Pesky Problem

Carmella's Mange is getting better in most places, but the combination Mange and bacterial infection on the bottom of her feet has persisted despite several weeks of antibiotics, dips, and some supplements to boost her immune system, and a few days ago I noticed she had worms again.

I took her to the vet today for a worming shot and her sore feet and he suggested putting her on a new type of flea drops called ProMeris that research has shown has improved Demodectic Mange dramatically. They only had the size for extra-large dogs 88-110 Lbs., but they want me to split it in half and put 3.5 MLS on her every 2 weeks. We are doing this now instead of the dips, and he gave me an ointment called EnteDerm which has a small amount of steroid and Nystatin, and Neomycin in it to put on the ottom of her front paws 2 times a day just until most of the inflammation goes down. We also talked about trying her on a new food to rule out any possible allergies that could be preventing her from healing and I got her some special Science Diet hypoallergenic food. I was surprised at how light it was considering the large size of the bag.

As Dr. Norwood prepared the worming shot, Carmella began to panic. These seem to sting particularly much, but despite this momentary panic she still eagerly wanted to jump up on the vet and all his staff before and after, and the shot was quickly forgiven and forgotten.

The female vet tech and Dr. Norwood both commented on what a beautiful dog she is, and I told them that I have taken some really beautiful pictures of her and plan to look into some possible dog food endorsments pretty soon since she is so photogenic.

I want to start getting some of these photos blown up and offer them for sale next month too. I was hoping to do so this month but my natural gas bill seemed to suck up every last bit of money I would have had for new endeavors, so I've had to hunker down this month and concentrate mostly on planning for new items and strategies about where to market my work.

I hope to be able to make a decent amount of money in the next few months and pay off all of Carmella's health expenses so that I can then turn my attention to getting some dental care (which I have not been able to afford in over 20 years). Now that CareCredit covers that as well I may be able to correct some problems I haven't been able to for a very long time.

During the time my own autoimmune disease spun out of control, the summer I was finally diagnosed with Sarcoidosis, I suffered sudden and frightening bone loss in my jaw within only 5 days. I first noticed that my mouth and my eyes felt very dry. One day I looked in the mirror and to my horror there were suddenly gaps between my teeth that weren't there before and my gums had turned black. Each day for five days this gap got wider and wider. I was given adntibiotics (Zithromax), which stopped the acute infection in that area but much of the damage had already been done by the time I was able to get to a doctor.

Neither Medicare nor Medicaid covers dental care and all I was able to get was an assessment of the damage. I remember going to two dentists both of which were contemptuous and not interested in helping fix my problem and neither were willing to believe this happened within a 5 day time-frame. "Oh my God!" the first remarked, looking into my mouth and then again after the X-ray. I was told in a very cold and dismissive tone by both of these dentists that my teeth would probably fall out soon because the damage to the surrounding bone was quite extensive and there was nothing to replace it. Later when I started talking to others with this disease I learned that these kinds of problems were not uncommon and that dentists often wanted to blame it one's not taking care of one's teeth rather than recognizing that autoimmune diseases do correlate with sudden damage in this area due to disordered Vitamin D metabolism. I knew in my heart that I'd always had good teeth despite the fact that I'd had to do a DIY job of teeth-cleaning for the past 20-some years, so it was not a matter of neglect on my part. Even after all this my teeth were intact. It was the bone around them that was disappearing before my eyes. I set about calling 60 or more dentists around the Atlanta area, none of which were willing to make a payment arrangement. Isn't it ironic that dentists as a group tend to blame the patient when anything goes wrong yet when you try to arrange some sort of payment plan they refuse to make it at all possible. "Sorry, but I'm not young or pretty enough to go out on a street corner and come up with a few thousand to pay my dental bills, thank you", I wanted to tell these guys. I don't think CareCredit was very well-known at that time and very few if any dentists were taking it. Besides, I'd just filed bankruptcy after I had to stop working completely and put my business on hold because of my health problems, so had it been available I probably wouldn't have qualified anyway. I remember bursting into tears after seeing that first dentist and finding out he wouldn't even do so much as a cleaning unless I could come up with enough cash to do a root planing, and that wasn't going to happen anytime soon.

The other dentist, a periodontist, was even worse, and not only did I walk out of there with no work done. I was socked with a big bill that took a year to pay just for the consultation. Medicare was supposed to have paid for that but he vindictively billed it so that the claim would be denied. He promptly told me to go to "some free clinic" with all the vehemence he could muster.

The only one I knew of was unsanitary and I had a friend who had his tooth opened up for a crown and then was told that they "don't do crowns" so he "better go get some other dentist to do the rest within two weeks before infection sets in". He was flabbergasted to say the least and said to them that surely they weren't going to just leave him with a gaping hole in his tooth when they knew he didn't have $400 to get the rest of it finished by another dentist. He had paid them something already. It certainly wasn't free, just reduced, and had he known ahead of time they were going to leave him like that he would never have let them open up his tooth.

I knew that such "care" could leave me wide open to further infection and even possibly hasten my death given my medical condition, and I knew not to go that route.

After that I read up on anything being done on bone regeneration and NIH was doing quite a bit on that and research correlating bacteria in the mouth with autoimmune diseases. Even so, nothing was on the market yet and my doctor didn't seem to have the time to stay on top of the studies to get me into any on the ground floor. After that I have been trying to maintain as best as I can in hopes that I don't lose any more of my jawbone, keeping in mind that someday the technology would be there to regenerate bone.

A friend of mine recently told me she had a bone scan and that she might have osteoporosis, and that got me thinking again about regeneration of bone. I'm sure many of you readers have seen the commercial for Boniva with Sally Field in it where she talks about that not only does this medication for osteoporosis stop bone loss but also reverses it. This advent of science has not been on the market very long, so chances are there are paralells in the science of jaw bone regeneration. I'm not sure that this same medication would work for the jaw as it does for other bones because I think some people have had side-effects that involved spine or hip bone regeneration at the expense of jaw bone (meaning Calcium was pulled from there to build up the spine or hip bones where osteoporosis tends to hit).

I need to look again at current studies in this specialty and see what has been done in the past few years. Maybe now is the time to act, when science seems to be gaining in leaps and bounds! Just yesterday I saw a news segment saying that scientists may be onto a great discovery which could render all strains of Flu virus defunct. They've identified an antibody which when introduced into a flu cell accesses an area in which the cell is defenseless and cannot mutate to escape the immune system's assault upon it. The discovery is even supposed to work on Bird Flu which the CDC has been worried would be a major agent for a pandemic.

This could be of tremendous significance and it could really tell us alot about how viruses work.

It is amazing how all of these seemingly unrelated pieces fit together to give us the bigger picture. Perhaps NDV also does this? I suspect that what we know about it isn't all.

I wonder what role stem cells play in all of this too? The body is like an amazing machine with all parts being integral in its peak performance, so science's focus on optimizing its function rather than merely killing the virus (or bacteria for that matter) is right on target. If the body can be helped to do the job it was designed to do with outside help playing more of a supportive role then the chances of permanent cures to any number of diseases are much better.

When you look at disease as a give and take process you can see how all this fits. Science has confirmed that in most cases disease takes hold because of two triggers; one being genetics and the other being environment. If one finds out how to control both of those two factors therein lies the key to a solution in the end.

Virus, bacteria, and other parasites are often all around us at all times and sometimes even within us at certain levels, yet there are many people and animals that manage to coexist with these things without ever becoming ill.

Others get exposed to these microorganisms and become very sick and seem unable to shake them (like Carmella or me, for instance).

The common denominator is a geneticly programmed weakness which allows these microorganisms to enter areas of the body and its cells where it should not be. Certain genes determine susceptibility or lack of susceptibility depending upon whether they are switched on or off. Scientists are just beginning to get a handle on which genes are in which position in which diseases and what determines whether these genes are switched on or switched off.

Until fairly recently genetics was thought to be fairly set in stone, but recent discoveries have proven that theory wrong. This is where they are finding out that diet and other practices can change the body's programming at any stage of life. The adage that "biology is destiny" no longer holds, and that brings new hope for cures to many conditions that up until recently were thought hopeless.

I watched Barack Obama's address to Congress tonight and his speech was quite inspiring. In the short time he's been in office he has already done alot that is positive. I had written him letters a few months ago about healthcare, the economy, and one or two other topics and lo and behold this guy really does use suggestions in his policy-making!!! He has already used some of the ones I wrote in my letters.

I've always been very active in the political process but in most cases never got any inkling that any of my suggestions were implimented by other political officials. Occasionally I'd receive a letter back saying he or she agreed with me, but rarely did I see any action come out of it. I figured that it went on the pile with thousands of others and was quickly buried, but not this time! Obama made a point tonight to emphasize that he is fast-tracking more access to healthcare, and help to people who have been laid off.

I am dismayed at Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue and other conservative Governor's stubborn talk about refusing Federal stimulus money to their respective states on principle simply because they don't want to be held accountable (what they consider "strings attached"). These guys should be ashamed of themselves refusing or even considering refusing money which is absolutely vital to their constituents basic needs. Of course this will not affect them at all; these well-fed, well-housed, "VIPs" who have the top of the line health insurance.

As it stands now COBRA is only getting about a $25.00 subsidy toward premiums whereas the full stimulus package (if accepted by the Governor) would enable states to kick in 65% of the premium, something that laid-off workers desperately need. At least in this state COBRA costs about $900/Month for a couple to remain insured after one spouse loses his/her job.

Obama tonight made a wonderful point that certain people may be angry at the terms of the package that was recently passed, but that decisions should not be made out of anger. Such political protest that negates the needs of the people is not helpful. I wholeheartedly agree. If these Governors want to make a statement then let them refuse money for their personal expense account, salary increases, bonuses, or turn down their own health insurance, etc., but they should not get to decide the fate of the lives they are entrusted with; those who have nothing left to sacrifice and expect them to sacrifice some more simply because of their personal power struggle with the new president.

The other day I decided to post a thread in the Etsy forum to generate some ideas as to how to solve the batch uploading problem on Etsy. The response was rather dismal with several people posting versions of "That would be nice but...impossible" with few answers about how to improve it. It was sad to see so many resigned people who could not even fathom that anything better could be devised to make everyone's work more easily seen. The current system is just not cutting it for me and I gather I'm not the only one. By responding that way we unwittingly give permission for the status quo to stay in place and we don't open ourselves up to the possibility of change.

All progress starts with big dreams. To those naysayers who continue to cling to the old ways that have grown obsolete I say, "How's that working for ya?"

For every new and great frontier there seem to be sticks in the mud along the way, in science; as in those who are slow and resistent to embrace wonderful cures as they unfold such as that developed by Dr. Sears for Distemper, in politics; as in the new approach of Barack Obama, and in many other arenas. We must pull these sticks out of the mud and set them on the path that will take us all where we need to go. As much as we would like to think we do, succeed or fail, we never do it alone.

http://Giftbearer.etsy.com

Are You Ready For Valentine's Day?

This long, luxurious necklace was just listed on Etsy tonight.

Here's a close-up of it. You can see the pretty speckled nut that I got from the Phillipines just above the heart which is made from ultrasuede. This necklace is 23" long with a variety of gemstone, copper, and ceramic beads in it.

That makes 6 pieces of jewelry I've listed for the big day! Stimulate the economy and pick up something for yourself or for someone you love. You won't find another one of these like the necklace above. I wanted to make something out of the ordinary; not the typical jewelry you see being offered all over, so I combined materials you don't always see together.

I need to re-charge my camera battery pretty soon, but was able to get a few new pictures of Carmella.

She loves this chair in the computer room and so I took some of her tonight hanging over the side and curling up in it.

She's a little less red tonight except that she keeps licking her right, front paw and making that red again. She's not limping on it as much, so I think the antibiotic is helping somewhat.

I think I narrowly escaped getting a cold or flu over the past few days, but taking Zicam seemed to keep it from taking hold.

Today I bought some vitamin E for Carmella. It is 1000 IU, so it should be strong enough to do some good. Hopefully that and the pet tabs and fish oil will start to build up her immune system.

Carmella had a strange night and was kicking her back legs in her sleep quite violently. I'm not sure what was causing that. It woke me up because at some point she actually kicked me. She woke up and tossed and turned several times, then sat up. She might have forgotten that she was sleeping on my bed and gotten disoriented. The night before she had slept like a stone and so had I. Hopefully she will stay still tonight and sleep all the way through. I'm glad that it seems to be working overall because after she chewed up her bed the floor in the kitchen was pretty cold for her to sleep on and I was worried about her not being warm enough at night.

http://Giftbearer.etsy.com

Nasty Little Bugs Taking Advantage-Bacterial Co-infections

Yesterday I took Carmella to the vet for what I thought was a bruised foot from stepping on a rock or possibly a chemical burn from the Mitaban dip, and found out that what she really had on the bottom of both front feet is an opportunistic bacterial infection. Most likely it's what she had earlier on her stomach after the previous round of antibiotics; probably Staph. These nasty little bugs take unfair advantage when a dog's immune system is compromised and often they are hard to kill and keep away.

If any of you run into this problem maybe this will help. My vet prescribed the following;

* Cephalexin 500 Mg. every 12 hours for 14 days (antibiotic capsules)

* GenOne Spray to be sprayed on affected areas 2-3 times/day for 14 days (antiseptic/antibiotic spray containing gentamycin sulfate)


* 3V Caps Liquid (Dietary Supplement containing Fish Oil plus antioxidants (2 pumps into food for a 40-59 Lb. dog to strengthen immune system)

* PetTabs multivitamins (also to strengthen immune system; can obtain at vet or any pet supply store)

There are other supplements/herbs that will help build up your dog's immune system as well. Somebody sent me about a 30 page document about Demodectic mange in which many more supplements to build up the dog's immune system are outlined in great detail but they are way too voluminous to mention here. I may go into those in future writings, breaking the document down into a number of seperate posts. I don't want these posts to become too dry and bore my readers.

My vet asked if Carmella had been licking her feet and I told him yes she had been. He said that the moisture breeds fertile ground for the bacteria to grow. I'd always thought that it helped for a dog to lick its wounds, but apparently not. Trying to get her to stop, though, is nearly impossible.

Dr. Norwood did not want to wrap up her front paws thinking that would keep moisture in as well, and just suggested I wash them off and then dry them if she got dirt on them after going outside.

I spoke with Dr. Norwood again about the research paper between him and Dr. Muller and he said that he had not gotten in touch with him yet but would do that soon. We talked briefly about her having repeat antibody tests at some point and possibly others to document her recovery. He seemed even more excited than the last time we'd talked seeing how good Carmella looked aside from her current problems, and noted that she has gained a pound and a half more just since Saturday when one of the vet techs weighed her. She now weighs 44.5 Lbs! She's really getting to be a big dog now and it doesn't seem like she's finished growing yet either!

I think the Distemper had stopped her growth and that put her behind schedule by 5-6 months and as soon as she was cured of that she started growing again. If I am correct about this she may still have more to grow until she's a year and a half old.

Last night I accidentally left my bedroom door open and after letting her back inside from the back yard she barreled in and jumped up onto my bed. She plopped herself down right where I sleep and seemed to close her eyes within just a minute or so. First I tried calling her to get her to go back into the kitchen, as I was starting to get sleepy, but she wouldn't budge. Then I tried lifting her to get her off the bed but she was like a bag of sand drooping and sinking in every possible direction.

Being too tired for this task that late at night I just moved her aside and fell into bed myself, crossing my fingers that I wouldn't wake up to a shredded comforter in the morning. Quite surprisingly I slept better than I had in weeks or possibly even months. She stayed curled up against me throughout the night and did not jump down to see what she could get into as she had done in the past when I put her on my bed during the daytime for shorter periods.

One reason I think I slept so well is that she kept me uniformly warm. Many nights I wake up because some part of my body or another gets cold in the middle of the night or at some unGodly hour around the crack of dawn. Last night that didn't happen and I awoke more rested than I had been in a long time! It also seemed to me that there was a long period in which her jerking stopped altogether. That is all good news! I had wanted to be able to let her sleep on my bed but up until now she would have pulverized anything in the vicinity so I dared not risk it. Maybe she has just about grown out of that habit, especially when she's not alone in the room. I'll probably try her again tonight and see if she is still on her best behavior.

Note: the photos I'm using are from about a week and some are from 2 weeks ago. She's no longer this red in the face and alot of her fur has grown back since then. I hope to take some current pictures of her tomorrow.

The Facebook group on Distemper is continuing to show promise and Ed Bond has now created an informational page on blogspot about the treatment so that we can boost Google ratings. As more successfully treated dogs are blogged about we're all going to link these together. Be sure to check these out. I should have these various links added within the next few days.

I'm getting ready to send in another payment on Carmella's vet bill within the next week, so if you'd like to help her this would be a good time to buy an ad on my blog, buy jewelry from my Etsy shop, and/or donate via the button above in my sidebar. Valentine's day is just around the corner so that is a perfect occasion to buy jewelry, and it is going to the upkeep of a great dog!

http://Giftbearer.etsy.com/

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/

Exciting New Developments in Facebook Distemper Group

Saving Dogs from Canine Distemper (Facebook group) has reached 114 members now. With all the dog-lovers on Facebook many the first few of us invited to join already had alot of dog-related contacts who in turn joined also, and we are off to a great start!

We're gradually finding more and more vets who are willing to treat dogs with Dr. Sears' treatment and adding them to our list.

There is the possibility for some media activities in the future, and the group is working on getting all our members to post links around the internet in various dog-related forums so that we can reach as many dogs as early as possible who have the disease.

The woman I'm helping in Indonesia is in the process of arranging to get NDV and her vet is now reading up on the process for both parts of the treatment. Her dog has been going downhill fast so I hope that the vet is able to treat her fast enough to save her. She has to get the bottle from Thailand through a friend and then get it to her vet to administer. The obstacles in this case have been harrowing.

I hope that one day NDV will be a regularly stocked item in all vet's offices and veterinary supply companies. I can remember when trying to find it here in Georgia and that it was like trying to find a needle in a haystack.

Tonight I gave this woman Dr. Muller's number for her vet to call him if he needed any instructions on how to use guided ultrasound when doing the neuro part.

She is still waiting on the edge of her chair for the price quote her vet will give her. She does not have much money and it sounds as though he is slightly on the fence about doing it. She's known him for awhile now, so hopefully he will help save her dog's life. The puppy is quickly approaching paralysis and just developed diarrhea. It is a relatively rare case seeming to develop most of its neuro symptoms before body symptoms (usually it happens the other way around).

Dr. Sears is back after having had some computer problems, but this case seemed somewhat of a puzzle to him.

It still remains to be seen which manifestations of the disease respond best and how severe it can be and still have the dog be salvageable.

That reminds me; I'll have to ask Dr. Sears again what the level should be when Carmella has her spinal fluid tested again in about a year to prove that it's gone. There is a certain level that shows up if a dog had it in the past but is now immune versus active disease. I think as more and more dogs are fully treated others will want to know the answer to this question as well.

http://Giftbearer.etsy.com

Friend Me And Carmella On FaceBook

Just a quick note to let all of Carmella's fans out there know that I've started a FaceBook group Support Carmella; A Former Shelter Dog to help speed up the process of raising money for Carmella's vet bill, and to invite you all to friend me, join, and send over your friends. I've linked that to this blog and to my Etsy shop as well, so it will be interesting to see what the results are over the next few days, and where people enter from one end to the other.

http://apps.facebook.com/causes/200981?m=96aaaf39

I have had a FaceBook account for awhile now and have just recently started using it once I joined the Saving Dogs from Canine Distemper group there and getting heavily involved in growing it.

I'm finding the atmosphere quite interesting as I look around to see what's going on there. There are many dog groups of one kind or another, not all of them in English. I think I noticed a few more Distemper groups in other countries and wish I could communicate with those.

There seems to be unlimited networking potential on FaceBook, although I'm not familiar with howe to use all the features.

I would like to thank Theresa for purchasing a slot on my blog. Gradually those slots are starting to fill up, and I hope more people will purchase one in the near future.

I've also entered Carmella in a photo contest sponsored by the Humane Society.

Be sure to check out my Facebook profile to learn more about these various activities and how you might get involved;

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1039042031&ref=profile

Carmella's Mange is continuing to get better, and she seems to be more energetic after her second dip. The hardest part about it is not being able to give her a bath until all these are finished because she sort of stinks on some days more than others. I find that wiping her down with lemon seems to help in the meantime in addition to also helping dry up the Mange.

She's been gnawing away at a ham bone much of the day, thoroughly enjoying herself.

http://Giftbearer.etsy.com

The Struggle To Save More Dogs From Distemper Continues

For awhile all is quiet and then suddenly the mortal combat between life and death starts anew; in Indonesia a puppy fights for its life, its owner frightened and trying desperately to keep it from fading away.

Then two more emergencies pop up; one in Houston, Texas, and another in California. They all need swift and decisive action in an arena filled with doubt and trepidation, where most vets would sooner see a dog die than to undertake the rare treatment that might save its life. Technical assistance is often too little, too late when there are not enough NDV-knowledgeable vets to go around, and with multiple time-zones, all too often these dogs and their owners fall through the cracks.

In these crucial hours is where the rubber meets the road, courage is tested, and so is faith. It is at such a time when one really finds out what his/her own vet is made of. Will he or she have what it takes to follow written instructions in the absence of the man who wrote them, or will this person who is to administer the treatment buckle under the strain like a chance passer-by, a stranger faced with delivering a newborn baby on a New York subway?

I remember this well. It was just a few short months ago when I was fighting for Carmella's life this way. Now other dogs are embarking upon the same perilous journey and their owners stepping out and hoping their foot comes down on solid ground; following leads, sending e-mails, and making phone calls in hopes that they can patch together enough resources to get across the finish line.

Due to the amount of flash on Dr. Sears' website, people seem to be having difficulty posting there and sometimes accessing it at all. It is still under construction. I have e-mailed him regarding some of these emergencies but have been unable to get a hold of him for the past few days. With Distemper each day and in some instances each hour is crucial while a dog owner tries to mobilize the support and practical help he/she needs. It is quite literally a race against the clock.

Not too long ago we lost one in the fight against Distemper. This is tragic because each one of these is a dog that somebody loved. Often in was because they just couldn't reach the right help soon enough. Some of these owners give up, thinking it's just too difficult, and the odds of finding a vet who can do what is needed just too low.

We need to change that!

Never again should a dog have to die because the cure comes too late!

Part of this outcome can be changed by all the owners out there who get their dog treated and then disappear into anonymity. All of you whose dogs have been treated are resources, and your vet can prevent another dog from becoming a statistic.

A database and a network of survivors who come back to help the ones who come after is badly needed. If your dog has been successfully treated with NDV please let us know your vet's contact information so that we can add it to the list and don't drop out of contact. We need to know your dog's progress as it heals.

Too many people stop trying because there are so many roadblocks. I recently read a post on one of the pet forums where somebody wrote that all they were able to find in the way of success stories were the same few dogs and that this discouraged them because they assumed that this was all there were out there in the entire world.

That is not the case!

The problem, again, is that too many after they get the treatment and their dog is out of the woods go away and never come back to tell their stories. There are many out there but finding them and bringing that data together has been hard. We absolutely must work together to make this treatment accessible to other dogs. Success stories are very important.

I run across blogs every so often in which it is mentioned that a dog was treated with NDV (sometimes even Blogspot blogs) but then that seems to be the end of the documentation. Once the crisis is over people go back to their jobs, their children, playing golf on Sundays, or posting about the latest musical artist on Myspace. Perhaps some of this is to be expected, but those of us whose dogs have beaten this deadly disease owe it to the others to make our experiences count for somebody other than just ourselves and our families.

We must carry the flame and pass on this legacy, paving the way for the next group of warriors against the disease. If we are doing this correctly then the trails we blazed will not have to be re-visited upon the next ones afflicted. As the numbers grow and the proof continues to be documented it will get easier for dogs to be treated sooner and thus suffer little or no permanent damage because of long waits.

It still bothers me that Carmella had to develop brain damage causing this myoclonic jerking before we could get someone to treat her Central Nervous System. She is alive today but bears a constant reminder that her silent screams and mine (not so silent) fell on deaf ears for way too long.

All the time wasted on certain vets' silly academic arguments about whether or not this treatment was legitimate enough because it wasn't written in medical journals while Carmella was left to languish.

All the times I begged for them to help her, saying "She's getting worse. She's getting worse! Do something!" and they refused, standing like so many deer in the headlights with hands behind their backs.

It still remains to be seen as to whether the damage is permanent, but it may well be. Had she gotten the help she needed only weeks before she would not have any remnants at all.

We can't turn back the clock now, but we can prevent it happening to others. If you have animals tell your vets about this treatment, about Dr. Sears and about the dogs who are still suffering and dying from Distemper. Tell them that now there is a cure and all they need to do is use it. There is no time to waste. If a dog comes in with Distemper use it NOW! Not next week, not in a month, not in six months. Every day one waits can result in more lost myelin.

Distemper causes brain damage, disability, it is crippling, and it kills!

NDV works. It is as simple as that. Leave the point/counter point to the university pontifs to argue, and go ahead and treat. Vets who see these animals have a duty to do everything in their power to help them no matter where it comes from, no matter how it was discovered.

Vets, like the owners also need to network and pass on their positive results to their colleagues and they need to partner with us in writing papers and documenting the medical miracles that come into their practice, and start speaking at conferences about it. Don't assume that somebody else will do it.

To join the cause click here: http://apps.facebook.com/causes/176113?m=92eea645&recruiter_id=39891263

We would love to have some open-minded vets join who are interested in being part of the solution!

In The Eye of the Storm

The past few days have been like trying to fill an infinite bucket before all the water runs out a gaping hole in the bottom.

I received another bill from CareCredit and just realized that two charges that should have been on a 12-months-no-interest plan; one from when Carmella had her CSF procedure and another from Dr. Norwood's office two weeks ago showed up on my bill as only allowing 3 months to pay.

Yesterday was spent trying to get it set right, to no avail. It seems that they can refuse to allow 12 months to pay a charge under a certain amount, and in some cases even refuse to allow a 6-month account.

The problem is that nobody told me that and it was sprung on me suddenly. Now one of the halves of the charge from the CSF procedure has a promotional expiration date of 1/23/09 (I've already paid the other half off), and with events happening as they have, the charces of my getting that second part paid off before they decide to tack on interest are slim to none.

I've called CareCredit several times and they won't change it and say there's "no appeal process". Who in the hell has "no appeal process?" I thought all businesses were required to have one. Last night I even wrote consumer advocate Bill Liss on channel 11 who is an attorney to find out whether the law provides any recourse to challenge that arbitrary regulation.

I'm already breaking my natural gas bill into thirds out of necessity and more will compound next month when the next current charges are due. Higher expenses such as this have thrown a huge monkey-wrench into the works.

When I took Carmella to Dr. Norwood's office to be dipped the second time for mange I spoke with Gwen, the office manager about the problem with CareCredit making the due date for the latest promotional plan earlier than I'd agreed to, and she told me that for charges less than $200 CareCredit won't do a 12-month, but they'll do a 6-month on charges around $100. Nothing really was corrected after all the legwork of today and yesterday.

The pet insurance will help to some extent, but it won't come in time to pay that charge for the other clinic, and yesterday I found out that the claim for the procedure done at Briarcliff Animal Clinic still hasn't been filed. They've had it for about a week now and the vet won't be in until Saturday and is still working on it. His nurse was on vacation last week and had handed it to him before she left.

The insurance company so far has been pretty good about paying claims promptly although I have only really dealt with them for that one claim for Carmella's expenses related to the Distemper. Gwen was unsure whether to include the ointment and antibiotics in the claim or not and I came away unclear as to whether she included those or not because I'm not sure she understood that the two medications were related to that condition, and my brain could hold no more by the time I was ready to bring Carmella home.

I want to thank the kind soul who donated to Carmella yesterday, and ask any others who can afford it to keep these contributions coming. I am working to pay off this bill on faith right now, putting one foot in front of the other.

My own healthcare is currently under attack. Right now I am appealing the denial of one of my medications by Medicare part D for an off-label protocol that saved my life, and at the same time I'm waiting to hear the outcome of an SSDI review. These are uncertain times.

Carmella came home at 3:00 pm looking cleaner but with red-rimmed eyes after her dip. She has been resting comfortably in the kitchen on the dog bed she eviscerated and has been pulling the stuffing out of bit by bit since last week. She has now torn it to shreds. Each day I pick up and throw away more pieces of it. The design of it was great except that they should have made the cover out of upholstry fabric. I'd written the manufacturer online to give them this suggestion and have heard nothing back from them; not even to say "thanks for letting us know your experience with one of our products".

I touched-base the other day with Ed Bond, another NDV advocate whose dog had the body portion of the treatment. He's a former reporter for the LA Times with over 25 years as a journalist. There are some very good ways for us to collaborate to get Dr. Sears' treatment on the map. Ed Bond has started a FaceBook group. Here is where you can read more about it and/or join;

http://apps.facebook.com/causes/176113?m=c091dee2&recruiter_id=39891263

I am trying to find an influential vet that might help pave the way for Dr. Sears and my vets to publish in a medical journal, so if any of you out there reading know of one who might be open to this please give him the above link and the link to my blog, invite him to join the Facebook group and start a dialogue. We need a friend "on the inside" who is interested in seeing this treatment for Distemper given a fair chance. The sooner we can get an article into a respected journal the more dogs we can save.

Right now the outdated understanding of this disease is allowing dogs to suffer needlessly and die a horrible death because too many vets will still not try NDV when given the information about it. Not having that one piece of paper prevents many from reading about it or hearing it out, and many dog owners feel powerless to get help for their dogs, get tired of their pleadings falling on deaf ears, and give up. This is a tragedy because the solution is sitting right there, but only a vet can administer it. There is a cure, and the dogs who need it are worth saving.

I am hoping that Carmella, being the 1st dog in the US to have this complete two-part cure can become the poster-dog for this cause. She's photogenic and there's something endearing about her that transcends the disease, including the damage it causes. It is no accident that I ended up with a dog just as tenacious as I am.

http://Giftbearer.etsy.com/

Distemper Cure-Letter To The Editor of Time Magazine

Last night while searching on Google to see if there had been any more written on Distemper I ran across an article called "Distemper Cure". I clicked on the link and found that it was on Time Magazine's online news version along with articles about Obama, the Blegojovitch scandel, and various other current events and editorial topics.

The article painted a very bleak picture of dogs with the disease, stating that dogs who got it were pretty much hopeless, that they were religated to limping around the yard in various stages of wretchedness until they met an inevitable and pathetic death. The article stated that there is "no cure".

I just could not let that stand if there was hope to offer, and so I decided to write in. I sent the following letter to the editor;

letters@time.com
sent by e-mail 1/10/09

Dear Editor,

My dog Carmella has recently had a rare treatment/cure for Distemper. In your article it says a cure does not exist, but Dr. Alson Sears, DVM has discovered one and I can attest that it works. The first two surviving dogs are Dachshunds living in Thailand, and Carmella is the first documented case on US soil (the third dog in the world), then the 4th was recently treated successfully (a Boston Terrier).

This protocol involves the off-label use of Newcastle Disease Virus vaccine (Newcastle Disease virus only infects chickens, so dogs cannot contract it, but because it’s in the same Paramyxovirus category as Distemper it elicits a heightened immune response in the dog, allowing its own immune system to kill the Distemper virus. The first part is given as an IV to treat all symptoms in the body, and then more is injected into the spinal canal at the base of the skull (where spinal taps are done on dogs) to eradicate the virus in the Central Nervous System.

I have carefully documented Carmella’s results in my blog; http://artlifenewsblog.blogspot.com/ and taken photos which clearly show her healing. This was not a spontaneous remission, as she was progressively getting worse until the time at which she received this treatment, first for the body, and the second part for the Central Nervous system.

Dr. Sears has not been able to get the right research facility interested in his cure because too much emphasis is placed on prevention and that’s what tends to be funded when it comes to clinical trials.

I myself contacted several University Veterinary schools including UGA and The University of Florida and both were very guarded about even looking into the science involved. It seems to be a taboo subject but if dogs’ lives can be saved by this discovery then vets should be using it and research facilities should be willing to invest in clinical trials.

As I see it, merely focusing on prevention does not solve the problem. There are always dogs in shelters who were inadequately vaccinated, puppies born in the woods, and even cases where dogs get the disease from the Distemper vaccine itself! My vet who has spent his life educating pet owners about the importance of vaccinations had to admit when the facts became apparent that this approach alone was simply not preventing the disease. Many erroneously believe that Canine Distemper has been almost eradicated in the Western Hemisphere, but in reality many cases are not represented in the statistics due to dogs being quickly “put down” and many dogs that are not ever diagnosed but instead are assumed to have and are wrongly treated for bacterial infections which never respond to antibiotics.

If you would like to do a follow-up article for either your online or printed magazine I would be willing to be interviewed and have your staff include the evidence that exists that Carmella is in fact recovered.

I would also be willing to put you in touch with the man who owns the two Dachshunds in Thailand, and possibly the owner of the Boston Terrier (if she is willing).

Dr. Sears has his e-mail address as contact person on various documents displayed online regarding the protocol and is open to any fair inquiries about how this works and the science involved. He can be contacted at AntiDistemper@aol.com

The two vets who treated Carmella in this two-part process may be willing to speak about this as well, as they are considering writing a case history on my dog at some point.

Within only 2 days after the first part of the treatment Carmella’s hardening and scaling paw pads began healing, and within only 2 weeks they were completely healed! This part was no less than miraculous. She gained weight, started eating suddenly, became active again, her eyes lost their haziness, and she more than doubled in size within a little over a month.

It took so long to find a vet who was both willing and able to do the CNS part of the treatment that while waiting Carmella developed some brain damage which left her with myoclonic jerking in the right, front leg that is pretty pronounced. Although less dramatic than the body treatment, the jerking/neuro symptoms stopped worsening immediately as soon as the NDV was injected into her spinal canal. It was obvious to me because of the almost daily disease-progression she’d suffered prior to the procedure that the NDV had in fact stopped the disease at that point.

She continued to become more and more robust and developed incredible muscle tone in the months afterwards since October 1, 2008 when this was done.

Please contact me at (e-mail witheld for public re-print) to let me know whether or not you can do a story about this. I believe this is news that will be of interest and a great help to many dog owners, shelters, and vets.

Sincerely,

Pippit Carlington

Carmella's Mange continues to heal, slowly but surely, and today I found some Borax at Kroger. Surprisingly they did not carry it at Walmart.

Every day that goes by she is looking a little less red and inflamed.

Last night I tried my best to file down her toenails with that Pedi-paws sanding device and although feeding her pieces of kibble from my other hand allowed me to sand some nails down a little bit, it soon became a wrestling match with her chewing on my hands as though they were steak bones.

Then she began trying to tear apart her nice new bed, first with her claws, and then with her teeth. She looked for all the world like a child throwing a temper tantrum when she didn't get her way. I was horrified and yelled at her that she better stop that right now because I just bought that!

I'm glad she did not cause any damage to it and has not tried to do it again. I lucked out in finding such a high quality dog bed and hope it lasts a long time because I don't know how long Sam's Club carries those.

Be sure to take a look at her on the Carmella-cam now, as you will have a bird's-eye view of her in her bed.

The seedpods have been fired, but I need to re-attach new headpins at the top where they'll connect to the chain.

I hope to start the watercolor series on Carmella soon!

***This just in***10:12 p.m. EST

I heard back from Dr. Sears after sending him Carmella's update. He now has a website for questions and answers regarding the treatment with NDV and about the dog-based serum that he invented using cytokines produced by a healthy donor dog after the introduction of Newcastle Disease Virus Vaccine, spindown and seperation from red blood cells.

If you or someone you know has a dog with Distemper or you think a dog might have it go to Dr. Sears' website here;

http://www.treatment4distemper.com/

The site is still relatively new but it has a blog, still photos, podcasts, description of the protocol, including the most up-to-date understanding of the science behind it, and several short video clips showing dogs with Distemper-induced seizures. These clips are rather disturbing and have somewhat spooky music in the background, but they are effective.

I've written him tonight after looking at the website and asked if he would like to use any of the pictures of Carmella before and after treatment, and a video clip showing her myoclonic jerking. Once the site fills out some more and is made a little easier to navigate I think it will probably climb in Google position, as it's very nicely done.

http://Giftbearer.etsy.com/