So we spoke to a holistic vet (she isn’t taking new patients) around here – she only called Bob back this morning ( after receiving the detailed medical file yesterday and a request for a consultation) because a colleague of Bob’s just happened to have brought her dog to this DVM at 8, who asked this colleague if she knew Bob. When this vet heard all sorts of glowing things about my DH, she must have decided to see if she could help us.
Anyway.
The vet recommended we give Shem IV fluids subcutaneously, so naturopathic doc Bob sat with Shem while our ailing dog received a glucose solution. See that scarf holding down the needle? My grandmother knitted that for me over thirty years ago. It’s come with me in several moves, been put with a succession of graduating sized mitts and hats, and now the great grand DOG is using it. My Oma would smirk.
The doc also recommended we bypass Shem’s nausea-derived disinclination to eat by creating a slurry – of liver, eggs and honey – and put small amounts in the hollow of his cheek, and then hold his head up until he swallowed. Bob got about half a cup into him 15 minutes ago – Shem was not overly thrilled with the process – and now we’re waiting to see if he holds it down.
Doesn’t that look entirely dreadful? Smells that way, too. It’s in the fridge now. Covered.
Now, it’s time for Shem’s acupuncture.
If nothing else, if Shem does end up losing the battle to kidney disease and anemia, if the damage done to his kidneys from the e coli based urinary tract infection he developed after his neutering surgery is too extensive, we tried.
You’ve done everything you could have done. I’m encouraged that he’s at least eaten a bit. I hope he keeps it down. That stuff looks nasty. You’ll know he’s on the mend when you take it out the fridge and he runs from it!
and he knows that…the love in his eyes is very clear.
I didn’t know there were “holistic” vets, so I’m very surprised to hear there is a “holistic” vet so booked up as to turn away new patients.
I put “holistic” in quotes, because I think it is pretty much a word without any meaning, or none I can discern.
Gerry; To get the definition precise, I went to the AHVMA site.
“The American Holistic Veterinary Medical Association explores and supports alternative and complementary approaches to veterinary healthcare, and is dedicated to integrating all aspects of animal wellness in a socially and environmentally responsible manner.”
Holistic, meaning the whole patient, not just a set of symptoms, taking into consideration everything from sleep, to what foods, to what products, to how much exercise, etc..
Essentially, they bridge the natural and the conventional medical worlds. This particular vet has been practicing for 25 years and has her patient base – from the next state over, from where she moved, pretty set. She’s been very wonderful, and if Shem makes it to Thursday, I am taking him to see her.