Farewell to my friend, my guardian, my Tira

As some of you already know, Tira, my best friend and companion, passed away on the morning of Thursday, August 17th after a very sudden illness. Tira was taken ill on the night of Wednesday August 16th. I called my vet, Dr. Macartney, and he instructed me to bring her to the clinic. X-rays revealed that her stomach had torsed (twisted) about 90 degrees. We were able to relieve the bloating of her stomach and Dr. Macartney sent us home, hoping that her stomach might right itself with the gas removed. While surgery is really the only corrective measure for stomach torsion, the combination of Tira's age and weakened state meant that surgery was not likely to be successful.

Although she seemed much better over the evening, she relapsed the next morning and had to return to the clinic. At this point I was faced with a very painful decision, either put her through a dangerous and traumatic surgery with a high probability of post-operative complications, or let her go peacefully.

Dr. Macartney was wonderfully patient and kind and made it very clear that he supported me in whatever decision I made. Rather than put Tira through something that was likely to only end in her suffering further, I made the decision to let her go. I am extremely grateful to both Dr. Macartney and Sian (who was in town visiting for the day) for helping me through this terrible and difficult decision. I could not have endured such a heart-breaking day without their support and kindness.

Tira's health had been slowly declining over the past year. Although recent blood tests indicated that she was fairly healthy internally, her energy, strength and spirit had reduced dramatically over the past year. Over the last few months, I had been trying to prepare myself for the day when I would have to make such a decision, but the suddenness of her illness made it even more difficult to say goodbye. And nothing could have prepared me for the journey I have had to make since that day. I have been honoured to share my life with such a passionate, fun and free-spirited individual. My life with Tira has been filled with laughter, worry, joy and love. When we were together, we were both whole and content. I have been blessed to have had such a friend and guardian.


Sorcha

Poor Maddy!

Maddy the senior husky needs a home. Like me, she has hind-end weakness! What a cutey!


I always feel so sad when I see senoir puppies in shelters! It makes me realise that even with all of her faults, my mum isn't all bad. She is very patient with me and happily does what ever she can to keep me healthy and happy. She figures it's the very least she can do after what a wonderful and loving daughter I've been to her for all these years.

This is the link to Maddy's posting. If you know anyone with a heart of gold (who doesn't already have a zoo of animals), maybe they might want to consider giving a loving and comfortable home to a senior orphan.
http://search.petfinder.com/petnote/displaypet.cgi?petid=6052237

While surfing the web...

I was surfing the websites and found this adoption listing for a shepherd/lab cross. I realise that he isn't a husky, but he is pretty cute!! He even looks a little bit like my older brother Wolfe (who passed away 10 years ago). I admit that Wolfe was a LOT bigger and white and grey (he was a husky/shepherd/lab cross), but Julio has a very similar face. Take a look!

http://www.petfinder.org/pet.cgi?action=2&pet=5899343&adTarget=&SessionID=4430c4353a323fcd-app3&display=&preview=1&row=0&tmpl=&stat=

On another note, I go in for acupuncture again tomorrow as I have been a little wobbly this week and have been scuffing my back feet. If I walk slowly I don't scuff, but I'm a husky, we don't do slow, do we?!?! Mum is going to ask about the supplements that may help my degenerative myelopathy. Apparently they may be hard on my tummy, but if they help keep me mobile, I guess the trade off is okay. Mum says that the supplements may be liquids, so I am willing to give them a try. Anything but pills, I really hate pills!

It's a good thing I have taken over this blog!

So, apparently Mum (or should I say 'Mother') is not only cruel, but dumb too. She had somehow managed to set comments to team members only! Well, now that I am in charge, these sorts of silly errors are unlikely to continue to occur. I will let her post from time to time, but she won't be allowed to make any template or settings changes!

Can you believe she actually brushed my teeth AND put meds in my ears on the same night! - A double whammy! Do any of you know any good evasive techniques that I could employ; she seems to have figured out all of my other ploys. I guess that means she isn't a complete dope. Mum says that she might look into trying those weird drugs that have been reported to help dogs with Degenerative Myelopathy. She's going to do some more research and then talk to my acupuncturist to get her opinion on them. I'll let you know what WE decide. I vote for NO MORE PILLS DOWN MY THROAT!

Oh, here is a picture of me with the kids - we are doing our Laughing Dogas pose.

Give a husky a home!

Okay, so you are saying to yourself, wow, that Tira is adorable, and soo smart! I wish I had a dog just like her! Well, sadly, although I have often considered striking out on my own, Mum's abuse isn't soo bad that I feel the need to look for a new home. However, there are many other lovely husky (and even non-husky) dogs out there who are in desperate need of a home. Maybe they aren't quite as lovely as me, but they would love the chance to bring love and joy into your life.

Please visit the sites below! Mum says she will also add them to the sidebar in the near future (maybe she'll get so caught up she will forget to brush my teeth tonight!!)

http://www.bcsiberianhuskyclub.com/rescue/avail.htm

http://www.siberianrescue.com/sibrescu.htm

http://www.spca.bc.ca/adoption/branches.asp

http://www.petfinder.com/

Will the cruelty NEVER end???

Hello All, this is Tira. Since Mum seems to be too busy to keep up this blog, I thought I'd try my paw at putting up a few posts. So, in my first post, I shall share with you the constant abuse and humiliations I am forced to endure at the hands of my so-called Mother!

Where should I start? Well, would you believe that Mum took me back to that lady who stabs me with the needles. Okay, so it doesn't REALLY hurt, and the lady does coo at me and tell me how wonderful and lovely I am, but still!! Aren't there laws about this sort of thing? Admittedly, I do have a lot more energy afterwards, and it seems a little easier to heft my butt around, but I still think that this sort of thing should not be allowed. I mean, I am a HANDS OFF husky!

Did I mention that every time we go to the "puppy torture palace" (my name for the place, not her's) Mum also weighs me! I know I'm not a young pup any more, but I would prefer to not have my weight thrown in my face on regular basis. I tried to keep one paw off the scale, but Mum caught me. Oddly, Mum seems to worry that I keep my weight up, not down.

Well, I guess I shall sign off for now. I heard Mum mention to Amarok that tonight is claw trimming and teeth brushing night. Can you believe that she brushes my teeth EVERY OTHER DAY!!! Not to mention the brutality involved in claw-trimming. The In-Dog-Manity of it all!! I HATE having my teeth brushed, but she shoves that horrible thing in my mouth regardless. And as if using poultry flavoured tooth paste is really going to trick me!

Tira's hind-end weakness and acupuncture

In the spring of 2005, Tira began to show signs of hind-end weakness. By the summer, she was scuffing her back feet and struggling with steep inclines when hiking. After x-rays showed no signs of hip dysplasia or arthritis and pain killers seemed unhelpful, we tried prednisone. Not only did prednisone not help, she was decidedly worse after the treatment ended. By late summer, Tira could barely get up the stairs, her legs would sink when she walked, and she was scuffing her back feet badly.

By the process of elimination, it appeared that Tira had 'degenerative myelopathy' (DM) which is believed to be the degenerative neural muscular disease causing the loss of sensation and control of the hind limbs. To be honest, it sounds like a grab bag disease. Although it is very common in German shepherds, it is known to also occur in huskies. As there is really no proper treatment for DM, my vet suggested we try acupuncture, and I would say that the acupuncture has kept Tira mobile and has stopped her degradation. After a session she has a lot more energy and stops scuffing her back feet. This seems to last for about 3 weeks at this point (she has been going since September 2005).

I would highly recommend trying acupuncture if you are faced with a similar problem. If it works, it is well worth the money. The International Veterinary Acupuncture Society at http://www.ivas.org/ lists all certified acupuncturists, and allows you to search for one in your area.

Ahh, the great "What to feed my husky" struggle

Anyone who has or has had a husky in their life knows what finicky eaters they can be. Well, when I started taking Tira to acupuncture, the acupuncturist (who is also a DVM) suggested that I start feeding the dogs fresh beef and/or liver 3 times a week. Well, they were VERY happy puppies! As a vegetarian I never cook beef, and let me tell you, the smell of sizzling beef had Amarok craning his neck into a position I had never previously seen!! The effect on Tira was also well worth it, as she is much perkier and more alert when she has had a meal with fresh beef.

The downside to the introduction of beef was that they all started turning their little noses up to the Fish and Potato food - just didn't compare I guess. So, after trying a few different foods, they have all agreed on the Beef and Barley kibble produced by Nature's Variety Prairie (http://www.naturesvariety.com/). Although it is very high in protein, we don't have any noses turning up at meal times, so I have just reduced the amount of food they receive. Unfortunately, Amarok is inclined to a rubenesque figure, so I may have to switch his food to a light or senior variety. Sadly Nature's Variety doesn't make such a formulation, so I may have to go back to the drawing board for him.

Update

Well, I realise that I have been very lax in my blogging. So, to update - Tira's weakness has responded very well to combining acupuncture and meloxicam. She isn't the same rambunctious dog, but she is quite mobile and is still able to do some sprinting when we go out for our walks. Both Amarok and Elaine are in the pink of health.

I promised to follow up with some puppy photos, and will try to get to that in the next few weeks!

Sorcha

To Come..

Just thought that I'd let you know that as soon as I have some time, I will try to post some more pictures of the dogs, including some puppy pictures, and some more info on each of the dogs.

Tira's litter consisted of 9 puppies, of which Tasha, Amarok, and Elaine were the 3 that I kept (I originally wasn't going to keep any, ha,ha,ha!)... I always tell people that only keeping 3 out of 9 isn't that bad, right?

Stay tuned!

Tasha and her epilepsy

I thought I'd just talk about Tasha's epilepsy.

She began seizuring at the age of 2 and turned out to have very severe epilepsy. She had grand mal seizures, preceded with the pre-itical phase (or the "Code Red Emergency phase"). Her seizures clustered into groups of about 7, repeating every 3 hours for about 3 days, returning about every 2-3 months. Let me tell you it was a nightmare.

Her first seizure was close to Christmas and by March her seizures were becoming progressively worse. There were also now being followed by a post-itical phase which was dangerous and frightening as she would get up and run around the house without any awareness of what she was doing.

After the vets realised that valium was ineffective, we soon concocted a combination of drugs that, once they were all up to therapeutic levels, completely controlled her seizures. By that fall her seizures had become less severe, and she completely stopped seizuring by the following summer (she was then 3). To my knowledge, she never seizured again.

Sadly, Tasha passed away at the age of 5. She (and all her kin) escaped from the yard when the back gate was left open and died from injuries sustained when hit by a car. Losing Tasha was one of the most heart breaking and life altering events of my life. The time we spent together fighting her epilepsy had brought her closer to me than I have ever been with any other living being, husky or human!

Tasha's meds were:

Phenobarbital
Chlorazepate
Potassium Bromide (KBr)

I will look up her doses and included those at a later date.

I've included some good links on epilepsy on the sidebar, but will also look up some of my old info to see if there are any that I missed. When Tasha first started seizuring, I signed up on the canine epilepsy news group and found that to be a wonderful resource not only for alternate therapies, but also for moral support as I struggled with caring for Tasha.

Please feel free to comment or ask me questions.

Sorcha

More Info on my Alaskan Huskies:

Tira
- Alaskan husky (sometimes these dogs are called Wolf Huskies, but in Tira's case, any wolf lineage is very far in the past, at best).
- Tira is the mum of my other huskies, she is currently 12 years old
- She has hypothyroidism, currently treated with 0.3 mg BID of synthroid
- She has started having problems with hind end weakness but no problems with arthritis or back or hip problems.
- She also has a nasty habit of giving herself ear infections because she keeps sticking her foot in her ear!!!


Tira eats Wellness Fish and Potato dog food which is supplemented with:
500 mg Glucosamine and 650 mg MSM - BID (Flex-All Joint Care biscuits)
500 mg Chondroitin Sulphate BID (Natural Factors)
Essential Fatty Acid Mixture (Arctic Vigor by Canine Health and Maintenance - Canadian)
400 IU Clear Vitamin E (Natural Factors)

I'm not sure that the joint supplements are really of any use as Tira does not show any signs of arthritis and her x-rays are clean. However, as we haven't had an actual diagnosis of her hind-end weakness, I thought I'd keep her on them to see if they help. If they don't, I will begin to taper them (one at a time) and watch to ensure that her symptoms don't worsen with the withdrawal.


Amarok
- Tira's son who just turned 9
- very healthy guy who has recently developed some small skin abnormalities (sebaceous cysts or adenomas? - only the vet can say for sure!)


Amarok eats Innova Senior dog food (as he has a slight tendency towards being a leetle bit rubenesque;) His supplements are:
500 mg Chondroitin Sulphate BID
400 IU Clear Vitamin E

Amarok is on the chondroitin but not the biscuits that Tira takes because as yet he has no symptoms of joint problems and seems to have no intention of slowing down

Elaine
- Tira's daughter (and Amarok's littermate), so also 9 years old
- generally a very healthy little girl!


Elaine also eats Wellness Fish and Potato dog food, she is only supplemented with Vitamin E


Tasha
- also Tira's daughter (and littermate to the 2 other kids)
- passed away at the age of 5
- had severe epilepsy with grand mal cluster seizuring.

Why did I create this site?

As a dog owner, I'm sick of having to spend hours searching for information on ailments, etc., every time one of my three alaskan huskies develops some new and obscure disease. Subsequently I have created this blog and hope that it will contain information and links that will be helpful for other hypochondriac puppy parents, who, like me, flip out every time Fifi has new boo-boo!

Thanks for coming!

Sorcha

Meet my Alaskan Husky, Amarok

So, Amarok is trying to kill me. Yup, he has another bloody (literally) cyst/adenoma, this time on his tummy! The last one (appeared in December, just in time for Christmas) was on his back. So, back to the vet we go, I guess. The new one is a little scary as it has black pigmentation, which is often not a good sign.