In response to the request for more pictures (I’m assuming of Skipper, Lauren) I say, “Um, you might not really want that right now.” Although, if we took it from her right side, it might be alright.
She had a pretty good week – behaviorally speaking she is most definitely all better and acting more like a puppy should. She’s mastered getting up and down the steps from the porch so we’re now able to leave the porch door open so she can come and go as she pleases. I started coming home at lunch this past week so she’d get the burn gel 3 times a day. The first afternoon of the open door, I walked into the porch and didn’t see her. I called her and thought I heard her crying, but I wasn’t sure… couldn’t find her in the yard either. As I turned to go back to the porch, I saw her walking through the door. Come to find out, she’d discovered that she can get under the stairs leading up to the back door. When I was done putting gel on her, I went inside and got my lunch ready and headed back out the door. I opened the back door and discovered that Skipper had figured out how to climb those steps too! Unfortunately, with them being extremely uneven steps, she wasn’t able to get down on her own. So I was late back to work because I was showing her how to get down those particular steps (that was kind of funny too, for the record). It was also sad… she followed me all the way to the gate and when I got in my car, she held her little head up and cried.
Thursday morning, I was putting the gel on her and felt a matted kind of spot on her left shoulder – considering it was still somewhat dark out and our porch isn’t very well lit, I thought she’d gotten into something so I got a doggy wipe and gave her a good wipe down. At lunch, I got a better look at it and found it was a new spot and I took her back to the vet’s. When I called later for an update the receptionist said that the vet wanted to talk to me but he was with a client and would call me back. Now, I know with people doctors, that’s never really a good sign. I doubted it was a good sign coming from an animal doctor either.
I finally got to talk to him (he was the other vet in the practice). To get a good look at it, he shaved around the area (which makes it look even worse, hence no pictures from her left side!). He’s not so sure it’s a burn. According to him, with a burn, you’re not going to have a brand spanking new spot just show up. They apparently tested for mange (Nope, not it. That doesn’t surprise me considering she shows no other symptoms of mange.). His next best guess was that it’s possibly an autoimmune disorder – her immune system is attacking her, basically. To figure out if that’s the case or not, she is now on prednisone (is that spelled right? *shrug*). For those keeping count, she’s on a liquid antibiotic twice a day, a 1/2 pill antibiotic once a day, and a gel 2-3 times a day. To make things interesting, because it’s a steroid type drug, she gets the prednisone twice a day for a week, then once a day, then… I can’t remember but it’s on the bottle. I haven’t had the chance to do much research on autoimmune disorders in dogs, but if this is it, we’ll know within the week. If this is it, she will occasionally have outbreaks (no clue how frequently or severe). When she has an outbreak, the treatment will be prednisone.
I got the opportunity to ask him, point blank, what he felt the chances were of her beating this. His answer was “50-50.” If this doesn’t work, he’s not sure what else to try. Brian & I have decided that if this doesn’t work, that’s it. That’s a particularly tough decision because a) she’s just so darn cute despite all her boo-boos! b) aside from the nasty spots, she is a normal acting puppy, and c) Taylor absolutely adores her blemishes and all, and of course d) that sort of decision is never an easy one and never should be an easy one.
Please continue to pray for her and send her all the positive thoughts you can muster.
Sweet little girl. I’m praying she beats all this.