I've just been chatting to a lovely gentleman who was on my list to have a dog puppy from Kaiah. Sadly there was no puppy for him here, but his day has almost come and he too will soon have his Fransisco son. He has taken on board everything that we discussed but rang for clarification as he was concerned because the breeder of his puppy had told him that she will not be vaccinating the pup before he has him. She suggested one vaccine at 10 + weeks, he had then googled it and was extremely confused and upset at what he had been reading about the L4 vacs. Anyway, as I told him, I agree fully with the advice given to him from the breeder but I could only tell him what I do and why and hope he comes to the same conclusion. Anyway, he asked me why we had all used Fransisco and was shocked to discover that the boy is 9 years old. He said, "I though that was about the longevity of the breed" - I laughed and said, don't tell Asha!
I then went onto a GSD advice page on Facebook to discover a post where people were discussing how their dogs had slowed down and become "So middled aged" at around 6 - 7 years old. What? I thought again, don't tell Asha! Seriously, if mine started slowing down at that age I'd be concerned. There is no doubt Asha has slowed down these last 6 months, but she is not middled aged ... she's old! None of my other "Veterans" have slowed down at all, Nico will be 10 in 3 weeks, Jezi and Ziva are 10 in August, Sammi was 7 last Xmas and Loki will be 7 in September. None of them have slowed down or are struggling with their mobility, I'd be upset if they were ... though of course I'm well aware that with old age there will be changes.
Asha's digestion/bowel problems are really well controlled now. The vet wanted me to give her 2 metronidazolel twice daily for four days on and four days off, but within 48 hours of coming off them Asha would have diarrhoea again. They told me giving them to her long term would cause issues, I don't have long term and quality of life is paramount. Anyway I continued to fiddle with the dose and by Xmas I was giving her one tablet a day, (Tablet not dose) but every day, now she has one every other day and it's working. I recently discussed what I had been doing with Katrina and she said it sounds like Asha has "Antibiotic-responsive diarrhoea" (ARD) which is caused by an abnormal proliferation of bacteria and/or the change in bacterial species present in the small intestinal lumen. She said that is was more than likely a small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO) which is common in the breed. "The bacteria cause damage to the absorptive surface of the bowel so digested food cannot be absorbed through the bowel and into the body, resulting in malabsorption of nutrients." Well finally a diagnosis that makes sense. Katrina said that I was doing exactly the right thing by giving her the metronidazole at a low dose, this was the correct treatment for SIBO in dogs, well hell what shall we say, luck not judgment. All I can say is that since Xmas Asha's bowel problems have been well under control and I do feel now that if things go pear shaped again then I can just increase the tablets.
Asha is now also eating dog food again, because things were settled I tried her on a Salmon and potato food. She's on her third bag, all in all we are doing well, on the digestion front anyway. She still enjoys her daily walks and is as excited as she's ever been to get out, though of course the walk is shorter and slower .. which gives her more time to eat sheep shit. Ahhh!!!!!
