I hope it's ok with everyone - I have decided that her name will be Gracie.  She had many names, Miss Grace, Missy, Sippy, etc.  But I think "Gracie" is such a sweet name that is very pretty and there's something peaceful about it.  I think it fits her.  I can already see her beauty.

We're getting the downstairs basement ready for Gracie now.  We are determined to treat Gracie like she's gold so that she can look at us and wag her tail and know that she's beautiful, and when her skin has healed and her fur grows back, she'll look on the outside how she feels on the inside.

We covered the couch and love seat with brand new sheets and we have 2 extra sets so we can change them out often and wash the others in hot water with bleach.  That way while she still has that fungal infection, she won't be reinfecting herself.  The door to the outside is open so she can just go in and out as she likes.

The veterinarian in SC said that her mange is Demodex, and that she has a secondary infection and/or skin allergy, as well. Gracie also tested low-positive for heartworms and had intestinal tapeworms, as well. Her nails were clipped and she was sedated and given a bath to wash all of the gasoline/oil off of her body.

The plan is to make our 8am vet appt on Monday. She'll be stable until then since she saw a veterinarian this AM and got started on antibiotics, had a bath, etc.  That way my vet can decide whether to continue that antibiotic, change it, or even add another.  There probably will be very little improvement, but maybe enough to know whether she's on the right antibiotic or if she needs anything additional.  When her skin condition is MUCH improved, then we'll decide when the time is right to start her heartworm treatment, and then to do her spay.  In that order.  I have no unaltered dogs here, so I'm not worried about that as much as I am her general health.

Once she's got a bit more energy, and she will have already met all my crew through the fenced area that connects to the basement - then we'll let her meet one or two at a time so we don't stress her out.  Once she's met everyone and comfortable, we'll let her mingle with 4-5 at a time, then 7-8 at a time, then we'll let her go in/out of the basement and fenced area into the main yard as she pleases.  The main yard is 10 acres and is entirely fenced.  I'll also make sure she's comfortable with the horses, who are both very used to dogs and ignore them completely, before leaving her out while they're free grazing outside their pasture.

I just know that once the healing starts, it will begin to go more quickly.  It's just these first few weeks while her skin is going through an entire regeneration from the inside out that it will seem like nothing is happening.  I can't wait until her baby fine hair starts to grow in. And I can't wait until I can hug and pet her whole body without her being in pain or discomfort. And even more, I look forward to the day I can show people her beautiful pictures, and then show them her "before" pics and they just can't believe it's the same dog :') 

Thanks to all of you.  I am anxious to pick up Gracie tomorrow night from Quincy and I'll send regular updates and pictures.  Thanks Quincy for all you've done for Gracie.  You can rest easy knowing that you've saved one more deserving life.

Elizabeth :)

I picked up Gracie today from Quincy and she wagged her tail fiercely when I walked up.  I gave her a kiss on her scabbed, painful head and I knew she was a special girl.  Maybe she knew I was there to take her and make her healthy and happy again.  We loaded her up in my Jeep very carefully b/c she is so sore everywhere.  As we say our goodbyes and thank-you's and I get ready to drive off - guess whose head pops up between the front seats?  Yes, Gracie :)  She wanted to ride up front.  So, I grabbed her blood/pus soaked sheet from the back and quickly covered the front seat.  She crawled up there and was determined to be my co-pilot.  Only about 3 minutes on the highway and she was ready to give in to her heavy eyes and tired body, so I grabbed the pillow I could reach in the back and put it in front of her so she'd have a soft place to lay her head.  She curled up and slept soundly the entire way home.  She perked up when we turned onto my road and by the time we got up the driveway, she was standing and wagging her tail.  We had all the dogs except for Dixie the basset hound and Singer the German Shorthair Pointer inside (these two are never overbearing and would never jump on her).  They met and it went without a hitch.  She also met our horses and she didn't mind them at all either.  We walked with her through the outside pen into the basement.  Matt stayed with her while I got all her things together and brought them in.  She crawled right up on the couch with Matt and was relaxed from the start.  No pacing or panting.  She ate her raw diet food and took her last dose of medicine, then gave me a few kisses, then she was asleep between us in minutes.

I'll send pictures early next week as soon as I recover from the long weekend.

Thank you all for caring about sweet Gracie.  She is worthy of every bit of it :)

Elizabeth

I came home from work tonight and spent the last hour downstairs with Gracie.  I fed her again and her appetite is still wonderful.  It grosses me out, but she loves the raw diet - lol.  She's on Cipro 500mg twice daily, ivermectin 0.6cc once daily, and also on an Omega-3 Fatty Acid supplement.  I am sure that after she sees the vet tomorrow, she'll be on either metronidazole/fluconazole for her secondary fungal infection (I hope fluconazole as it is less likely to affect her taste and thus, her appetite).  I also will make sure I get her some antibiotic eye drops.  She can be touched on her abdomen without much discomfort as the infection and mange hasn't spread there yet.  I feel scar tissue from what I guess is a spay, but I THINK I feel sutures in there!  I can feel what seems to be pretty thick suture material and what feels like the short ends on either side of the knots.  I'll have that checked out too.

I really think Gracie is housetrained b/c she always gets up and walks outside to go to the bathroom.  Not a single accident in the basement so far!  And as painful as it is for her to get up and walk around, that's saying a lot!  She got up on the couch with me (I had to take the cushions off b/c it was hard for her to get up and jump down from it with her feet being so swollen & infected - but I covered it with extra blankets so it's still very soft).  Then she walked over and put her head down against my leg, pressing her forehead and muzzle into me.  I scratched her behind her left ear and on the back of her neck, as these are two of the few places she does not have open wounds and infection.  Then I got a warm moist cloth and cleaned out her eyes from all the goo that builds up from her eye infection and she was very cooperative.  After that, she laid back down next to me as close as she could possibly get without touching me since she is so painful everywhere.  Soon, she was off to dreamland again and I came back upstairs.  I'll spend some more time with her before I go to bed. 

I'm off to put the horses in their stalls and get them a little grain so they'll settle down and sleep.  All my other dogs are already down for the count and I hear about 6 different snores as I type this  lol.  Yes, it's a dogs life around here :)    I have a horse trainer, Phil Rogers (www.philrogers.com) coming out Tuesday, but I promise I'll take some pictures of Gracie when he leaves and get them out to everyone. 

Also, to everyone who sent money or is going to send money, no matter how much, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart.  It really means so much to me that there are so many people who care so much about Gracie and want to help her get better so she can romp and play with the rest of my zoo crew. 

I'll be in touch tomorrow after the vet appointment to give a quick update before I go to work.

Good night to all,

Elizabeth

Sorry for the late update, but today was jam packed before work.  I was only online long enough to tell Quincy that Gracie's vet visit went well.  So here are the details for anyone interested :)

I saw Dr. Logan today, one of the great vets at Charlotte Street Animal Hospital - they all are, really.  Gracie weighed in at 57.7 lbs!!!  I know she has gained some weight in the past few days :)  Dr. Logan read the notes from the vet in SC and then checked Gracie out for herself.  She did a skin scrape again (it was much less painful for Gracie this time as her skin has much less bleeding/oozing pus than it did before) so that she could get a baseline count of live/dead mites and can monitor the progress of the Demodex treatment.  She also did "the tape test", which is a very simple test of sticking a piece of tape to various places on her infected skin and then looking at it under the microscope to check for the presence of yeast.  What she found could be great news.  She didn't see any yeast, so the infection is most likely bacterial.  But the best news is that there were only 3-4 live mites per field seen on the slide from the skin scrape!  Usually, there are 20-30 in a case that looks this bad if it's primarily Demodectic mange.  Sooooo, the thought right now is that maybe she started with a terrible skin allergy - she showed me pictures in a small animal dermatology book and i couldn't' believe the similarity and how bad allergies can be!  Then once the allergies got so bad, and she had poor nutrition, intestinal worms, and heartworms, her immune system was so impaired that it made her more susceptible to Demodex.  Then once the Demodex set in and the allergies too, her skin structure was so broken down, that she then developed this nasty secondary infection.  This would explain how all of this could have gotten so terrible in only a few short months, as well.  The reason this is so good is that dogs Gracie's age often have a poor prognosis with Demodex, as it can be a sign of an underlying immune disorder.  Often, they don't even respond to treatment.  But since hers may be secondary to all these other "fixable" problems that caused her immune dysfunction, she may have a better outcome than originally thought.  So, we're treating the Demodex, but also the underlying problems too.

Today, Dr. Logan kept her on the Ivermectin for the Demodex, but started titrating her dosage upward to the proper dose for this disease.  She had been started on 0.6cc, today we gave 0.8cc, then tomorrow 1.0cc, then the next day 1.2cc - and I'm watching for any signs of toxicity (i.e. neurologic signs such as staggering, weakness, etc).  If she tolerates this dose, she'll stay here unless her weight increases more, and will stay at this dose for probably 8-10 months.  The only reason she may not stay on Ivermectin this long is if the next skin scrape in a few weeks shows the same number or more live mites per field.  If that happens, we'll discuss further treatment options at that time.  Gracie was also kept on the Cipro 500mg twice daily, and then Clavamox 375mg twice daily was added to cover more of the gram positive bacteria.  With these two antibiotics, most bacteria are covered.  But because it is so broad spectrum, I got her some Lactinex (lactobacillus) granules at work and am sprinkling them on her food once per day to try to prevent diarrhea.

For the itching and the swelling in the feet, Gracie was started on 5mg of prednisone twice daily.  This is a very low dose so we don't compromise her immune system should the Demodex be more severe than it appears right now, but high enough to give her some comfort.  I also had some neomycin/polymixin/dexamethasone eye drops here, and started using them today after Dr. Logan looked at her eyes and confirmed there were no corneal abrasions. 

I took a stool sample with me so they didn't have to prod any more than absolutely necessary, and it was obvious that there were tapeworms there without any sort of microscope - they are ABUNDANT!  So she got a dose of Cestex today with her lunch. 

We did another heartworm test since heartworms is only confirmed after two positive tests and since they were drawing blood, I had them send off for a well-blood panel just so we can get some baseline values to compare if needed down the road.  The good thing about her treatment right now is that if she is confirmed to be "low positive" on her heartworm test, the dose of ivermectin she's on will kill the microfilaria (but not the adult heartworms) - so though it won't cure it, it will most likely stop it from getting any worse during this critical time.  Once she's all better, we'll decide what type of heartworm treatment will be most suitable for her - oral or injection.

 

In a few weeks when her skin is looking better and the sores are drying more, they are going to give her a good bath in chlorhexidine to get off all that dead skin and scabbing.  I can't wait until that day!!!  Gracie will be so much more comfortable!

She ate all of her food tonight, went outside to potty, then came back and got back up on the couch and fell asleep.  I covered her up with a soft blanket since her skin is much drier now so it wont' stick to her.  She's an angel :)

Well, I'm off for now.  I'll send some photos tomorrow night - it will be late since the horse trainer will be here all day, then I'm going to a free dinner given by one of the pharmacy drug companies (always a nice treat) and I'll learn something new about current treatment for insomnia, I hope - lol. 

Thanks to all of you for caring!

Elizabeth

It was a long, wonderful day today.  I woke up early to take care of Gracie and give Einstein, my great dane with heart failure, all of his many medications.  Then I took all the dogs (except for Gracie - but she'll be able to go soon!) for a walk around the trails to work off some energy.  Then at 10am, the horse trainer, Phil Rogers showed up here to start working with us and our horses.  What a wonderful guy and very practical in his teachings.  When he left, Matt and I had both gained a lot of knowledge and understanding that will help us as horse parents.  And our horses enjoyed it too and got lots of positive reinforcement for being so wonderful :)

It was a nice day here, and I kept looking over into the pen area and sweet Gracie had a front row seat for all the festivities of the day.  I put a blanket out by the fence and she lay there and watched us and slept in the fall air with the sun on her the entire time.  She was very content and I enjoyed seeing her comfortable.  I wish I had gotten a picture of this, but I didn't have my camera on me since I was trying to do training and had a lead rope I was keeping up with.  I will get one of her outside soon, though :)

Phil left at about 6:30pm and Matt and I rushed to get ready for the pharmaceutical dinner at Rezaz downtown. We were laughing knowing that even though we looked nice, we probably smelled like a barn...lol. But that's fine with us anyday!

Dr. Logan called me just before dinner to tell me that Gracie's bloodwork came back and she is heartworm NEGATIVE! Yayy!!! Her platelet count is not low, so that likely rules out erlichia. Her hematocrit was very low, suggesting the presence of chronic disease, and her white blood cell count was high. Her thyroid results were a bit low, but nothing of concern yet. I will continue Gracie on her raw diet and Dr. Logan says that once we start to clear up the underlying problems, her bloodwork will likely resolve on its own. We'll do repeat bloodwork in 1 month to be sure that her thyroid condition, anemia, etc do not need to be addressed.

Got back from dinner, and went downstairs to keep Gracie company and feed her again/give her medications, and I took these pics of her.  I don't know if you can tell in the photos, but her skin is no longer bleeding/oozing pus.  It is very dry and the open sores have scabbed over.  It won't be long before the vet can give her that bath to get rid of all these dried scabby pieces that cover her body.  I'm very excited about that.

Ok, without further ado, here's the fantastic Gracie!!!

Elizabeth :)

This morning when I went outside to see the horses, Gracie walked at a fast pace out of the basement and to the edge of the fence, tail wagging so quickly.  I walked over to give her a pet through the fence and was going to feed the horses, then come back to spend time with her and give her medications.  She whined a little at the gate, which she has not done before.  So far, she has had little energy to even walk all the way to the gate and walks tenderfooted back inside.  But today I could see the sparkle in her eye and thought to myself - what the heck, let's see how she does with the "herd".  So I put several dogs inside the house and let her out of the pen to meet half the dogs.  She did GREAT!  So, I let the other dogs out of the house and there were no problems at all.  In fact, she RAN to keep up with them when they were playing!!!  Her feet must be feeling so much better.  She did fine with the horses too. 

Her eyes are almost totally clear of infection and I can pretty much touch her anywhere.  That full body hug won't be too far down the road!

I don't know if I told everyone, but the blood work we sent off came back from Antech lab.  Gracie is heartworm NEGATIVE!!!  This is wonderful news.  Her other lab values were all over the place.  Her hematocrit was low, but platelets were normal.  This rules out Ehrlichia, and suggests chronic disease.  So, this confirms that her problems have been going on for more than a few months - probably over a year.  Her white blood cells were elevated and her thyroid hormone levels were low, but not extremely low.  With all the problems she has going on, the thyroid function can be affected, so Dr. Logan wants to continue treatment as we are currently doing, then do repeat blood work.  She feels that it may all go back to normal as her health status improves.  I added a multivitamin with iron to Gracie's diet just so she doesn't feel weak as a result of the anemia.

I am very happy with Gracie's improvement and am amazed at what a trusting, loving girl she is after all she must have been through.  "Amazing Gracie" :)

Here she is - several photos of her meeting the rest of the furcrew and a video clip of her!!! 

Well, it's a rainy day here, but I have my doggies, so what more can I ask for :)  I was only hoping for better weather so the pictures would be clearer, but it's ok.

Gracie amazes me more and more each day.  That tail NEVER stops wagging.  And when she relaxes those ears and looks at me with those soft eyes and her sweet smile, it brings me so much happiness to know that her days of neglect and pain are over. 

Look at her eyes!!!  They are completely better!!!  Her skin is looking better and better each day, too.  Still scabby in some places, but most are just very flaky almost like dandruff.  The skin underneath the scabs is baby soft and I can see the faintest hint of little fuzzy hairs coming in.  It's almost time for that full body hug!  Her chest is still very scabby and seems to be the slowest to heal, along with her feet. But her feet are soooo much better.  The swelling is almost totally gone.  There is separation between her toes even when she's standing and she will RUN and jump up and down from things - the ultimate sign that they feel better. 

 

When we go back to the vet, I'm going to have them check her hearing.  The hair at the entrance to her ears was all matted up in scabs, so until now, I haven't really wanted to prod at her ears much.  And when I am outside if she doesn't know I'm coming and I call her name, she would always wag her tail but look the wrong way - like she can hear me but can't localize where the sound is coming from.  Now that I can see better into her ears, they look redder than they should inside, but not swollen.  So, I gently cleaned her ears out and have been giving her some antibiotic and antifungal ear drops.  They seem a little less red today, so I think it's working.  We'll see if that was what is affecting her hearing, or maybe it's just the little old lady that she is :)  Either way, I just want her to be comfortable whether she can hear well or not.

I am so happy with her recovery so far, overall.  Here are the pics I just took. She's a joy :)

All I can say is Gracie is GREAT!!!  She's a happy, affectionate, well-behaved, easy going girl.  No real vet news as it is not time for her next appointment yet, but she's doing very well on all her medications and her diet.  I actually may cut back a little on her food I think b/c she's getting a little chubby! :D  I'll keep giving her the vitamins with iron so she won't lose any nutrition.

Her skin is very soft.  It's hard to tell in the pictures b/c it's still sort of flaky like dandruff, but it feels like baby skin.  Her feet are doing so well too.  Almost time for that bath!!!

Here are the pictures from today - most have Gracie in them, but I took lots of pictures of everyone.  The last few pictures have Matt's military friend, Mike and his girlfriend Hoc in them.  They came to visit for Thanksgiving and love the dogs :) 

Gracie and I thank you all for your generous donations and for following her story and caring about her from all over the country.

Bye for now!

Elizabeth :)

Update 12/6 @ 9:15pm

Gracie continues to amaze everyone.  Including the weight scales at the vet today!!!!  She has gained about 20lbs!!!  Too much, but it's better than her being thin.  I'm starting to taper her prednisone now and she'll be completely off in 2 weeks, so I bet she'll lose some of that weight from that alone.

Dr. Logan said she looked fabulous, as I already knew.  They drew blood to do another well blood panel that includes pretty much everything.  We'll be able to compare it to the last one and see where we stand.  Her skin scrape is looking better.  Before there were 2-3 live mites per field (remember, this was much lower than we'd expected to begin with).  This time they found only 2 almost dead mites on the entire slide - about 15 fields!  Yay! 

Her skin still feels very soft, but still has a smell to it that is probably a mild fungal infection lingering.  I bathed her in some Malaseb shampoo that has an antifungal and chlorhexidine in it.  I'll do that twice per week and that should help a lot.  We're continuing her Cipro, Clavamox, and Ivomec at least until her bloodwork comes back to see if her white cells are still high.  Her ears looked a little red and were positive for a fungal infection, so I got some Otomax and ear cleanser to use.  I am going to trim her toenails just a little in the next couple days.  It looks like the quick is receding some so they will be cut to normal length pretty soon, I think.

One of the vets at the clinic is doing a case study on Gracie since she has had such an interesting story and medical treatment with regular follow-ups to see her progress.  Everyone there knows her - she's quite the celebrity. 

That tail STILL hasn't stopped wagging and that's just the way I like it :)  Ok, here are the pics from today.  Hope you enjoy!

Elizabeth

I hope everyone is having a great holiday.  I snapped a few quick shots today of Gracie and the other dogs while we were out on a walk.  She's doing great!  She's a very playful senior gal and gets riled up with all the others.  She acts like she's going through puppy hood again :)

 

No new vet news yet.  I just tapered off her prednisone totally as of yesterday and she will be seen in 2-3 weeks to do a repeat thyroid test to see if her levels are still low.  Otherwise, she's just being a happy dog, waiting for her hair to grow back in. 

 

That's all for now - here's our Gracie Girl!!! 

 

I haven't been in touch in a while, but Gracie has been doing better and better.  There really hasn't been any news except that she has grown so much thick hair!!!  AND - she's FAT!!!  Better fat and happy, I guess.  Her metabolism had probably slowed down so much after living in such poor conditions with such limited food, that she can't burn off a normal diet.  She had gained another 8 lbs. 

 

She is off of her ivermectin now and has been off of the prednisone for about 6 weeks.  Her thyroid panel and other bloodwork was drawn again and everything came back normal.  We'd hoped that some of the weight gain may have been due to her thyroid hormone abnormalities, but that's ruled out.  She's just plain fat :)  Oh well.  Her skin is still a little flaky and the "tape test" showed that she still has a fungal infection.  I've been washing her with Malaseb shampoo (miconazole) but it hasn't really improved it.  So, she's going to be on ketoconazole for a while to see if that helps.  I also bought some Lotrimin (terbinafine) spray hoping that the topical treatment will help clear it up so she's not on oral antifungals for very long. 

 

All I can say is that this is the only dog in the world with a built in tail-wagging machine.  IT NEVER stops.  Even when she was having blood drawn from her neck - her tail still beat against my leg while I held her.  Her happiness is infectious :)

 

Here are pics of her from today.  Enjoy!

 

Elizabeth