Rosie's D.O.B is 10-26-1990
DX: 2-26-02
Insulin: Currently at 5 units Humulin N twice daily
Health : Diabetes, Cushings ( dx 4/3/02), Arthritis ( dx 11/01),
Collapsed Trachea ( dx 11/01)
History: Rosie Lu is a havanese. She was rescued from a
puppy mill
closure in Oct 2001 and brought to Arizona by the Havanese Club of
America's Rescue Chairperson. We learned during the rescue that
she
suffers panic attacks when crated, as she was left in a carrier for
4
days and forgotten about. This left her unable to be adopted
from
somebody out of the general area. Jason and I decided that we
needed
her here with us and upon meeting her, she decided that we were perfect
for one another. Her registered name is Bella Rosa, meaning Beautiful
Rose. She would not answer to it though, and in tossing names to her
she
responded to Rosie. Lu came from one of HCA's most valued Rescue
Workers, a wonderful friend and mentor. I can't remember
anymore what
life was like before Rosie Lu. She's taught us so many lessons,
brought us many
smiles, and furnishes our hearts with unmeasurable and unconditional
love.
This Story is going to be a little different then the others.
It is going to be in the form of a diary and with day by day progress
of how Charls is handling
Rosie's diabetes mellitus and cushings disease using conventional and
Naturopathic methods.
March 30, 2002
Catching a Sample From Ms Rosie Lu
It's occurred to me, with Rosie Lu's state,
That I'll be needing samples, I've got to teach myself how.
So, I've followed her out, with cup in hand,
And I entered the realm of "No-Man's" Land.
She gazed at me, with a glint in her eyes,
Stick your hand right here Mommy, I've got a surprise..
She would squat - I would bend, at the ready with my cup,
But I was soon to be outsmarted by this sweet little pup.
She went all right, but it was a tiny little drip,
Oh well, I muttered - I'll catch it, next trip.
So, we came back inside (through the 2-leggers door)
Where she politely squatted and politely tinkled on the floor.
Okay, I admit she got one over on me,
But I will get that sample you just wait and see!
by Charls
April 3, 2002
I just received a phone call from Dr. Myers. Rosie Lu's Cushings
test came back positive. Our little girl has Cushings. She'll start receiving
Lysodrem tomorrow and will follow up in a week with another test.
I want to thank all of you who made me aware of the symptoms and
who urged me to request the test again. Dr Myers praised Jason and
me for being the type of parents who really know our dogs and see signs
that we know we shouldn't be seeing. It was you who helped educate us and
show us where to look. I'm hugging her for all of you. We'll be okay.
Maybe now I can say the worst is over.
Charls
What
is Cushings Disease?
April 4, 2002
Well, what an interesting day. My writing hand is tired.. I decided
to take some serious notes instead of trying to remember everything.
Glad I did, too. I drank a coke too fast and got the hiccups and
everything got a little crazy from there.. imagine trying to talk to your
vet and
holding your breath at the same time. At one point I had them
laughing so hard at me ( I was making faces while holding my breath ) that
he had to look away when talking. Anyway........ where do I
start....I was put in touch with a Naturopathic Doctor , we exchanged email
last night and we talked on the phone for at least an hour this morning.
So wise, these people.. man I wish I had paid more attention in chemistry,
etc.....We're going to take a little different approach with Rosie.
WAIT..before we go further, she'll still be on the Lysodren for now.
1/2 tab daily. From what I've gathered, this is very hard on their
systems. Dr Coldhands ( Myers) said it's equivalent to a dog being
on chemo. The Naturopathic Doctor suggested and Dr Coldhands
( Myers, he likes it when we call him that) has approved our new regime.
Everything is completely natural so nothing that the Naturopathic Doctor
has recommend will harm her, in fact we're anticipating that it will reduce
the amount of prescribed meds she'll need. Let me also add
that I'm beginning a Rosie Lu Diary, that will be made available
to you ..
Alrighty now.. this is the first step.... twice a
day within 20 minutes of her insulin Rosie will have some juice that I'll
make. I have five recipes to toy with, but the 2 that Alison felt
would benefit us more were.....
# 1
6 oz carrot
4 oz romaine lettuce
3 oz string beans -which she said is wonderful for human/animal
diabetes
3 oz brussels sprout -produce natural insulin
# 2
6 oz carrot
5 oz brussel sprout
5 oz string beans |
These are just two, I'll share the others with you later on, they all
vary in some degree.
And this won't hurt Chewey and Noel at all if I offer them some as
well. Nor me .. yea..
Now we're going to take her off of the shark cartilage
and introduce other herbs into her breakfast, lunch and dinner.
These will include:
Suma: for her arthritis, as this will flare up with the Lysodren
Blueberry Leaf: lower glucose
Alfalfa Sprouts: arthritis
Broad Bean: pituitary gland
Wheat Germ:
Red Clover:
Royal Jelly: adrenal gland
bee Pollen: adrenal gland |
( The folks at the Herb store were amazed that I was doing this for
a dog.
I politely told them that Rosie was a Queen who did not realize she
was a pupster,
and that she had to be referred to as HRH Rosie Lu)
Rosie will begin taking
Cytozyme: for pancreas to help repair the damage after her attack
Cytozyme AD : an adrenal gland supplement
Glucobalance: reverses glucose naturally
Eytrozyme: to help strengthen and possibly reverse the collapsed
trachea |
Now, I know this sounds like a lot to soak in. Trust me, I wouldn't
promise her anything
until I talked to our vet and once again, he praised us for seeking
wanting what's best
for Rosie and is hopeful that this new regime will show some signs
of helping her.
He was even taking notes in his journal!
And then I'm gong ot start monitoring here at home also.
And will be in close contact with him at all times.
As has been said before, I DO NOT recommend you try any of this
UNLESS you've
discussed it with your vet before hand. We don't know that this
will help in any way,
and it's expensive to purchase all of the herbs and supplements.
I recommend that perhaps
you watch and see how we do with Rosie. I can share the information
with you about our
Naturopathic Doctor. Her name is Alison Ader and I will ask her
if it's ok to give her
number out. I don't think she would mind, but I feel the need
to make sure it's okay.
Well, that 's it in a nutshell, I got rid of the hiccups and now
have a headache.
<G> and there are some 100+ messages to sort through.waaahh..
Charls
April 5, 2002
Rosie's being stubborn about letting me do her blood test.
We'll wait until Jason gets up this afternoon and do it together.
So far I haven't noticed any "physical" signs of distress from the
Lysodrem.
It was taken at 7 am.
April 7, 2002
Two days of being on the Lysodrem Two days of having more veggies
introduced,
or "Alison's Brew", as I have come to call it. On the positive side,
which, I absolutely love to
boast about, she's so energetic. And spunky! She's even
being nicer to Chewey!! I've seen
no dramatic increase or decrease in her appetite or water intake. And
best of all, there are
really no serious negatives. We've had a couple of "tinkle" accidents
( once was while we
were asleep and she wanted attention and the other was after brushing
her .. so I think
those were out of spite) Her stools have been a little softer,
but nothing alarming.
Me- I'm chugging along. Honestly, it was stressful, and I don't
like stress. I also realized that I
have been a bit neglectful with Chewey and Noel. That was obvious
when it took a while to
brush Noel out. It's hard to admit that, and I'm changing it, we can't
have those two boys feeling
neglected. They'll destroy the house. So, we sat on the
floor and discussed our situation.
They told me that they've missed my playtime, and that has been resolved.
<g>
Charls
May 17, 2002
Rosie' New Monitoring System
Just for the sake of doing it, I did a test on Rosie Lu yesterday
using the Accu-Check.
She registered a 16 on it. I looked at her and asked her if she
was really Rosie Lu
or her spirit...she barked at me.. it was Rosie.
So, I did another and it read in the 30's. Now, I had our vet
tech calibrate it for us a few
weeks ago and she determined that the readings were off by 30.
I knew Rosie wasn't
showing any signs of having an episode or anything along those lines,
but I also knew the
readings I was seeing weren't a good thing. So, I pulled out
my trusty cheat sheet that
shows the signs and symptoms.. nothing alarmed me.. so I called Kathy,
Rosie's Tech
and she had me come in and pick up a coupon she had for a new kit.
She told me that
accu-check sometimes just didn't want to accept animal readings and
that she had
experienced the same thing while calibrating mine for me.
She gave me a coupon for FreeStyle made by Therasense. The Reader
itself was $64.99
( at Osco ) The test strips were the same price per a 100 count pack
( or 2 - 50 count packs).
With this coupon, if you purchased the 100 pack strip box, the
reader was free.
The pharmacist said that these kits utilize the smallest blood sample
... 1/3 of a microliter. It takes 15 seconds for a reading
an has 250
- - test memory with date and times. Also has an automatic 14-
day averaging.
This sounds good to me. If I'm ever faced with the situation
where she has an alarming
reading and I have to rush her off to the vet, it'll be there for me
to log later. There is a
website http://www.therasense.com
There are also two different lancing tools - to be used for the different
areas of the
" human " body that you might check on. The pharmacist and I
decided which one would
probably be best on Rosie - whether I poke her paw pad, ear or inner
lip
( she prefers the paw pads)
Our reading this morning was 138 - 2 hours after injection and breakfast.
Charls
May 27, 2002
Rosie Lu went to the Rainbow Bridge
Rosie
Lu's Rainbow Page
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