August 8, 2013

White Dog said, "It's all about balances, isn't it, momma? You try to keep things from tipping too far one way or the other." She was talking about my mini streak of bad luck and my funk about it. It took me some time but I have a clearer more balanced perspective today. After all, I have a comfortable home, foods I desire, water that I do not have to tote miles to bring home, no land mines buried in my backyard, and the ability to support a White Dog Army in a pampered style. Compared to most of the world, my loss of a favorite coffee mug and needing to get my glasses fixed are pretty minor.

But WD got me to thinking.

This morning Nuka went to Dr. Julia's for a pancreatitis followup. Her kidneys are wonderful and her liver and pancreas numbers are "dropping nicely." She is fully back to her normal diet.

As part of Dr. Julia's aggressive counter attack on the disease and to keep Nuka eating solid food (important to keep her digestive tract from shutting down as it would if we had resorted to liquids only), Nuka was eating Hill Science Diet A&D formula.

This is a high density protein wet food used for dogs and cats...but it is chock full of chicken and chicken organ meat. Nuka is allergic to chicken but Dr. Julia decided that her need to eat trumped the allergy and we worked to lessen her dependence on this food as quickly as possible by mixing it with her normal kibble and decreasing it as we added back rice then finally the WDA's normal mix of fish, rice, vegetables, and fruit. We thought we had successfully gotten her to eat and avoided saturation that would trigger an allergic reaction.

Almost. But yesterday afternoon I reached down to pet Another White Dog and her ears were slimy. When I looked closer, I discovered her ear was filled with gunk and infected. Steve held the flashlight and we peered down the other ear...infected, too. Ear infections are one of the first symptoms of food allergies. We thanked the Universe that she was seeing our vet today (and both ears were medicated with long acting antibiotic gel) but we felt awful that we had pushed her system too far.

For want of a cure we had upset the balance.