October 9, 2018

White Dog guided Nilla to the door where Steve picked her up in his arms. The elecro-magnetic storms, weather change, and off routine road trip left our girl a bit confused and more wobbly than usual. We were heading out to meet with Dr. Julia to review OurGirl's chart and decide on a course of action.

Nils has been off antibiotics and on a high potency adrenal support supplement for two weeks and this was to check progress and make some choices.

While her skin is still a mottled mess and she is still losing hair, there is less loss and her furs seem less oily. "That is better than it was," Dr. Julia noted. "I want to keep her off of antibiotics if we can but I am going to give you a medicated shampoo and an oatmeal aloe conditioner for bathing. We want to stop the loss but I do not think she will regrow the hair lost already." I had been thinking the same as the place on her leg shaved weeks ago for the tumor removal is still bare skin without even a hint of fuzz.

Steve mentioned that she is having a harder time rising to standing and that her right rear leg sometimes trembles. Dr. Julia felt and rotated and pushed both legs. "There is some muscle loss happening on the right," she confirmed. "Not as much on the left. Let's use carprofen as needed to see if that helps. I don't want to add on a bunch of new stuff until we get a better idea of the big issues."

"I have a bunch of notes because Nilla has been on my mind and I have done some research," our vet shared. "Sue, I know you and I talked about testing for Cushing's disease at this point but I want to consider a different course." I tilted my head and listened and Steve moved forward in his seat. "Selegiline is a drug used to treat pituitary-dependent Cushings AND is also used for canine cognitive disorder. Since Nilla certainly is dealing with dementia and fits the profile for PDC, I suggest we put her on this drug, check things in two weeks and in a month do bloodwork. I am seeing some slight improvement with just the adrenal boost and would like to give the cocktail a chance to show us what it can do. AND it will help with some of Nilla's confusion."

Steve said, "I think this is the drug Puff was on so long ago. She developed a really thin coat at 19 but we never had quite the dementia issues that Nilla is experiencing. If selegiline might help on both fronts, I think we should give it a trial run." I nuzzled Nilla whose face was against my cheek. "What do you think, Nils? Should we try thins?" My Girl looked trustingly around the room; "Let's do it." I agreed.

Poor Sweetheart was exhausted from the trip and being in the spotlight. Steve carried her into the house, half asleep and settled her on her bed. As an afterthought he draped a small lap blanket over her haunches. "She might get cold easier with the missing furs," he explained and White Dog agreed.