Emily_Babbelhund
Mama Red HOT Pepper
- Location
- Regensburg, Germany
Today was Carbon's shoe-horned in visit with a new vet who has the rep for being Leishmaniosis-friendly. It was clear why they aren't accepting new patients - the tiny waiting room was stuffed to the rafters and my 7:30am appointment ended up being an 8:45 appointment by the time we got in, but was it ever worth it.
She called us in by Carbon's name, which I loved. He was definitely her focus and the only reason we got in today is that he is a Leish dog. Talk about going from being treated like a pariah to being treated like an A-list movie star. I'd been told she had her own dogs and foster dogs in the practice with her and I'd thought that meant the waiting room. Nope, they are all in the treatment room. I counted eight, but they were curled into all corners, so there could have been more. Despite the menagerie, it was all very clean and orderly. Carbon was immediately at home as this was a vet situation exactly like he was used to in Spain. He was wagging furiously!
The vet immediately had a look at both the Spanish and the German blood work (one from April, one from last week). There was a lot of info flying back and forth but here's the essential: Carbon is totally healthy in terms of his full panel (non-Leish related). The Leish-related blood work done by the other vet last week wasn't complete and while not completely useless, was not really all that helpful. The vet today then did two additional tests by swabbing the mucous area of his eye. She said to lower his dosage of Allopurinol (yay!) and in a month she'd like to do a different test based on how the eye swabs come out and seeing what effect the lowered dosage has.
But here's the amazing bit: she thinks Carbon may not actually have Leish at all.
Normally Leish does not go away ever - that's the standard wisdom anyway - but this vet thinks he may be testing false positive for some other reason. It's true that he's never presented as a typical Leish dog. His fatigue early on was much more likely from the anaemia, not the Leish - all the Spanish vets agreed on that. The only external signs of Leish that he has are the hairless spots on his inner ears, which have nearly, but not 100% filled in. I told her I thought it was weird that (1) the hair never fell out on the tips and (2) that the spots haven't filled in like all his other hairless spots did. But she thinks that the the ears could in fact be bite scars due to the shape and the fact that there is raised (hard) scaring on the hairless bits. All his other hairless spots that have filled in were more typical of being on concrete too long or in the case of his neck, of having a tight chain wrapped around him.
Now, having said all this, of course he still may have Leish and that he will continue to need his low doses of Allopurinol for his whole life. That's ok too - plenty of Leish dogs live long and healthy lives. But I'm just so thrilled that (1) he not only presents as a healthy pup but IS a healthy pup and (2) he has a chance - even if it's just a small one - to kick the Leish label out of his doggie life for good.
Happy dance, happy dance!
She called us in by Carbon's name, which I loved. He was definitely her focus and the only reason we got in today is that he is a Leish dog. Talk about going from being treated like a pariah to being treated like an A-list movie star. I'd been told she had her own dogs and foster dogs in the practice with her and I'd thought that meant the waiting room. Nope, they are all in the treatment room. I counted eight, but they were curled into all corners, so there could have been more. Despite the menagerie, it was all very clean and orderly. Carbon was immediately at home as this was a vet situation exactly like he was used to in Spain. He was wagging furiously!
The vet immediately had a look at both the Spanish and the German blood work (one from April, one from last week). There was a lot of info flying back and forth but here's the essential: Carbon is totally healthy in terms of his full panel (non-Leish related). The Leish-related blood work done by the other vet last week wasn't complete and while not completely useless, was not really all that helpful. The vet today then did two additional tests by swabbing the mucous area of his eye. She said to lower his dosage of Allopurinol (yay!) and in a month she'd like to do a different test based on how the eye swabs come out and seeing what effect the lowered dosage has.
But here's the amazing bit: she thinks Carbon may not actually have Leish at all.
Normally Leish does not go away ever - that's the standard wisdom anyway - but this vet thinks he may be testing false positive for some other reason. It's true that he's never presented as a typical Leish dog. His fatigue early on was much more likely from the anaemia, not the Leish - all the Spanish vets agreed on that. The only external signs of Leish that he has are the hairless spots on his inner ears, which have nearly, but not 100% filled in. I told her I thought it was weird that (1) the hair never fell out on the tips and (2) that the spots haven't filled in like all his other hairless spots did. But she thinks that the the ears could in fact be bite scars due to the shape and the fact that there is raised (hard) scaring on the hairless bits. All his other hairless spots that have filled in were more typical of being on concrete too long or in the case of his neck, of having a tight chain wrapped around him.
Now, having said all this, of course he still may have Leish and that he will continue to need his low doses of Allopurinol for his whole life. That's ok too - plenty of Leish dogs live long and healthy lives. But I'm just so thrilled that (1) he not only presents as a healthy pup but IS a healthy pup and (2) he has a chance - even if it's just a small one - to kick the Leish label out of his doggie life for good.
Happy dance, happy dance!
xxx
