The First Signs
When Sophie started deteriorating, I had no idea what they’d find. My bouncy, vibrant, puppy-like 13 year-old, all of a sudden started having head tremors, looking at me like, “Mom, something’s wrong and I’m not understanding.” Even as a natural-solutions pet health coach, I knew we should see the vet, and I had Sophie’s blood work done. It had been a while and I wanted to see if anything came up that could shed light on what was going on. This was April 9th.
I’m documenting Sophie and my journey here, because sharing with my community helps ease some of the heartache of what going through something like this creates, and as a coach and teacher, I want to use our experience as an opportunity for us all to learn together. We are not the only ones going through this, and hopefully, our story can shed some light for others.
When Your Dog Develops Tremors
10 days. Ten days is all it took for our world to shatter. That one tremor started us down this rabbit hole of discovery.
Sophie’s bloods showed nothing remarkable, except for a couple of elevated values that could mean she was at the early stages of fighting something. Raised eosinophil levels, raised white blood cell count in her urine, raised BUN levels, raised BUN/Creatinine levels. None extraordinarily high. Our primary vet was unfazed.
I called the renowned veterinary school, Texas A&M, and made an appointment with their neurology department for the following week, the earliest appointment. At this time, it was my primary concern; did my dog have some infection in her brain? A tumor? I was driven to find out. Little did I know, I was focusing on the wrong organ.
Getting a Complementary Practitioner Involved
I’m grateful that I thought to reach out to an integrative/homeopathic vet, Dr. Adriana Sagrera. I’d been introduced to her by a mutual friend, retired homeopathic veterinarian, Dr. Christina Chambreau. Dr. Sagrera started helping me with Sophie’s symptoms.
At first, based on the elevated blood values, preceding cough and a bout of diarrhea Sophie had, and on past cases she had seen, Dr. Sagrera thought maybe Sophie had contracted a parasitic or fungal infection that had reached her brain, causing the tremors. She had seen this in toxoplasmosis and neospora cases, and fungals like Cryptococcus, Candida, Coccidioides and Histoplasma, which did have a presence in Texas, where we live.
We both decided it would be a good idea to have Sophie texted for toxoplasmosis. It would take a week to get the results. In the meantime, in case she was brewing a nasty infection in the brain where time would not be our friend, I started her on Clyndamycin, an antibiotic Dr. Sagrera had had success with for these types of infections.
Dr. Sagrera and I also tried Sophie on the homeopathic remedy Mercurius, which has tremors as a key symptom. With homeopathy, you try to match the symptoms with the remedy as best you can and see if it resonates. She had what’s called an aggravation, where her symptoms got worse (sometimes this happens before they get better) and a day after her 4th and final dose, she woke up and was swaying and leaning. Not good. We antidoted the Merc (you can do this with homeopathic remedies by smelling a strong smell – Vick’s Vapo-Rub is always a good one), and the swaying stopped.
Knowing When To Go To the ER
However, her vital force, that life force we see and feel in our animals, was very low and it was definitely time to take her to the ER. That was Wednesday, April 19th.
From 9:30am – 6pm, we were between two different veterinary ER practices in Austin.
At Pet Specialists, she had a heart and lung x-ray to see if there were any changes in her lungs from an infection and her heart, because I told them Sophie had been diagnosed in 2019 with a Grade 3 heart murmur. Her ER vet thought it had progressed to a Grade 5 out of 6 and was concerned. Kudos to Dr. Eliza Wiley.
Those x-rays shed the first real light on Sophie’s condition. She had a large and abnormally shaped heart and they thought maybe there was a cardiac aneurism present. That scared the bejesus out of me. We were referred to a cardiologist at Austin Veterinary Emergency & Specialty, and if we could get there fast enough, she might be able to see us that day. We high-tailed it to the car. That was 2pm.
The Diagnosis
Sophie was shuttled into the back when we arrived to have her vitals taken and be ready for an examination by cardiologist, Dr. Julie Andrie of CVCA NW Austin. Then, we waited. After about 3 hours during which Sophie was seen, I got the call on my cell. Dr. Andrie sounded very grave.
Sophie was in Congestive Heart Failure (CHF). Her heart’s left side had failed; her right was very enlarged and full of pressure trying to do the work for both sides of the heart. Her abdomen had fluid. Her mitral valves were very leaky and the artery walls around them were very thickened. It was strongly advised she get on heart meds immediately.
What goes through our minds when we hear bad news about our beloved pet’s health is different for each of us. We may think about the mortality of this wonderful creature we’ve gone through so much with, lived so much life with. We may think about what we could’ve done better. We may start shoring our own hearts up for the direct hit we feel is coming. I did all of this in a matter of seconds.
And, as a Pet Health Coach who spends hours pouring over the latest data on natural healing and is fortunate to have amazing mentors and masters in my life teaching and guiding me, I thought, how the heck could this have happened? It sounds stupid; dis-ease can happen to anyone. But, it gnawed at me. I’m so conscious about everything I give them. Sophie had been eating raw since she was about 1. As I learned more over the years, I incorporated that into my care of her and all my animals. So, how the heck did this happen?
Have you ever felt that pet parent guilt?
In my next post, I’ll share the conventional meets complementary plan created for Sophie. It takes a village – the cardiologist, Dr. Andrie, Dr. Sagrera and another vet I’ll reveal, one mentored and recommended by the holistic vet icon, Dr. Marty Goldstein, my former vet and a friend, who helped bring her into our circle.
To their best health ever.
Jod…OMG. We must talk. I can only marine what you’re going through. And lose the guilt. You are the best pet mom I’ve ever known.
Love you, Barb and thank you so much for the kind, supportive words. Yes, let’s definitely talk. I’ll fill you in.
Jody- thanks for sharing this. It’s so helpful. My dog has had a giant murmur forever which progressed and he has an enlarged heart. He sees a cardiologist regularly and is on meds and homeopathic remedies. I think CHF is the next step though I honestly expected it to have happened already and it hasn’t. He has also had a cough forever, but he’s holding steady. Thanks for sharing your journey with your beloved Sophie. And your friend, Barbara is right, no guilt. No matter how much we know or don’t know, do or don’t do, these things happen. You are an extraordinary dog mom and human being. Big hugs to you as you walk this part of your journey with Soph.
Thank you so much, Diane! I am so happy this is helpful. I’m sorry about your pup. It’s hard with them getting older. I always envisioned Sophie sailing through senior hood pretty much unscathed because she was on a great diet and great support supplements like the medicinal mushrooms, etc etc. It was a wake up call. And, you’ll see in the next post, I learned about an undiagnosed condition she may have been born with that no one every caught that definitely contributed to her heart dis-ease and other issues because of chronic inflammation. You are a great dog mom, too, and I’m sure you’re doing everything you can do provide the best care for your baby.
Jody , you are one of the most conscientious & caring people I know with your Babies ,
no guilt on your part . Prayers for both of you !
Thank you so much, Bill. That means a lot. We tend to go there and doubt ourselves when one of our own gets sick. I know the protocol this wonderful team has created is a good one and we’ll see how she does.