My best friend

It seems that Chale is destined to spend a lot of time at the vet. When I first adopted him in 2001 we went all of two months before our first emergency trip to the vet. He had scratched himself raw and caused a skin infection. Chale was picked up as a stray when he was about 9 months old. Who knows how often he was able to eat, what he ate or if he had to fight for his food when he was living on the streets. I hope he wasn't living that way for very long and try not to think of what cruelty he might have been exposed to at the hands of humans and other animals. The vet said that it is common for dogs that have had a poor diet as puppies to develop food sensitivities once they are on a regular diet.


I have tried several different diets on Chale over the years to try and determine his food allergies. I even made his food for several months but didn't see enough of a difference to make the change for good. It was around this time that I discovered The Whole Dog Journal which has been a great resource for all things dog over the years. It is a great resource for natural and traditional pet health care along with tips on training, toys and other important dog issues.


When the food didn't prove to the be the cause of Chale's allergies, we went to see a canine allergist. As if the 90 minute drive each way wasn't stressful enough, having Chale's side shaved and comforting him while they tested several different common allergens with the standard pin prick test just sucked. Of course Chale was allergic to just about everything (including my cat Tiger). So they mixed up a serum for us and I started to give Chale shots twice a week. This actually worked. After about 6 months his skin allergies were in control and we were able to go through a year with only 1-2 bad hot spots. We still have occasional flare ups but nothing serious.

It was pretty clear when I first took Chale home that he had hip displaysia. This was confirmed by x-rays when he was 2 years old. In addition to the hip displaysia, Chale has a deformity in his front legs where he walks on his wrists instead of on the tips of his toes. This can be the result of being in a cage and standing in the same position for a long time, leading to the deterioration of those muscles, having those bones broken as a puppy and never allowing them to fully heal (unlikely for both legs to be like this unless he was thrown from a car or other situation where he would have broken both wrists at the same time) or it can just be a genetic defect.

Initially I thought that Chale couldn't jump into my truck or climb up the stairs because of how malnourished he had been (a 45 pound German Shepherd is a sad thing) but it was clear that wasn't the reason. I started him on glucosamine and other joint care supplements and saw a dramatic change almost immediately. It only took a month for his weight and strength to improve and for him to act like a normal goofy dog with a little hitch in his step.

In 2004 Chale started having seizures. We immediately started him on anti-seizure prescription medicines and tried several diet changes (including me making his food again). Once again, the changes in his diet didn't appear to have an effect on his medical issues. We did settle on a single protein, single carb diet and have stuck with that since it has improved his coat. I'm happy to say that after years of trying different prescription and natural drugs we finally managed to find the right balance and have been seizure free since March 2008.

We started acupuncture and chiropractic care at the end of 2004 to help with his seizures and orthopedic problems. We dropped the chiropractic after 6 months because Chale didn't like it but have continued the acupuncture every 2-6 weeks (depending on how he's feeling) since then. I don't know if acupuncture would work on all dogs but it gives Chale a burst of energy after every treatment and improves his lameness in his bad hip.

Our holistic vet added underwater treadmill therapy to their practice at the end of 2007 and we signed up for it immediately. For those that are not familiar, the underwater treadmill is a great rehab tool for dogs who have had surgery or who, like Chale, have orthopaedic problems. A lot of dog owners also use it to strengthen their dog athletes between agility and other joint intensive activities. By adjusting the depth of the water, the therapist can take weight off the dog and make it easier for him to walk or add resistance to build muscle. We have seen dogs with degenerative myelopathy and other permanent disabilities walk on the underwater treadmill after not being able to walk for years. It's a pretty cool thing. We get 200 inches of snow most winters in Syracuse so we aren't able to be as active as we'd like in the winter months. We do the underwater treadmill every couple weeks during the winter to keep his strength up. I love it when they measure Chale's hips and we see that he has gained or maintained his muscle mass as he has gotten older.

We went through Lyme disease last year (no symptoms just a detection and a month on antibiotics) and a urinary tract infection earlier this year (no symptoms after three days on medicine) but, despite his medical issues, Chale has led a relatively normal, full and happy life during the 7.5 years that he has been in my life. So we were shocked to find his platelet count extremely low at his vet visit a couple of weeks ago. We eliminated most diseases through testing and are left with the likelihood of Cancer or some other serious immune disease.

We immediately started Chale on steroids to stall the growth of any tumors that might be there and to build up his immune system and antibiotics to fight off any infection. The steroids make Chale extremely thirsty which leads to him having to go to bathroom much more frequently. Luckily I'm already an insomniac and can take him out at 3 in the morning after he's emptied his water bowl for the 4th time. We go in today for the third set of blood tests in less than two weeks to see if his platelet count is improving. Ideally, we will be able to start weening him off the steroids once his platelet count gets back to a healthier level. We will also start him on a couple of natural products that have proven to be successful in other immune compromised dogs.

Once I started doing research, I realized that about 50% of elderly dogs and cats will be diagnosed with Cancer. I would hope that such statistics would make this a national health priority, much like Cancer is in the human population, but I rarely hear anything about it. I have had a couple other friends who have lost their dogs to Cancer recently but I didn't realize it had become such an epidemic.

Realistically, Chale is 8.5 years old and we aren't going to put him through anything that will reduce the quality of his life like chemotherapy, radiation or surgery. The statistics give an average life expectancy of 19 days to a year with or without treatment. It makes me sad when I read the stories about dogs who have gone through aggressive treatments only to die immediately after. Chale has no symptoms at this point so his life hasn't changed except for the additional bathroom visits and the frequent blood tests which should level off soon. Most big dogs live to be 10-12 years old so I would consider my boy to have had a full life no matter how much time he has left.

Insomniac Cafe

I have never been much of a sleeper. Even as a child, I had problems sleeping for more than a few hours at a time. I think I can blame half of it on situations that I have been placed in and the other half on bad genes.

My father was diagnosed with MS when I was 1 year old. At a very young age I realized that this disease was going to kill him at an early age. We had nurses in our house all the time and made several scheduled and emergency visits to the hospital. As his disease progressed, he became more dependent on my mother and I to take care of him. I remember several times when my mother woke me up in the middle of the night to call 911 or to wake my brother up so we could go to the hospital. Eventually, I became paranoid that I was going to wake up one morning and find my father dead. So pushing these thoughts out of my head so I could sleep became increasingly difficult over the years. I started keeping a journal when I was 5 which helped me cope with the stresses of having a chronically ill father and all that came along with it but it didn't alleviate my sleep problems.

I was always a hyperactive child. Maybe if my parents had enrolled me in more activities I would have had an outlet for my energy and started to sleep. But my mother worked full time and had to deal with the stress of raising my brother and I and having a chronically ill husband so she just didn't notice. I had tons of books, a TV and a phone in my room and enough toys to keep my occupied all night while my parents slept. My brother and my mother attended therapy religiously for most of my childhood so I'm not sure why professional help was never sought out for my sleeping problems. I suspect that because my insomnia didn't lead to serious behavior problems, like my brother had, she didn't feel it was that big of a deal.

Very early on my lack of sleep helped me develop a strange cult following. At every sleep over, camping trip, school trip, I was the last one asleep and the first one awake. I liked this attention a lot because I was very insecure and wanted everyone to like me. I found myself obsessing over maintaining this trend. I don't think I intentionally didn't sleep but by worrying about maintaining this image I definitely made the problem worse.

By the time I went away to college at 18, I was a severe insomniac. Sometimes I would struggle to get 2 hours of a sleep a night. My mother got me these herbal sleeping pills that she heard were very effective but they didn't work for me. I went from the minimum recommended dose of 2 pills per night to an unhealthy 8 pills a night and still couldn't sleep. My insomnia allowed me to be very active in sports and clubs in college in addition to carrying my major and two minors and partying every night. It was probably the most unhealthy time of my life.

In 2001 I became a homeowner for the first time, one year after I got my first real job after college. Within 2 weeks I had adopted a wonderful German shepherd from the local Humane Society. The Humane Society suspected that Chale (pronounced like Charlie without the R) had been thrown out by a local breeder because of his obvious hip displaysia. He was 45 pounds and about nine months old when they picked him up as a stray. I grew up with a German shepherd (Rin Tin Tin, I know not original) who lived to the ripe old age of 12. He had hip displaysia and still managed to live a full and wonderful life so I knew Chale wouldn't be that much of a challenge.

Three years later my wonderful dog and I had settled into a nice routine. He was a healthy 85 lbs and the frequent target of rough play from my 6 year old tabby cat Tiger. One morning when I was walking Chale he started having a seizure. It was the most terrifying moment of my life. He was diagnosed with epilepsy and put on medication. Occasionally I would come home from work and find evidence that he had a seizure while I was gone. I felt very guilty when I left the house because I feared he might be dead when I got home. Very quickly I noticed a pattern with his seizures and was able to anticipate when they would happen within a few days of the actual date.

He usually had seizures very early in the morning or late at night. The seizures were very loud and woke me up violently whenever they happened. I would get up several times a night whenever Chale rolled over or did the normal things a dog does at night because I was terrified that he was having a seizure. Luckily, I have been blessed with having "dog people" as bosses at work and they allowed me to use my sick time to stay home with Chale on particularly difficult days. I can't count the number of times I fell asleep next to him on his dog bed or in the corner of the room on the floor. I usually passed out from exhaustion and woke up dazed and not completely sure how I ended up where I was.

Through years of trial and error and trying several traditional and alternative treatments, I am happy to say that Chale has been seizure free for over a year now. But that hasn't helped my sleep deprivation problems. I still jump out of bed every time he moves. My husband (who joined our crazy household in 2006) is very good at telling me "He's okay.", "He's just dreaming"; etc. when I jump out of bed but I can't undo these nervous habits that I have developed.

I have turned Chale into a bit of an insomniac as well. He is so used to getting up early with me that he gets up in the middle of the night expecting to watch a movie or go outside because that is what we had done for years when he was really sick. This morning I got the "doggy stare" at 2:45 am. Chale (now a thick 110 lbs due to the seizure medicine) is sitting at my feet as I click away like we have done on so many other mornings. Unlike him I don't get to sleep on the couch all day to make up for the interruption in sleep.

As I have gotten older I learned that my mother cannot sleep without the TV. The only way she can push all the stressful thoughts out of her head is to fill it with All in the Family re-runs until she passes out. I have also learned that my mother's side of the family has a history of metabolic disorders that can cause sleep problems. I have been tested for everything and haven't been diagnosed with anything that requires medical treatment. I have been told that I have a couple of "syndromes", which have no treatment but have many of the same symptoms as the full blown diseases that they could develop into as I get older. This, of course is no consolation to me.

I have not given up hope and will continue to try different alternative treatments that I have read about in magazines and on the Internet but I suspect that I will suffer from these problems for another 33 years.