My Slush Puppy's Op

[MissV]

So - little Slush Puppy went in for her op today... 6 months old today and her gift from me is to get spade!! How crap is that? I feel sick to my stomach. I dropped her off this morning and she looked at me when I handed her over to the vet and scrambled to try get to me like, "where are you going, why are you LEAVING MEEEE??"
i got in my car and just sat there sobbing like some stupid little girl for a minute before logic took over and slapped me silly with the notion of "this is a standard procedure, it happens everyday, GET OVER IT".

Came to work, cant work... cant stop thinking about my special puppy.
Hope she's ok.
Cant wait to pick her up.

On top of everything that she's going through, I noticed a wierd blood mark on her chest the other day. Looks like a crusty bruise? Maybe a hotspot? Its gotten larger. And this morning, i noticed on her snout, the hair seems to be falling off?! What is going on with her?!?! Could she have picked up mange?!
Ask the vet to check it out while she was under.

My heart bleeds.

[Judy Fox]

Oh dear - it is a horrid time but she will soon be ok.

[Cocoa]

I'm sure she'll be fine, keep us posted. Hot spots and skin issues are such a worry for our furbabies.

[cherriemater]

Lots of warm {\o/} hugs to you and purple kisses from the boys!!!! Hang in there.

[bellachow]

Yep, 'hang in there' is great advice. I just went thru the same thing myself and was the same way. Then Bella came home & got an infection/fever and I REALLY felt like crap for taking her. But she got over it and 2 weeks later is back to her ususual bossy self

[Auddymay]

Really, the best gift for her! This too shall pass, but platitudes do nothing for your anxiety, do they...

[Sirchow]

Hope all is well and you got some idea of what the skin problem is as well.

[MissV]

Well, the op went fine. She's recovering well... But she was diagnosed with demodetic mange. Im so angry with the people that sold her to us, and Im angry and upset with everything in general... The vet says we need to get her shaved in 10days so we can begin the weekly dips. He says if she reacts badly to the med in the dip, then we might be in trouble. Im NOT going to lose my dog over this. She's my baby and I'll frigging jump hoops for her. Has anyone heard of, or know if those iver-something-or-other injections are safe for chows? Vet said if the dips don't work, we'll have to start with the injections but he said the risks are quite high.. Has anyone here ever had this problem before? Am I losing sleep for nothing? Can my pup pull through? I feel like Im losing my mind!!!

[BeckiHutton]

Hope she will be OK... you need to do your best to stop her from scratching and chewing herself, dogs are terrible for doing this, and it makes it so much worse. I have never heard of the injections, but just stay positive and hope that the dip works. Please look into getting insurance for her as well. If I hadn't had insurance for lily, my bill would have been over £1500. Even if you don't use it, it is worth having it, just in case

[MissV]

I think you may be onto something there Becky. I think i should defy look into some kind of pet insurance for her. Im just blessed that i had cash for all of this now because since before we got her i started the slush-fund with my boyfriend and we put aside cash for her every month.

[Grab]

You should not have to shave her for the dips, if they take a bit of extra time, the water will saturate through her fur. I've also never heard of Chows having issues with ivermectin injections.
Having had her spayed may have helped prevent it becoming more serious..it seems demodex dogs can have flare ups around their cycles.

[MissV]

thanks for the advice... and thanks for the heads up on the injections. I'm going to be dipping her myself... so its nice to know that if the meds the vet gave me dont work that i can always go for the injections.
The anti-biotics he gave me to cure the secondary infections coming in from the sores all over her legs and chest have worked wonders - she's harldy eating herself anymore. We just need to finish the course and then i can commence dipping.
Are you sure i dont need to get her clipped just a bit? The vet recommended it...?

[TyChowgirl]

This may be totally unrelated, but I noticed a while back you said the best food they have available to you was Hill's. And another person commented that it gave their chow hot spots. I can say that I had Ty on it thinking it was a good food and he was biting the same areas you mentioned A LOT to where there was no fur on the underside from his tummy, to the inside of his back legs (and the inside of his front legs for some reason). Ever since we switched foods and put him on a fish oil tablet once a day I rarely see him nipping himself and the fur is growing back. No signs of sores or irritated skin. I never changed the protein either, he's always been on chicken. Anyways, I don't know if it's a connection between chows and hill's, but you can try it and see how she does. Just an observation. Hope your chowlie gets better!

[MissV]

Hey! Yea, hills is the best we get here maybe you're right about the food too. I have started to cook for her now and feed some more raw foods, so maybe its all contributing to the problem. Looking forward to a fixed puppy! I can't thank everyone enough for all the good advice and well wishes. Something tells me only the best people in the world choose chows

[bellachow]

As to the food: Do research at your pet store or grocery store...dont look at the brand, look at the ingredients. The research I did said that food made without glutens are better for dogs with allergies since glutens are just fillers. I was amazed at the number of dog foods with glutens and even more amazed at the supposedly 'high quality' foods that have them.

As to the mange: Our very first chow had mange. We did not shave or clip him at all. I was just very careful to completely soak him with the dip. It is not an easy feat because that stuff stinks and will sting if there are any open sores but it can be done. I recommend you get help...4 hands are better than 2.

[MissV]

aaah! Its nice to know someone else struggled with mange! Did you manage to get rid of easily enough? Was the dip effective?
I'm going to take your advice and not clip her for now and just try to soak the dip through. Shes not a very long haired chow, so hopefully it wont be that much of a mission.
I do live with my boyfriend (of 7 years!) so he will be the extra set of hands that i need for dipping! We bought one of those plastic baby swimming pools, and im just waiting for her to get her stitches removed before we start.

*shoo* fun times ahead!
Heres a pic that i took of Slush after this mornings walkies

[cherriemater]

What a HAPPY HAPPY boy!!! Such a wonderful happy face!!!

[Blackbear]

Within a couple of weeks of feeding our boy Hills he broke out in hot spots. We now feed him Hollistic anchovy and sardine.

[bellachow]

Stuggled? thats a definate 'Yes'. Not only did Belvedere have mange, he had ear mites which caused my husband to have an allergic reaction. So we had to do the dipping but also had to wash anything he had possibly came in contact with in the house...UGH! But the dips did work for us.

One important point..be careful around her eyes and do her face last. If you use a big sponge you can get alot of the dip on her back then wring it out you can go around her face without getting it in her eyes.

[MissV]

thanks bella for the tips! Sorry you had such troubles with your chow! I'm glad you didnt give up tho
I'm going to take all your advice to task when i start the dipping. Will let you know how it goes!
How often did you go to the vet for skin samples?

[MissV]

hey everyone.
Just thought id post this here because my heart is pretty broken up over all the pain my puppy has been going through.
We started the dips for the mange this past Sat. What a drama. Puppy was dipped and proceeded to sleep for the rest of the day, only waking up to vomit. She couldnt even get up. She didnt eat for almost 2 solid days and her mange wounds were just pouring blood everywhere.
We couldnt even pet her She wouldnt let us. She didnt want to go for walkies, didnt want to do anything.
My house looked like a blood bath.

I called the vet promptly on Tuesday morning only as emercency vets here are crap and Monday was a public holiday.
Pup is now on another 2 and a half week course of anti-biotics and 2 weeks of steriods. *sigh*

Seeing my pup so down is breaking my heart.
She's too wonderful to have to go through all of this.
I only pray that she will pull through and that her hair grows back on all her "owie"-mange patches.

Holding thumbs for the next dip this weekend. Hopefully it will go much, much better and wont cause any bleeding.
Hope everyone had a peaceful xmas and a good start to the year.
Much loves.