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nathan's struggles and triumphs

a nathan update

it's been a few years since my last entry about nathan's trials and i'm happy to report for the past month he's been in exceptional health.

over a year ago, we had to wean him off the steroids that were maintaining the auto-immune deficiency in his joints because they were causing weight-gain and aggression among other awful side-effects. our terrific doc at the AMC suggested a drug that is originally for human chemotherapy patients (i have to wear latex gloves when handling it) but it's amazing. his weight and attitude went back to normal and, incredibly, there are no side effects from the drug. we have to stay on top of the odd schedule to give him the pill - but as long as we do - nathan is doing great with it.
he had a relapse with the punctate keriatitis (the auto-immune deficiency in his eyes) but his medication was altered and it is being maintained again as well - adding to his meds calendar.

within the last few weeks, he has had raised spirits and we have been able to walk him all the way to fort greene park. something we haven't had the pleasure of doing since he was a puppy. his hindquarters are still small compared to the rest of him, but he has gained some muscle mass in them recently and i see him getting stronger. now our big project is to re-socialize him. he has a lot of trauma from his numerous medical experiences and it has affected his behavior towards new people and animals. nathan, J and i, all, need to work on our behavior in public situations after so many years of being fearful and over-protective. but it's exciting to think that this is possible now. we thought we would have to live a certain lifestyle with nathan for the remainder of his lifespan - but all of a sudden he seems more recovered than ever.

living with a special needs dog

greetings. this is my first diary entry for nathan and i'm sorry it won't be more silly or bright, but i thought it important to share what little nathan and J and i have gone through from september 2oo5 through the present (may 2006), in case anyone may have to go through a similar ordeal(s). i know we didn't have anyone to talk to that seemed to understand.

in late september/early october 2005, nathan suffered (his first and hopefully last) herniated disc. it was sudden, but easy to diagnose from home because he had absolutely every symptom in the list of our "dachshunds for dummies" book. we chose surgery and he recovered well, albeit with a very slight limp in hind quarters. we thought we had been good dachshund owners before this, but we realized that there was more we could do for prevention of this happening again. before, we had allowed him to choose not to use the ramp to get up to the couch before - he would randomly decide he preferred to jump. now we have to teach him he does not get to choose, the new rules of the house are use the ramp or sit patiently until someone picks him up. we live on the third floor and though there is an elevator, i prefer using stairs for my own health and was always diligent about carrying nathan up and down, however, i 'd let take the two steps from the front door to the outside. no more. every little thing we thought wouldn't make a difference we patiently trained nathan out of. he didn't like the changing of the rules (i think more because he loves habit than he cared what the rules were), but we've managed to do it. we designed a ramp to custom fit the bed and had it made a foam store in manhattan. we had to buy more rugs to cover almost all our wood floors and had to block off the kitchen entirely with it's slippery floor (very much to his dismay - it is, after all, an important dog job to clean the kitchen floor) .

nathan is only three years old and has already suffered through the cure of two surgeries. my husband and i have made the decision - no more. it's feels like nathan has been to the vet as much as he's at home. i can't even imagine what it's like for him. this past surgery he bit a vet and now must be muzzled when we see the doctors.

with 2006 - the year of the dog, no less - on it's way i was feeling positive it would be nathan's year to be healthy and happy. but the first thing we did on new year's day was rush nathan to the emergency vet, the AMC in manhattan, with what we suspected was anopther herniated disc. it was a miserable way to start the the year. we put nathan on meds and crate rest, but he felt so bad we didn't even have to close the crate door. that's were he put himself. he wasn't interested in anything. soon, that included food and water. also, he developed a perpetual elevated temperature. we were panicked and spent every minute trying help nathan when we weren't working. after several days of not eating and, worse, not drinking, we took him back to the AMC. i was terrified he was dehydrated. we feared the worst; that even if they convinced us to do more surgery, that he was way too sick to operate on. to shorten the story, it took the entire month of january, a mistake by AMC, a week hospitalized, tick titers, a joint tap and spinal tap to figure out he has another auto-immune disease, this one in his joints (he already has a dachshund specific auto-immune disease in his eyes that makes him prone to eye ulcers - but we had controlled that the previous year). after a month long diagnosis, we now had more months of cure, primarily steroids, that he is still being weaned off of currently.

he is doing well overall. he went from 14-15 lbs. in december to 10 lbs. in january and i think he's close to 16 lbs. currently. we are still working on regaining lost muscle mass in his hinds legs and since he's feeling in better spirits, trying to find ways to play with him that don't require the showing off of crazy agility he used to have. no more dog parks or walks around the neighborhood, possibly ever. but, for now, we have our sweet pup back and he seems happy just to chill at home with us and the occaisional visitor(s). the situation's not over yet. but that's just life, i guess.

if you have a dachshund and are worried about back problems, there is an excellent blog you should check out: www.dodgerslist.com