Dog swollen eye

[ShrekDawg]

Apparently it's treatable, and even curable if you catch it early, with prednisone. Just a few months maybe and his hasnt progressed to his jaws yet. Although a few people/things i found say the long term high dosage of prednisone is a concern and can be worse and there are alternative treatments like different drugs but also mostly holistic/natural stuff like one said Chinese herbs and plant sterols and one said some other herb blends. Both also mentioned raw feeeding. And I've seen some say no more vaccines ever too so I don't know what to do or believe lol both those seem extreme and he's also on good quality grain free kibble and most of the good ones have minimal fillers and stuff and has always done great. And a dog his size or needs like 2-3 pounds of food daily so raw feeding him would cost like $300 a month haha we definitely can't afford that. But there is something to be said for avoiding strong meds but idk. I'd rather see how he does on them before deciding. The other interesting thing is it can be caused or itself cause eye problems. So maybe it was triggered by that. I mostly found info on MMM (Mascitory Muscular Myositis) but yeah. It's interesting, the jaw muscles are a completely different protein found nowhere else in the body and can look similar to bacteria protein so the body attacks itself. It's an autoimmune disorder. But of course Gator's jaws have not been affected yet

 

[cassie]

Do what the vet says. Remember. Just because something is "natural" it does not mean that it is either safe or effective. If the dog is underweight, you can give him some kidney fat. A piece about the size of a walnut daily should do it. Kidney fat is white, firm,easy to handle, and dogs love it. You should be able to get it at a butcher shop. It is pure energy so it doesn't take much. Ask me how I know this.

 

[ShrekDawg]

Yeah, I would wait and see for sure. I think you should take it up again! I became interested when I joined a dog blog and they got me interested in better foods and such. I haven't been on there in over a year or two but that started it. The cat especially needed it cause she was on Meow Mix and hungry all the time and just not doing great. Now I read ingredients on everything and protein and fat levels too. I don't obsess over that but for instance, a lot of foods are oddly like 24% protein which is too low for Gator, even 26% is pushing it haha so I try to keep him around 28% and sometimes higher or lower. And I try not to go above 20% fat

Yeah, Fromm is pretty good but I didn't like that they had cheese and some weird ingredients in the foods. We tried it once. I think we tried Gold. I heard that Gold is the best or only good one but idk. My uncle feeds Fromm to his ridgebacks and now my grandparents terrier mix and they do great. He doesn't feed Gold though. What Earthborn did you feed? I heard (againt this is mostly from the dog ppl ha) that Primitive Natural is the best one and the one we tried. I liked it and tried it for the cat too (she loved it) but idk. We have tried 4 Health too and I like the grain free especially duck and sweet potato. We have also tried Wellness CORE, Merrick, Zignature, Nutrisource, Nutrisca/DogsWell, Canidae (he had lower energy on this but many dogs thrive), Evolve, Horizon Pulsar, Pure Balance from Walmart (actually really good believe it or not), Victor and more. Horizon is Canadian like Acana and Orijen so might be good if you want a little higher standards cheaper. We also tried Rachel Ray. Horizon also makes a Legacy line, a little more expensive but a little bit better quality than Pulsar but I haven't tried it. I loved all of them haha we also have the cat on Hi-Tek Naturals right now and they make a dog version. They have I think 3 grain free flavors and they sell big breeder bags on Chewy but we have not tried it yet.

Gator loved Wellness but it can be expensive. Merrick was good but was bought out by Purina a couple years ago if that bothers you.

I love Nutrisource and Zignature and you get bigger bag sizes for the price. Zignature can be a little pricy though but they have tons of flavors and it's good for dogs with allergies cause they have like none of the common allergens.

Victor is an excellent food and is mostly meat rather than plants but Gator stopped eating it. He loved it at first but then he tried something he liked better LOL but it's still a good food

Soooo yeah thats my list

 

[ShrekDawg]

Do what the vet says. Remember. Just because something is "natural" it does not mean that it is either safe or effective. If the dog is underweight, you can give him some kidney fat. A piece about the size of a walnut daily should do it. Kidney fat is white, firm,easy to handle, and dogs love it. You should be able to get it at a butcher shop. It is pure energy so it doesn't take much. Ask me how I know this.

Yeah, I think we'll just do the drugs but the vet didn't really know that much about it either and was going to research also. And normally I don't too much stock into those "natural" things but the only reason I did this time was because these ones have had success and cured several dogs with their methods. Same disorder. So it is interesting to me and would possibly be worth considering. However, unlike some of these people who go to it first, I think I will only try it IF the drugs do not work. Plus I don't like the idea of never vaccinating again and feeding raw his entire life. Like I mentioned, raw would be too expensive for his size, but no vaccines? Isn't that illegal? Maybe they only do rabies? I have heard some people do titers though to test the level of antibodies in the body before vaccinating. Apparently you don't really need to vaccinate as often as they usually do. But Gator's always been healthy anyway. I do find it really interesting though that these ones work and if that's the casw, why is the other stuff cited as the only option?

Anyway, he seems to be inproving already and thanks, I'll look for the kidney fat

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

One of my dogs has an autoimmune disease call pemphigas, could be spelled wrong, anyways it causes her to pick obsessively at her parts, and for a while her nose was slowly eroding. She was prednisone at a low dose for about 3 years before I stopped for a while, she has gone back to a bit of licking but her nose remains fine, so for now she is off of them. She is much happier off of them I think, but if necessary she would go back on them. So I have had dogs on it long term and they do okay at a low dose.

My dogs flare up seemed triggered by vaccines, I no longer vaccinate on schedule, and she will only get rabies from now on at 10 years old. I vaccinate those over 2 years every 3 years until 8 than quit, we are low risk here.

Thanks for the food recommendations, I will look I into them more.

 

[Nifty-Chicken]

And to lighten the mood of my paranoia/him being sick (though he seems to be feeling a little better), here's puppy pictures lol I meant to post them earlier but forgot aha

These pics are adorable!

 

[ShrekDawg]

These pics are adorable!

Thanks Nifty!