Happy 1 yr with Ms Violet her annual update!!
Hi guys, I know it's been a while since our last update. Can you believe we only met this girl a year ago? She's already come so far, she went from a skeleton covered in skin to my sweet velvet 80lb.hungry baby hippo in record time with this communities help. We could not have done it without you. Violet's Heartworm FREE because of YOU guys and I still have tears thinking about how you all surrounded us and loved us through some very, very scary times.
Remember when everyone was scared to pet her at the vets office? Well, now she has friends that run to my car and love on her through the windows anytime they see me pull up with her. She loves on all the ladies especially her vet and they love her, she even won over Aubrey. She literally almost has a meltdown when she sees my mom, she loves her granny J more than ANYTHING else in this world.( No treat is better than granny, unless it's granny with a treat!)
Violet was so starved for attention that she's a complete pushover once she sees you are good and don't want to hurt her. Then, she tries to Velcro herself to you and you have no personal space unless you insist but it's all part of her training and she does perfect with me because I have boundaries but my mom is like, well she just needs yrs of all your attention and when I'm around she's gonna get it and let's Violet wallow her to death and then goes home and Violet is so sad, because grandma never says "No" and mom, unfortunately does.
My daughter and granddaughter love her but she wants to push them around sometimes too, and they have boundaries, since they learned from me so she knows she can't get away with her "love assaulting" them like granny. We see her more and know it riles her up and then she has problems breathing and it's not good for her health, it's not to be mean, its to keep her calm.
She's a big dog, my granddaughter and daughter are smaller so I encourage everyone who has large dogs to set firm boundaries and I live in a tiny house so I have to keep chaos to a minimum as much as possible. She's very tender hearted though and gets her feelings hurt with just a lower tone, or a side look and she'll go sit in her crate & sulk with her back to me for maybe 2 minutes...if she can stand it that long. Just enough to let me know that I have hurt her feelings and I should be sorry and give her a treat for it. Of course I apologize for being a jerk and she gets a little treat... I love her and she is spoiled 💕
She and I argue about her wanting to still stick her nose in absolutely ANY place it doesn't belong, so I see EXACTLY how she got the Aspergillus fumigatus and she still hasn't learned anything from it.
She still wants to smell everything in the yard, every tire on the car, and I wonder if she might have a dab of hound in her DNA because my other pitties were nosy but this girl is 20 pounds heavier and acts more like she's tracking than going out to potty. Any guesses?
Speaking of the aspergillus,
Violet's still on her aspergillus meds, I couldn't stay on the $200 per month one any longer so we are back to the lesser expensive one since they seem to have about the same results and I was recently told she will most likely be on the antifungal meds for the rest of her life which unfortunately has been cut a bit shorter because aspergillus is just almost impossible for the dog to ever completely rid itself of. It's rare and until more research is done, this is just a long journey we have no choice but go on. I can't expect the community to be able to continue to pay for the $200 a month treatment for what could be many years so I had to make it a more reasonable and responsible choice that I can pay myself and get it for her in the years ahead. She was recently diagnosed with environmental allergies in April and had to have a emergency cytopoint injection and it did help her, but again I can't afford to pay $180.00 a month on top of everything else I'm already paying for to keep her going so I'm looking for any other alternative I can find if anyone has suggestions?
The main problem is the meds in pill form commonly used to treat her allergies interfere with the antifungal and makes it where the aspergillus gets very bad again if we use any, the cytopoint has been the only one that doesn't completely stop the antifungal all together, so it works about 50%, enough she doesn't have constant running mucus from her nose but it is still lots of sneezing, wiping her nose and eyes and coughing and breathing heavily when she gets the least bit winded or even excited. However, the cytopoint worked perfectly for the environmental allergies side of it and she stopped scratching and healed up. Now I have to keep her inside except for potty breaks only.
Someone suggested sending her to a different state with less pollen and allergens but I don't have money to just up and move and I don't have anyone to take her, that I know and trust.
I'm always, always, always going to do what's best for Violet first, if someone lived in such a place and told me they were interested in her, and I verified they really were the right type of person to give her love and I knew they could afford and would see to her medical care and had a place for her to go outside and play, as much as my heart would hurt, I'd gladly do it for her. She deserves to live somewhere that she's not constantly having to be medicated and kept inside so she doesn't break out in hives and then rips and bruises her skin from scratching. I can't stand it for her and I just don't know what else I could be missing we haven't tried yet?
We still have not been able to get her aspergillus down enough to even spay her yet and I'm dreading another heat cycle. I want to get her to where she can at least get well enough for her spay and to have that torn nipple removed, but they are scared of putting her under anesthesia with the way she is currently. She was scheduled for her spay in June when that flair up happened in April and has postponed it.
I have no male dogs and I don't allow her any interactions with other animals besides my own because her immune system is just so low she can't take on anything else to fight inside her body. She can't walk to the street and back without a whole sneezing/wheezing/breathing attack when it's hot outside and I don't let her out much because of it. She's supervised on leash 24/7 outside. I feel like I gotta be missing something but idk what it is?
I've tried so many meds, supplements, and I use the pro balance sensitive skin and stomach food made with salmon and rice. I get her treats that contain no chicken and I read the labels because I got burned so many times until I started checking everything.
She's such a sweet girl, she loves learning and plays so well with the cat, and they love each other. She's not bad in the house, she's just wanting to go outside and play so bad but she wouldn't last 20 minutes until she was having a real breathing flareup and laid out trying to breath and breaking out in a red rash all over her. So her and the cat commiserate together about having to be responsible pets and stay indoors where they are safe and have plenty to eat and toys to play with and nice beds.
I found out in April, the hard way about her having Environmental Allergies because it was a nice day and she wanted to go play and I took her out and I don't think she made it 10-15 minutes before the uncontrollable sneezing and wheezing had her rolling in the grass, covered in hives, trying to scratch herself everywhere at once, dragging her butt all through the yard because she was itching so bad. Benadryl wouldn't touch it, and it became a huge mess and she looked terrible. We had to go get 5 days of antihistamine and then the cytopoint injection.
She's completely wiped out her vet fund now, she has enough for one more either cytopoint injection or spay so I have to find a way to pay for anymore cytopoint injections or I have to find a way to get her someplace else better for her. But not before she is spayed. Idk what to do?
I just take it one day at a time.I have my own health issues that are ongoing as well and I don't think I could have gotten through any of this without you guy's. You have been my support system from the very first post for her and stuck by us.
Violet's in a good place today, I just ordered her food and treats for the month, she has her aspergillus meds and I will do my best to figure it out but I just thought you'd like an update on where things are and see for yourself how she is doing.
Thank you again for everything, please have a safe and fun 4th of July weekend and know Ms Violet's going to be celebrating with her pig ear, hot dog and possibly a big rib bone. We love and appreciate you all for being here for us P and V ❤️💜
Sorry for such a long post but I wanted to give you a real update about what's going on with Violet, thanks if you actually made it to the bottom.