GIDEON UPDATE Ok, wow. This has been one emotional roller coaster week. Im physically and mentally exhausted, but feeling hopeful. This morning we took Gideon to Animal Specialty and Emergency Center (ASEC) to meet with an internal medicine specialist (Dr. Travetti) and a surgeon (Dr. Balfour). When Gideon saw me, he gave me QUITE the welcome!! Full blown kisses, wiggles, and smiles. He definitely is feeling better than he was last weekend!! Im not a doctor, but I truly believe that being OFF the antibiotics and Ivermectin is helping his spirit as well as his body. His paws look somewhat better (not a ton) and his blood work looks a bit better. You can tell he has more energy and is more there. We spent more than 90 minutes discussing Gideons medical situation and examining him. There is still a major question as to WHY he isnt recovering. Is there an autoimmune disease? Is there cancer? Or is it at all possible that these dermatological issues will just take THAT MUCH time? So, we put together a plan: Because his body is responding well to the current treatment (just soaking his paws and flushing his penis), we are going to stick with it for the next week. The hope is that this will clear up his topical infections as much as possible. Then, next Friday, Gideon will go under anesthesia and they will perform biopsies that will provide the answers (or lack of answers) we need. We HAVE to do this to ensure we are on course. They will also run more in depth blood work at that time. Again, the hope is that doing this in a week, Gideon will be as healthy as possible and we will get the clearest results. Dr. Balfour will also perform surgery on Gideons penis at that time. To put it in basic terms - his lipstick is stuck out leaving him vulnerable to infection. This is also quite uncomfortable for him to live with. So, we are surgically going to put the lipstick back in and tighten things up. Recovery is quick for this procedure and gives him a better chance at healthy living. We are also concerned about his mental state as I mentioned before. Hes not having normal dog reactions when hes nervous about real life situations and it makes him a little unpredictable (but thus far controllable). The question is: Is this from being sick?? From being abused?? We dont know. Everyone has an opinion on this, but the only thing we all agree on is that it isnt his fault. So, what do we do? I look at it this way: When the body is sick and hurts, the mind is effected. I can personally attest to this with my chronic conditions. Because of this, we need to try our best to get his body healthy. YES, we need to make his mind and soul happy at the same time, but to REALLY get to the core of his behavior, his body needs to be strong. Were doing our research and trying to find the right behavior specialists/trainers to talk to about this. Its a difficult process to be going through because we dont want to do anything that will negatively effect him. Sadly, its even more difficult simply BECAUSE he is a pit bull and society holds such a negative stigma regarding the breed. We really have to be careful. For Gideon and for Pit Bulls everywhere. We are cautiously optimistic that Gideon can get healthy enough to even really discuss his mental state. For now, we are taking it one step at a time, doing our best to have faith and arming ourselves with a group of seriously smart people who understand medicine and behavior in dogs. Thank you for having faith in Gideon and in what we do. Your support, and your donations are helping more than you know. While this is emotionally and physically exhausting to go through, having your financial support and kind words has made it so much easier. xo Annie Hart billfoundation.org youtu.be/O0IqNFsbusc
Posted on: Fri, 02 May 2014 20:49:01 +0000
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