New Development

Later today we'll continue our Mango Minster coverage with the info on Best In Show, but this morning we have something more serious to report.

For the last few days I've noticed some troubling things going on with Samba. There was nothing major I could point to, but a feeling that something wasn't right. First I noticed that it was taking her longer to eat than normal. Usually she's the first one finished, but lately she's been one of the last.

Her right eye didn't seem to be blinking the way it should. It seemed slow to respond. The thing that bothered me most was a certain movement she made with her lower jaw. It almost looked like her teeth were chattering. At first when I noticed it, I thought it was excitement, but it's been happening more and more.

None of these things seem terribly important by themselves, but given the disease we've been dealing with, I had a nagging little voice in my head saying "Check it out". I put it off for a few days, but then decided that I'd rather have Dr B laugh at me and tell me I was seeing things, then to miss an early sign of trouble and regret it later.

This morning we paid a visit to Dr B. I felt a little silly describing the signs that were bothering me. First he looked at Samba's eyes. The left one looks pretty normal now, but the right one was doing something strange. The lower lid blinks normally, but the upper lid doesn't blink at all. The eye is moist, but we're going to start using the ointment again to keep it moist. He thinks it will come around in time.

Then Dr B examined Samba's jaw and mouth. The top jaw is doing really well, no pain and it works almost normally. The lower jaw is a different story. It's painful and the chattering is a sign of pain and weakness.

First he took blood for a CBC. We're hoping that we might be dealing with an infection and a course of antibiotics could take care of it. If her blood count is normal, then we know she's having a flare up of the MMM. For the time being we're increasing her Prednisone to get it under  control. It's not a full blown relapse because the upper jaw is still fine, but we'll have to adjust her medications and begin the decrease again. We're also looking into changing her diet, radically increasing her Omega 3s in the hopes of helping her body fight off the disease.

We knew this was a chronic disease and there might be setbacks, but so far she's responded so well that we were hoping it would continue. Aside from the paralysis, this is our first major setback and I have to admit, I 'm pretty bummed about it. I'm very glad I decided to share my concerns with Dr B. He told me to trust my instincts, that what I saw was real, and we're still ahead of the disease.

We need the Power of the Paw today. Keep Samba in your thoughts this weekend as we fight to get this awful disease under control again.