My Unscientific Experiment

Zenzi had surgery four weeks ago, to remove a histiocytoma from her face. That went well enough; I was glad the pathology did not show cancer.

After three weeks of healing time we were finally able to remove her cone-collar, and what a relief that was! She had adapted to it quickly as far as eating and sleeping while wearing it, but dogs are so unlike cats -- they have no built-in "radar" with which to measure the openings they wish to pass through. This deficiency is only magnified when a dog is wearing a lampshade around its head. We've all got bruises and abrasions and there are dings in my woodwork from the damned cone. We were glad to see it go.

However.

Within 24 hours of removing the protective cone, Zenzi had scratched her ears to a bloody mess. The pine pollen-count was high, then grass pollen started to spike, and even though her vet had instructed me to cycle three different antihistamines (Benedryl, Zyrtec, and Pepcid (Pepcid is an H2 antihistimine -- who knew?) and I was doing so religiously, she was still itching and trying to scratch her ears for the entire 3 weeks of cone-wearing. I should not have taken that annoying coontraption off in the first place. I medicated her ears with gentamicin and put the cone back on her.

Then I had a hair appointment.

My stylist has dreadlocks and keeps chickens in her back yard in Central Neighborhood. She is a wildcrafter and an herbalist, an activist, a traveler, a seeker, and an all around good faerie -- she is Glynda, the Witch of the North, but with scissors rather than a wand, and much earthier; she is Glynda without the distracting make-up or the cartoonish voice.

Kimberly asked about Zenzi so I told her, "Her allergies are even worse since her surgery. It's very depressing. Nothing works. I feel horrible for her. I wish I could find a holistic vet."

So Kimberly wrote down the name of a holistic vet. In light traffic his office would be 45 minutes from my house. On Monday I made an appointment for Wednesday.

On the phone, the receptionist told me that the veterinarian combines western veterinary medicine with applied kinesiology, Bach flower remedies, and acupuncture, in order to make sure that this would be okay with me. She then told me to bring samples of everything I thought Zenzi might be allergic to, including hair from my cats. Yes, I have been somewhat concerned that Zenzi might be allergic to the cats.

Tuesday at dinner I gave Zenzi the usual, ineffective, 40mg dose of Benedryl, but not the also ineffective, 20mg Pepcid. Wednesday morning I didn't give her the usual, pointless, 10mg Zyrtec. I was worried that drugs, even though they do absolutely nothing to mitigate her itching, might interfere with a good diagnosis or unnecessarily forestall the initiation of a new, hopefully better treatment. Some herbs do not combine well with some pharmaceuticals, this much I know.

Zenzi was itchy and scratching, as usual, the entire morning before her 2:00 appointment. She was calm, alert, and well-behaved in the car. During the drive I was hopeful and curious about what would transpire at our destination; I was half-expecting maybe some kind of Rastafarian Voodoo witchdoctor in flowing robes or deerskins, but when we got there I met a lab coat-clad man in his mid to late 70s who looked like a cross between Uncle Fester and Santa Claus. He was kind-eyed rather than wild-eyed, balding, pudgy, short, and wearing crazy-unkempt, snow-white mutton chops. He was slouchy and slow-moving, as if he'd spent his morning sampling horse tranquilizers, but only to ensure their safety for horses, of course.

The veterinarian didn't have a lot to say to me for what seemed like a long time, although he did ask me what was bothering my dog, which was cool, because you know how I like to talk about my dog.

I gave him a brief run-down of her past and present symptoms and explained how her vet had been treating those symptoms. I handed him our bundle of meds (current and not-so-current), toys, foods (her hydrolyzed soy kibble and some rabbit, rutebaga, and rice I had in the freezer), and material samples, including the zip-locked wad of cat fur.

The examination took much longer than I expected it to. My own monthly applied kinesiology evaluations take less than two minutes unless trouble arises. I have never been evaluated for Bach flower remedies, although I'm sure some Sweet Chestnut and Agrimony have been called for at times. It took several minutes for the vet to go through all of the Bach flowers with Zenzi. He was a bit flummoxed because she tested positive for only one: Too Easily Influenced, which I believe corresponds with Walnut, although I couldn't say for sure.

"Too easily influenced by what?" I asked. He said he had no clue and moved on to the materials I'd brought in, plus some common allergens contained in some vials he had laying around.

His collection of vials reminded me of my herbs and spices cupboard: each of us might do well to sleep with the enemy at least once every three months or so, but why bother to beat ourselves up when we can find whatever we want with minimal cussing.

The vet tested, narrowed the selection, re-tested, eliminated, and tested again.

I should explain: to test any given substance, the vet would place one hand on Zenzi's strongest pulse-point, which is on her abdomen. He then brought a substance near her withers while feeling for any change in her pulse. When Zenzi became less than cooperative, he used the pulse of his assistant while she touched Zenzi, acting as a human conduit.

No change in pulse indicates a substance has a neutral effect on her. A weakened pulse indicates a substance has a negative effect on her. A strengthened pulse indicates a substance has a positive effect on her.

Finally, after testing dozens of substances, the vet asked me if Zenzi had had fleas this spring. I told him she hadn't had fleas since her first vet visit under my care, that her monthly parasite preventive works very well. This information seemed to confuse him even more, so, he re-tested her yet again, holding a vial of dead and preserved fleas close to her body. She reacted to it profoundly -- he was not touching her abdomen when he brought the vial close, but she startled and softly vocalized. She didn't want the vial anywhere near her. It was truly, very weird.

He cleaned out her ears with a solution that looked like Windex but smelled better. We all received a warm, pale blue and ocher-tinged shower after that process. He massaged them with gentamicin, a topical antibiotic, which she seemed to thoroughly enjoy.

After asking for permission, the vet started stimulating Zenzi's acupuncture points, noting her reactions. When he finished, he asked me if he could take some of her blood. I said, "Sure." He drew some blood into a syringe. He added saline, vitamin B-12, and Lidocaine to the blood, shook it up, then asked me if he could inject the acupuncture points with the mixture. I said, "Sure." She was calm and accepting for all eight injections -- not so much as a whimper from her.

Because I've done some reading since our visit, I suspect that the veterinarian slipped Zenzi a Walnut Bach flower mickey. If so, I'm cool with that. I'm sure there are many people who would take exception on the grounds that Back flower remedies defy logic, reason, science, what-have-you. I just don't see the harm in it. I might have asked him, but it didn't occur to me at the time, only during my follow-up reading.

The vet appeared to be done and not knowing quite how to wrap things up, so I asked him, "What did you find out? What is she allergic to?"

He said, "The only allergy she shows today is an allergy to fleas, a fairly severe one, too; but, she doesn't have fleas."

I said, "Neat. So, if she doesn't have fleas or allergies to anything else, what's with all the itching and scratching, then?"

He said, "I don't know, but it seems to me that she probably had a flea infestation as a very young puppy and her brain is just confused. She shows no allergens today other than fleas and that allergen was very strongly indicated, so it could be clouding a negative reaction to the other stimuli, but, I don't ... I just don't feel this is the case. I feel from her body that multiple stimuli trigger her brain to respond as if she's being bitten by fleas -- she receives a stimulus other than a flea-bite, and she scratches, because her brain is conditioned to respond to the stimulus with inflammation and scratching."

Around 8 weeks of age puppies have their first "fear period," and they have a second, less intense one, around 12 weeks of age -- this is accepted western canine development theory, by the way. Fear periods are when baby dogs do the bulk of the learning and socialization they require for survival. Their brains are super-busy during these periods learning what to approach and how to approach, what to avoid, what to eat, where to eliminate, where they fit within the hierarchy of the pack and how to behave according to their position, and all that stuff a dog needs to know to get along well in the world. It's why most vet practices where puppy socialization classes are offered strongly recommend that pups be enrolled as close to 8 weeks of age as possible -- they want to take full advantage of the best learning period. My point in explaining this is that maybe the cross-conditioning theory isn't really all that whack.

I asked, "What now?"

He said, "She's treated. I injected her with the mixture so that her acupuncture points will remain irritated for a few days -- dogs being dogs, we can't expect needles to stay in place to cause the necessary irritation to effect the desired changes like we can with humans. She's treated and now she needs to rest. Does the Benedryl help her sleep at night? Good sleep is very important."

That made me laugh. I told him neither Benedryl nor Xanax helps Zenzi sleep. They turn her into the kind of party girl who stays up all night and ultimately pukes on your rug -- the expensive wool rug in the living room, not the cheap synthetic, Walmart rug in the family room.

He explained that because of the acupuncture, she would either be extremely tired and ready to rest for a few days, or the complete opposite: highly energized and quite reluctant to rest for a few days. He gave me a bottle of phenobarbital tablets and instructed me to give her one Benedryl with one phenobarbital if she was having trouble settling down at bed-time. He said to continue using gentamicin ointment on her ears until the redness is gone. He said to discontinue all other medications as she had reacted with weakness to them. He said, "It's still possible, but I feel that it is highly unlikely that your dog has any allergies. The kibble you brought isn't hurting her, but you can feed her what she seems to enjoy. Make sure she rests well between periods of exercise. You can bring her back for re-evaluation next month if you like, but she seems very responsive to this treatment and I doubt we'll find anything else wrong with her.

The bill was nothing compared to what I've become used to.

Zenzi pretty much wanted to steer the car all the way home, not in a frantic, insistent way, but in a calm, assertive way. I don't like dogs to venture out of the back seat of a moving vehicle when I'm driving it, so that was a little unnerving. Other than that, the trip home was fine.

Once she got home she went to her fleece-covered end of the sofa without any prompting or encouragement. When she got up for normal functions like eliminating or eating or drinking or playing with Tom, she did not scratch at all. She slept like the dead, without the Bendryl/phenobarbital cocktail. She woke up for breakfast at the usual time.

Now, Zenzi is becoming more active, and even tries to get into some mischief. She begs MrZ to play boudoir football the minute he comes home from work. She continues to rest more soundly when she is not active.

She still has NOT had a scratch-attack.

This has been the best near-48 hours we've had in six months. It simply does not bother me that I don't have double-blind control group studies or a pile of charts and graphs detailing the supporting data. Zenzi has net four fewer pharmaceuticals in her system and neither of us is missing any of their accompanying side effects. Her worst symptoms have abated.

I am hopeful.

I can't wait to see what happens during the next 48 hours, the next 48 days.

Update: Sunday, June 13

Day five of no medication. Zenzi's itch-level is still quite low. Once or twice a day, she will scratch, but only very briefly. She sleeps more restfully, smells better (much better), and has had to be called off a window for a passing dog only a couple of times. She was cooperative each time.