Update- May 9, 2009

I am beginning to get worried that Penny's allergies may be returning.

Allergies
I believe that it was around April 25th that I decided that I would try taking Penny outside without her boots on. At first there seemed to be no difference in her paws and the amount that she was chewing on her paws, and it is hard to tell for sure but I do not believe that there is really a difference as of today.

Red Skin on Face
What does seem to have gotten worse is the areas on her face where you can see her skin, they pretty red, which they have not been for a while. On one of her ears is a large spot, then a little by her nose and somewhat around her eyes. I have noticed her a couple of times rub her face on the ground, but I am not sure if it is because of her eyes, ears or allergies.

Paws
Her paws are slightly red on the bottom, but in between her paws, the skin on the top is not really red at all.

Belly
For a while her belly was very red and dry, but it has now mostly cleared up, and is looking pretty close to normal.



Eyes
Penny's eyes have pretty much stayed the same.
I am now using:
Optimmune: 3 times a day
Neo-Poly-Bac: (Triple Antibiotic Ointment) (Instead of Artificial Tears) 2 times a day
I believe that it has been about 2 weeks since I switched from the Artificial Tears to Neo-Poly-Bac.


Ears
I am beginning to think that Penny's ears may be infected again.
Left ear- Does not look real bad inside. There is a little build up, but not as much as there has been in the past. This is the ear that is red on the outside of the ear and she is missing quite a bit of fur, so it seems like she must be scratching it.
Right ear- This is the one that I am starting to get very concerned about. There is not a ton of build up in this ear but there is a lot of spots where she must have been scratching because it is all scabby. I would like to put some stuff in her ears but I am hesitant to do so because of the scabby areas. I have not seen her ear bleeding at all, but it seems like every time I look inside her ear there are more and more scabs.



Unusual Eating
Her eating is sill the same as the last time I posted, and I have been putting some water in her food, which seems to help her have less difficulty when eating.


Dry Nose
Her nose is usually still very dry, and now her lips are very dry, and scabby is some spots. I am not sure if the dry lips are related to her allergy problem or her dry nose problem.


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I plan to give Penny a bath, and to start putting her boots back on her when she goes outside, to see if there are any changes, and see if it makes a difference.

I was wondering if she could possibly be allergic to pine. It would make sense why she was sill having such bad allergy problems during the winter, because of our christmas tree, maybe? Plus we have a lot of pine trees everywhere, and they are still around even during the winter. I would make sense why she improved so much as soon as I started putting her boots on her.

Info about Penny's Mom and Update- April 23, 2009

Information about Penny's Mom
Today my mom talked to the breeder that we got Penny from. She asked her about Penny's mom and if she ever had any problems with her. Here is what she told her:

First of all she said to never use Hartz Products. As if I didn't already know that one, I would never go near any Hartz Products, ever. Then she told her that Penny's mom did in fact have allergy problems. She told her that her vet determined that she was allergic to eggs. I do not think that they did any testing, but somehow they narrowed it down to eggs. She also mentioned that she would have trouble eating because of her allergy to the eggs. She told her that she would get ear infections often but would take care of the problem herself. I think that she fed her Purina Dog Chow, and would bathe her (no more than) once a month with Oatmeal Shampoo. She does not have Penny's mom any more, but claims to know the people who have her now, so I am not sure how her mom is today. She did not mention anything about seizures or eye problems, but who knows that does not mean that she didn't have those problems also.

So now things are all beginning to make sense. If you ask me I think that it was irresponsible of her to breed her mom, and even worse that she did not inform whomever bought one of the puppies. But, I am grateful that she was willing to tell us what she did and not just hide it all entirely. Besides I am not doing this to start an ethics debate, and just wish to get my dogs problems solved. The breeder whom Penny came from does not breed goldens anymore anyhow, so the damage that has been done is done.


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Penny's Unusual Eating
I was finally able to get some videos of Penny eating.

I wish I could have taken better videos but this was the best I could do for today. I used a digital camera, so I was only able to take 30 second videos and the quality is not the best. This was the simplest and quickest way to do it, so here they are:


When she first starts eating, she just seems to chew every piece, then she begins to lay down and chew the food on the floor. This video shows her just before, and then the first time that she lays down to eat.



This video shows her trying to chew and eat her food while she is laying down, This is probably the best one that show how much trouble she has.



And one last video



Her eating may not seem unusual to everyone, but it is definitely not normal for her. She use to inhale her food, so fast that I do not think that she would chew any of it.

My first guess would be that it is allergy related, but why did it just start now (when her allergies are not as much of a problem) and not before when her allergies were at their worst?

Update- April 22, 2009

I just wanted to post a quick update since I have not posted in awhile. There haven't really been any significant changes in any of Penny's problems since I last posted.

Eyes
Penny's eyes get better for a few days and then get worse again. Eyes seem to change from day to day. One good thing is that she does not seem to squint like she did previously, so that leads me to believe that they do not bother her as much as they did before.

Unusual Eating
She is still having some trouble eating, but not as much as she first did. I think that the apple cider vinegar seems to help. For awhile she started to eat better, but now it almost seems like she has taken a step backward. When she started to get better it took her longer to eat because it was as if she had to chew every piece. Now she has been laying down and eating again. Once again it is not as bad as before though. I am going to try and get a video of Penny's eating so maybe I will have that to post within the next couple of days.

Burping up of clear liquid
She has only done this one time since I last posted and I believe it was only two days after my last post. Of coarse she has not been extremely active since I last posted.

Dry Nose
Here nose is still just as dry as last time. No changes here.

Update: April 12th 2009

To start off, yesterday Penny seemed to have a very good day. Her eyes were not as bad, and they did not have as much mucus in them throughout the day. Today on the other had was a bad day for Penny. Today was Easter, and the family came over so Penny was very active. I think it was too much for her. Plus everyone was dropping food, which of course she had to pick up. Table scraps probably are not the best thing for a dog with allergies.

Eyes
Believe it or not her eyes did not get really really bad. I thought that they probably would since her eyes are usually the worst after she has had them open for a long period of time(when she is very active). They were only slightly worse than usual. Which is good.



Unusual eating
I do think that her eating is getting better. She now seems to be chewing the food where as she would normally just swallow it (or inhale it, which ever you prefer). I think that what ever was bothering her may be improving. Which is also good.



Burping up of clear liquid
This was Penny's main problem today. She must have burped up a mouth full of clear liquid at least 10 times through out the morning. I definitely does seem like she does this when she is up and about. It does not have to be when she has been extremely active, all she has to do is run around just a little bit in the house, in order for this to happen.



Dry nose
Today even though Penny was very active her nose still remained very dry throughout the day. Usually it seems like her nose may be dry but when she is more active it will become wet, not today though. She did drink some water too, how much I am not exactly sure.


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Overall Penny was very tired after all the excitement today, which is very understandable, although I wish she wasn't. One good thing is that she has not had any seizures, which was something that I was worried about, since today was she was more active than she has been in a long time. Also in the past when she had seizures was when she was very active. Luckily so far not seizures:)

Update- April 9th 2009

Penny's Eye Problem
I have been trying to clean the mucus out of Penny's eyes (started around April 1st), and until today it seems like it has been helping, and she has seemed a little more comfortable. I am not sure why but today they seem to have much more mucus than the past few days. I have also started to notice that the skin around her eyes seem to be slightly red and a little irritated. It seems as if she has been rubbing her eyes some even though I have not noticed her doing so. I am hoping that this is just today and maybe tomorrow she will be a little better. It seems as if her condition can change suddenly in either direction (for the better or worse) from day to day.


Penny's Eating Problem
Today I tried taking a video of Penny's strange eating habits that she has developed, but she seemed to have a lot easier time eating today. I am not sure, but it seemed as if it was because she was focused on the camera. Before today every piece of food would end up on the floor and she seemed to struggle to get it to stay in her mouth to swallow. When she was done eating there would be tiny pieces of food all over the floor. She started this on I believe March 23th, about 2 1/2 ago. I am hoping that I am just getting worried about nothing an something in her mouth is just hurting her and it will heal and the problem will go away.

This may just be a minor problem that I am just over worrying about, but when you have a dog with so may serious problems that start off as just small things, it becomes hard to overlook anything unusual that she does.

Overall Condition
Her nose is still very dry most of the time and so are her lips. She does have some soars on her lips but she has had them for some time now and it is not a recent development. She has also spent most of her time sitting around sleeping like she has been since she started having her eye trouble.

That is it for today hopefully tomorrow she will have improved somewhat.

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Medications she is on now:
Optimmune- 3 times a day- for eyes
Artificial Tears- 2 times a day- for eyes

I have also been giving her about 1 or 1 1/2 tablespoons of Apple Cider Vinegar with her food. I figured it softens up her food, which should make it easier for her to eat, and it is also very good for them. I started putting it in her food about 2 days ago. I have given it to her before and it greatly improved the softness of her coat, which is always good, especially for her since her coat is usually not soft at all.

I did clean out her eyes somewhat today but not perfectly like I did yesterday and the day before.