About 9 months ago Jordan and I noticed that Roxy’s nose looked rough and dry, but we didn’t think much of it. We thought it could be allergies but couldn’t tell if there was anything specific causing it. We thought it could be her food bowl irritating it but we switched bowls and it didn’t change anything. But one day we noticed that her signature black Chow tongue was losing it color and turning pink so I knew it was time to take her to the vet.
Turns out she has Pemphigus Foliaceus, which is an auto-immune disease that causes the body to basically start attacking itself. It usually starts at the nose and mouth and spreads to other parts of the body. Do not look up pictures of it, trust me, they are horrifying. It’s not something that we can ever get rid of, which is sad, but the vet has put her on steroids to push it into remission. He says you never know how long it will go into remission for, it could not reappear for a few years of just a few months. So it’s something that we will always have to be watching out for.
It just makes me sad because the steroids are really hard on her and she doesn’t have much energy any more or her usually sassiness… but hopefully after a few more weeks we can lessen the dose and get her back to her regular old bad-A self. The steroids are helping, her nose is looking better and better although it will never get the pigment back that was lost, but we are pretty lucky we caught it early and that there was still something we could do for her.
Love this girl to pieces! Such a sweetheart!
No comments:
Post a Comment