Hello everyone! Big news for Sebastian! We were emailed by our pet food store, Mud Bay, and asked if Sebastian can be featured on their new website! Apparently they are redesigning the look of the site and adding a special customer pet feature section. They are impressed with Sebastians story and would like to feature him! We are so honored! So I am working on the interview sheet they emailed me and will be sending that back with some pictures soon. I'll definitely post a note here when that is up so everyone can see it! They are also going to include a link to this website which is very nice! I'm glad Sebastian's story will have the chance to inspire even more people!
Not much health-wise to report as things are sort of in a holding pattern for now. Sebastian will have skin scraping #3 sometime next week so until then... we wait! He does have a new shampoo that just came on the market. It is specific to dermatitis but it has seemed to stop a lot of itching. It's called Duoxo Calm. It requires a lot of bathing but so far we're happy with it. Sebastian's doing okay. Actually walking pretty well for having a torn cruciate ligament! Sometimes it seems to bother him more than at other times... Bella doesn't seem to know that anything is wrong and she's always trying to goad him into playing!
We have definitely decided to take our trip to the coast over Valentine's Day weekend. Ocean Shores has a surprising number of pet friendly hotels! We have made reservations and will be out there Saturday and Sunday. I'm looking forward to it. I haven't taken a trip in awhile but mostly I think this will be nice for the dogs. Bella has never been to the ocean and who knows if Sebastian has. He does seem scared of waves though judging by his reaction on the Puget Sound! But it will be nice for them to be able to play on the beach and get away for a weekend.
So we'll keep everyone posted as things happen. Sorry there's not a lot of exciting stuff happening right now but it's coming! Thanks everyone!
~Samantha
Hello everyone! Well I cannot start this new update without sending out more thank you's! Sebastian has many, many fans and supporters and I think he knows it too! I have received many heartfelt emails from people describing their own experiences with the TPLO. If anything, after hearing from everyone, I am even more confident about our choice of veterinary clinics. Chambers Creek is very well liked and our surgeon is quite popular! We picked well! haha
Okay, so we had an appointment on Monday for Sebastian's second skin scraping. You may recall that the surgeon felt it was wise to wait until we had three consecutive negative skin scrapings for the mange before we do the surgery. So we had one negative two weeks ago and this is number two! Yay! Well, it's actually a controversial negative. Out of three sites tested, one dead mite was found on the slide :( So yes there was a mite which is not good, but it was dead so... After the vet consulted with the surgeon on the outcome, he agreed to take it as a negative IF scraping number three is negative!
So, in two weeks Sebastian will be going back for hopefully his last scraping. By the way, he was wonderful at the vet. Didn't even flinch during the scrapings. He's getting to be an old pro at it! Everyone in the waiting room just fell in love with him too. I find that whenever we're out in public I always end up telling his story because people always ask about him! Maybe because he is so interesting looking! I've been asked more than a couple times he he's been shaved! haha
In other news, Sebastian has gotten wise to the soft paws and he insists on trying to eat them off. So I'm constantly telling him not to bite his nails! Maybe we'll try a misting of bitter yuck on his feet. They have helped remarkably well though. His neck is healing fast now that he can't scratch it open anymore. No more metal collars for Sebastian!
The vet that we saw on Monday suggested we do some allergy/dermatological testing eventually for Sebastian since e seems so sensitive skin wise. He just breaks out at everything! I'm considering taking him off the Canidae and switching him to the grain-free Nature's Variety that Bella eats. Anyone care to comment on that? I know Canidae is a beloved food by many...
I'm tossing around the idea of taking Bella and Sebastian on a road trip to the coast in early February. For Sebastian, it would be his last big adventure for quite some time. It's only a couple hours drive and I think the dogs would enjoy a romp on the beach. If we do that we're going to make it a point to stop and visit the woman that found Sebastian. She hasn't seen him since we took him in so that would be really nice!
Well, I'll be sure to post some more pictures and updates soon! Thank you again for all your support! Sebastian's pawing at me for attention so I'd better go!
Samantha
I am so excited to start this website off with wonderful news! Today we met our goal of $1000 on Sebastian's website! Thank you to every single person, known and anonymous, who donated through both the website and directly to the veterinarian's office. We could not have done this without all of you.
I know all of you are wondering just how Sebastian is doing and what the status of the surgery is. Well there is much to report so I'll do my best to get it all out...
Sebastian's surgeon decided that he wanted to wait to do the TPLO until he has three negative skin scrapings for the mange. Because of the severity of the mange only a few months ago, the vets are concerned that Sebastian's immune system may still be sensitive and a major surgery with anesthesia could crash it completely. Three negative skin scrapings would mean that he has the mange under control.
This upcoming Monday Sebastian will go in for skin scraping #2. Please keep your fingers crossed for another negative! His skin is very sensitive so it's impossible to predict how this one will go. Right now he has some hot spots that he has made worse by scratching. Plus his chain collar seems to have irritated his neck... It's always something with him!!
To help with the scratching we bought the Soft Paws nail caps. They are awesome! www.softpaws.net Basically they are a soft plastic rounded nail cover. We put them on all his nails and they have really made a difference already. He can still scratch but he's not scratching so hard that he rips open his skin. It also helps with his naughty habit of jumping up on us and scratching us in the process.
We had been sleeping on the floor with the dogs since Sebastian is not supposed to climb or jump on stuff. We put a mattress on the floor in the living room. Dave, Sebastian, and I would sleep on the mattress and Bella on the couch above us. We were kinda getting used to it, but it was taking up a lot of space and we were beginning to miss our bed so Dave and his dad embarked on a construction project.
They spent a recent Saturday in Dave's dad's shop making a ramp for Sebastian! The ramp is easily taken apart and made out of solid wood with a rubber gripping walkway. It's the exact height of the bed so now comes the challenge of teaching Sebastian to use it! Bella seems to have gotten the hang of it, but Sebastian will still try to pull himself up onto the bed. We're hoping to have him strictly using the ramp by the time he has his surgery.
Other than all that, Sebastian's hanging in there. He's not liking the exercise restriction very much at all. He has a lot of pent up energy and I feel bad that he is pretty much just stuck in the house all day. Bella's also feeling the brunt of the restriction. She gained a few pounds because we're not going to the dog park everyday anymore. I'm trying to get her back there a bit more often again but I feel leaving Sebastian all alone at home...
So wish us luck at the vet on Monday and I'll let everyone know how it goes as soon as we get back! Make sure to check out the pictures page for all the latest images of Sebastian! Thanks for reading!
~Samantha
