Phoenix
is our lovely 8 year old Portuguese Water Dog. In the fall of 2011 she started
developing open red sores around her vulva.
I took her to our vet who thought it was due to licking she was given a
cone and some topical antibiotic treatment.
We soon discovered that the cone was not needed as it did not provide
results and when the cone was removed she was not attempting to lick the
area. We had on and off episodes of the
same problem for the following year. We
then noticed a horrible smell coming from her mouth. The vet couldn’t figure out what it was and
it continued despite brushing her teeth.
I took Phoenix back to a vet I had years ago that was a distance away as
she was able to help us with our Sheltie that had lupus. She immediately discovered that her lip
pockets were raw and infected and that was where the smell was coming
from. At the same time her eyes started
becoming raw and inflamed. It was
thought that her eye lashes were curling in and that surgery was needed to
correct. When she was under anesthetic
the vet was able to fully examine her and discovered that the eye lashes were
fine. We were then sent to veterinary
ophthalmologist. After several visits we
really had no further answers but the condition seemed to be manageable. In the spring of 2013 we again had a flare up
of her vulva, lip pocket and eyes. Our
vet thought that Phoenix’s problem was likely allergies. So she was placed on a strict diet of
kangaroo and oats. She was on that diet
for 9 months with no improvement. We
were then sent to a veterinary dermatologist that thought the problem was due
to environmental allergies. We continued
on the kangaroo and oat diet with the addition of steroids. Phoenix improved but we couldn’t seem to reduce
the amount of steroids she needed to control her skin issues to an acceptable
long term level. We then did allergy
testing and results came back showing Phoenix was allergic to a large number of
things including four types of tree pollen, dust, mold and cats. Thinking this was the answer in May of this
year we started Phoenix on allergy shots.
Her condition worsened during the summer. We were told to increase the steroids which
sometimes did help the problem. However
in September, her eyes were so bad that she could hardly open them in the
morning. I couldn’t get the open sores
to heal and they were getting bigger and bigger. I felt every time I was trying to clean the
discharge from her eyes so they could be opened that I was torturing her as the
sores would be bleeding. At this time
even a drastic increase in steroids did not help. Both the dermatologist and vet were at a loss
as to what to do.
Thankful I decided
to seek alternative treatment and went to see Dr. Sasan Haghighat. I was immediately impressed by his caring
manner as he listened to the long story of what Phoenix had been through. He thought her case was similar to another
patient, Jessie and that Phoenix’s problem was not in fact allergies but rather
an immune system problem possibly pemphigus.
We immediately started her on a diet of boiled clean vegetables with
some lentils and chick peas. He gave
Phoenix an acupuncture treatment, and she came home with some homeopathic
remedies. Dr. Haghighat thought that it
may take up to 6 months to see results.
After one week I thought perhaps her eyes were looking slightly better
but didn’t want to get my hopes up. Upon
her two week follow up visit her eyes were noticeably better. We continued on the same treatment plan and
by the following 3 week follow up visit her eyes were almost completely
healed. This was only 5 weeks after we
started treatment. We have continued
with same regime and her eyes now 2 weeks later her eyes are completely healed,
she has no issues with her lip pocket or vulva and we have completely stopped
her steroids for over a month. Dr. Haghighat
has said that she may have a relapse in the process of being completely cured
but so far she is doing great. I have
noticed a considerable increase in her energy level. Despite being 8.5 years old, she is like a
puppy again. I was really so frustrated
and concerned trying to figure out how to help Phoenix and can’t thank Dr.
Haghighat and his lovely staff enough for figuring out the puzzle of Phoenix
that had eluded several vets and two specialists. He truly worked a miracle on Phoenix!
BEFORE PICTURE (October 1, 2015)
AFTER PICTURE (November 5, 2015)
