Hard Days and Better Times – Part 3(A long post but it is the full story)

As someone who has seen more specialists than I care to admit, finding the right ones, who know how to treat your specific condition, can be daunting. Likewise, finding them for a beloved pet can sometimes be just as much of an ordeal. After 5 months of waiting and watching with Little improvement I finally begged my vet to assist me in finding someone outside the box to try something unconventional. I didn't care how bizarre it was, if it would give my boy a better chance at a more normal life then I was happy to take him wherever I needed to to get him whatever treatment. Within a few days I had a name and a phone number and by some miracle this practitioner was mobile and not only in our area but willing to come out and start work on Vae immediately. This new vet began with a chiropractic adjustment and then moved into electroacupuncture. They even would draw blood and then inject it into some of the more sensitive areas. We started Vae on 2 different supplements, one was Vitamin E and the other I cannot remember for the life of me at this point. I know some will say that all of this is hogwash, snake oil, or Kool-Aid, and I would be lying if I said I wasn't right there with the same train of thought at one point in time. However, every session I would watch as the electric pulses applied to the nerves in one area of his face would transfer down and make his lip twitch. Within a few sessions we made the decision to change his feed from straight mash to adding some hay. We started with soaking hay cubes and then took a chance one day and started adding small amounts of Orchard and Timothy grass hay. Finally, one day about a month into treatment, I was sitting in the pasture just watching the boys graze and I noticed that Vae was trying so hard to get the grass and would get a little. It would still ball up and fall out of the side of his mouth some but not all of it. With that we took a chance, along with the guidance of both vets, and I purchased 2 super slow feed nets. Starting with once a day we would fill one of the nets with a mixture of orchard and Bermuda grasses. Not only did he now have to work for half of his food, but now there was competition for that food again as Locke also had full access to the hay nets. We still offered 2 feedings a day of the mash but slowly he began to eat more hay and less mash until one day there was no more mash. Sadly after 2 months of treatment with the electroacupuncture our wonderful specialty vet moved out of state and had to leave us. They came by the evening before they left for one last treatment and a farewell. It was so hard to say goodbye, but we were so happy to have met them, and were blessed beyond measure with the amazing changes they were able to start bringing about with Vae... (Come back next week for part 4, the ending)

Locke playing with the hay net, while Vae cleans up what spills.