Now that we are transitioning from a very wet, dreary winter to sunny weather, Chance is getting Lupus nose.  So far, it is some loss of pigment.  She had her senior wellness exam the Friday before last and her vet said she wouldn't have known she had Lupus by looking at her.

Her nose looked really good over the winter so we are going into the summer months better off than we were last year.

Her vet thinks we might be able to try tapering off the Doxycycline this winter based off how her nose looks right now.  Fingers crossed!

Chance's nose is looking better than it has since July 2014!

We had a regression a couple of months ago caused by stress.  Chance had an "incident" on our garage steps and her rehab vet evaluated her, made some quick adjustments, and ordered weekly TENS treatments until we could get in for our regular appointment.  Chance and Chance's Lupus nose did not like having to be still for 20 minutes at a time every week!  She lost some black pigment on her nose but that was it.  Her nose healed up extremely quickly after the TENS treatments were stopped.

I am in the process of becoming a certified Animal Aromatherapist (I figure it will complement my massage work) and am happy to see one of the covered condition is Lupus!  I wish I had this information back in September 2014.

Chance's nose is still improving.  Hair is growing back and the black color continues to fill in.  Her rehab vet even commented that she may have a normal looking nose again.

She still gets her Doxycycline once a day and have made no changes in what she's getting.

We noticed the accelerated healing when I started testing essential oils for fear based emotions, including stress and anxiety.  Three times a day, for up to 30 minutes each time, I would diffuse a single essential oil and see what kind of reaction she had to it.  I would diffuse that oil for 2 or 3 days in a row then move to another essential oil.

You can read more about how I picked the oils in the "Supplements" blog.
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Chance's nose continues to heal.  Her rehab vet and regular vet are both very pleased.

We have discovered Chance's Lupus flares worse from stress than from sun exposure.

We went to Montana and I was concerned that the high elevation sun exposure would cause her nose to scab and bleed since she would be in the sun every day for hours.  It did worsen but not nearly as bad as I thought it would.  It seemed like the dry air was worse for it than the sun.

Home was another story though.  Even though July 4 was well past, we have idiots that set off fireworks and explosive devices all the time.  Something you really should be doing during a drought with hot temperatures, red flag warnings, and wildfires everywhere.
The stress of this caused her nose to scab and bleed.

Then we noticed that when we played with her in her wading pool every evening, her nose got better.  So the fun and stress release of doing something she loves seems to counter the stress of assholes setting off the occasional incendiary device when it's so hot and dry that a hot muffler pipe can start a brush fire that burns buildings and closes highways.

Her diet has changed since my last post but that was adding in another red meat protein: emu.  She loves the stuff.  Hopefully our raw feeding co-op can get some more from these people.  It was a surprise offering and I managed to score 1 of only 5 cases of boneless scrap meat they had.

My husband had major surgery mid-month and developed a Clostridium difficile infection in the hospital.  He seems to be responding well to the antibiotics, ironic that antibiotics both cause and cure this infection.


Chance is unfortunately vulnerable to this infection though since she has a compromised immune system from the DLE, has been on antibiotics since September, and is considered a senior.


We are taking precautions to prevent transmission.  Since it is a fecal to mouth infection, my husband uses a separate bathroom that always has the door closed.  Lots of hand washing for 30 seconds (hand sanitizer does nothing for this).
I spend between 1.5 and 2 hours a night sanitizing the bathroom he uses with bleach at a 1:10 concentration.  The disinfecting concentration on the back of the bleach bottle is at a 1:33 concentration.


We have started giving Chance probiotics twice a day instead of once a day since the best defense against this is a healthy gut flora population.  

Chance's nose continues to improve.  Seeing the picture from September 22 and how it looks after less than 4 months of treatment is astonishing.  
Her rehab vet was very happy with it when she saw it last month!

I know the fact that it is winter has helped.  There is less daylight, the sun rays are not strong, and it's cloudy here more than it's sunny.  

I changed the page header with an updated picture!  Chance's nose on the left is from September 22, 2014 when we started treatment.  Chance's nose in the middle and on the right are from January 7, 2015.

Oh, in case you are wondering, we did not change her diet.  She is still eating 90% red meat proteins and organs.

Her nose continues to improve.  She had a lump aspirated and the vet warned that the lump growth could aggravate the lupus.  The growth doesn't seem to have aggravated it but the stress of the vet visit and the aspiration definitely did.  But we are moving in the right direction since every set back is not as bad as the one before it!

I'm posting some pictures of her nose.