Max’s Experiment – Lessons to Learn??

In this post “My Canine Companion is Sick” I talk about Max’s illness.

I am writing a daily blog post that is a diary of Max’s experiences through my eyes. You can read them by clicking here. (In case you can’t tell… Max, my canine companion is kind of important to me. :)

I am spending a considerable amount of “blog ink” on Max and for good reason. Why?

This Max experience (and experiment) may yield information that can be beneficial to you , me… all of us. As you will see below, I’ve chosen to use neolithic and paleolithic principles to deal with Max’s illness… much as I have done to fight my own disease.

** Sadly, Max will not be “healed” and his prognosis is bleak, but I’m hopeful that this treatment will extend his life a few months or years and allow me to “love him” a little bit longer.

This post will focus on the treatment that I have decided to use to help Max.

Max’s Diagnosis

– Arrhythmia (finally learned how to spell it) – it means irregular heart beat. Every 3rd beat of Max’s heart is irregular. We need to improve that if possible.

– Fluid in the chest cavity around the heart – the pressure of the fluid causes the heart to struggle as it attempts to pump blood throughout the body.

– Enlarged Heart – There are many possible factors, I won’t speculate for now. The enlarged heart is causing many problems… one includes putting pressure on his esophagus which causes him to cough.

Prescribed Treatment

Mexiletine 250 mg – 3 times per day.  (check out this link to Mexiletine… scary stuff coming from NIH) This drug’s purpose is to correct the irregular/abnormal heart beat.

Furosamide 20 mg – diuretic , to remove fluid from his chest.

Also suggested bland food including baby foods. They mentioned several other foods… but after they said that, I “blocked out” what they said. It was ‘carbbage”… all too high in carbs.

Actual Treatment

(by the way, Max weighed well over 100 lbs at one time, he is down to about 85 lbs. Roughly half my weight.)

Furosamide 20 mg – twice per 24 hrs as recommened. This is a neolithic tool obviously but needed to reduce fluid in chest cavity around the heart.

Magnesium 500 mg – The Mexiletine is still not in stock yet… I will still give it to Max when it comes in, but Dr. Davis (The Heart Scan Blog) recommended Magnesium for Arrhythmia, so I am giving him 250mg (one adult dosage) twice per day. I’ll likely drop back to 250mg per day when the Mexiletine comes in…. I really need his heart pumping as normal as possible.

Food: Max had not eaten much for several days. I was struggling to feed him beef broth using a hole punched in a water bottle. Andre Chimeon suggested a turkey basting syringe which did work, but I find the water bottle works a little better.  Instead of the carbage the doctors suggested… I am giving him….

– Beef Broth – still feeding him some of this mixed with warm water.

– Coconut Oil & Butter — This idea hit me today. WHY did I NOT think of this earlier!!! IT is SOOO easy too.

Max became more and more difficult to feed as he strengthened … but I could rub the coconut oil and butter along his gums. This has a FANTASTIC RESULT!  Why???

1) It melts and Max licks it and or swallows it.

2) YOU don’t have to pry his mouth open.

3) As you know… animal fat has roughly twice the energy as carbs or protein.

Vitamins & Supplements

Note: No vitamins nor supplements were recommended by the DVMs.

1/2  my dosage of my multi-vitamin

Vit D3 – I am feeding him 2,000 IU three times per day, exactly what I normally would take.  I may cut this in half in a couple of days.

Magnesium as noted above.

Additional Tricks?

– COAT THE PILLS IN COCONUT OIL (or butter) … give them some fuel (energy)  while giving them their meds/supplements.

– want to give your pet some coconut oil… but don’t want to fight to open the jaws???

1) As noted above, wipe along the teeth and gums.

2) Place some on their nose… they’ll lick it off!

Summary

As noted above… Max’s longterm outlook is bleak… BUT if I can extend his life with some quality to his life…

I’m willing to experiment responsibly to make that happen. I  think I have done that… mixing the best of paleolithic  and neolithic tools to help Max. Odds are … he will only live a few weeks to a few months… but we shall see.

So far… my primal / paleo experiment seems to be helping him. :)