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Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Our dog has lupus

Our Rhodesian ridgeback Zeus turned three this by month and his birthday gift was systemic lupus, an autoimmune disorder that causes his body to attack itself. We took him to the vet at the first sign something was wrong; he stopped eating and started drooling. Sores developed on his mouth, ears and paws and started to get infected. His paws pads slowly fell off and after three weeks on some serious steroids and antibiotics, he's in remission. His white and red blood cells are normal and his bone marrow has new growth. He lost ten pounds in two weeks but is back to wagging his tail and eating like normal. With a pill a day for the rest of his life we can control the symptoms but never cure it. We'll treasure every moment with him.