So Far, So Good

Beavis has now been on the Wellness diet and Cyclosporine treatment for about 3 years. During the winter, we noticed that we were able to gradually decrease his medication from twice a week to about once every week and a half without the reemergence of the sores and allergies. We have tried to cut back on the Cyclosporine even further than this, but when we do, he begins to act “crazy” and gets the sores again. However, we are happy to be down to just a few pills a month rather than a couple a week. We’re not sure what led to this change, but we’re hoping that Beavis’ allergies have become less severe and that this change is not just due to the decrease in allergens over the winter months (since we were never able to identify what he is allergic to, we don’t know if his allergies are seasonal-however, we haven’t noticed a change in his symptoms like this before, so we’re hoping that his allergies are really becoming less severe). We will continue to monitor his dosage this spring to see if there is any change, but hopefully we will be able to continue to decrease his dosage in the future. It’s important to for us to try to get his dosage as low as possible because his last blood test showed that he was borderline in a couple of areas. Beavis’ vet isn’t worried right now, but she did say we need to keep an eye on his levels, because his thyroid numbers are in the “grey area” and this may be a side effect of the prolonged use of Cyclosporine. We’re hoping that the decrease in his dosage will get his numbers in the normal range, but we won’t know until his next blood test this summer. In the meantime, we will watch him closely for the symptoms of thyroid problems (e.g. excessive hunger with weight loss-especially of lean muscle, excessive vomiting-several times a week, and abnormal “crazy” behavior).