Please join our new Facebook Group Community

Times change and, as blogging, forums and Facebook Pages fade into the sunset, we find ourselves left with Facebook Groups. To that end we have started a new community on Facebook to support owners of dogs that have Intestinal Lymphangiectasia. Please join us there. https://www.facebook.com/groups/lymphiedogs/

Louie's Legacy: CIL Research-- please participate and share.

In Louie's memory, we are initiating research into Canine Intestinal Lymphangiectasia which we hope to use to encourage research into better diagnostic tools for this disease. Too many dogs die undiagnosed because the signs of CIL are not recognized, or they die because the diagnosis came too late. We want Louie's legacy to be to change that. Please compete the survey if you have a dog with CIL. The survey will ask several screening questions and then asks about four blood tests. Do not start the survey until you have the blood test results in your hand. Use the earliest blood tests run, the ones done during your very first vet visit when your dog began having symptoms.

Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey , the world's leading questionnaire tool.

Please join us at our new home

We're going to be phasing out this blog and the sister "pet health action" blog in order to consolidate all of our writing in one place.  I'll leave this blog up because a lot of people hit it searching for information about Lymphangiectasia, but this will be my last new post here.  The "Louie Saving" phase of my life is pretty much done and now we've moved forward to helping others as we can.

In the past year, Louie's Facebook page has grown and, with it, my own desire to focus on where I can make a difference for companion animals.  We hope that our new website at http://www.louiethelovemuffin.com and our new blog at http://www.louiethelovemuffin.com/wp will be avenues for exploring how best to make that happen.

Thank you to everyone who has subscribed to this blog and/or promoted it in some way.  Please come and join us at the new site.

hugs,

Louie's Mom

Trial Diet Packs Available

I have decided to give readers the opportunity to try out the diet that Louie is currently eating, without making the initial investment in all the separate ingredients.  My hope is that some of the dogs who are having trouble getting stable might benefit from the same diet Louie is eating.

Trial packs will contain 7 cups of dry ingredients, to which you will add water and a very low fat protein of your choice.  99% fat free turkey is a good choice, as is a low-fat fish such as tilapia, but other, low fat meats might also be used.   Chicken is not recommended, as many dogs seem to be sensitive to it.

One pack, with water and meat added, should make about 16 cups of food.   Cost for each pack is $7.00 + shipping (this pretty much just covers my costs).

For full information about what is in the trial packs, please see the recipe here.  If you are interested in purchasing a trial pack from me, please send me an e-mail at louiesmom@savelouie.com.

We will be at BlogPaws next week

Good morning,

I feel as though I've been spreading myself too thin with all the different pages and groups and blogs I've got started.  So I decided to go to BlogPaws to see if I can figure out how to bring all these different things under one umbrella and make it work for us.  The bulk of my posting has been to Louie's facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Louie-the-Love-Muffin/105757646150624

because that seems to be where the most people are.  So while we're not "blogging" much, per se, we've still been posting an awful lot (too much, if you ask some people!)

So why am I breaking radio silence here now?  To let you all know that we will be there, hoping to connect with other like-minded bloggers.  You see, over the next year, I hope to roll out a new site at http://www.louiethelovemuffin.com where I can put all the blogs and pages together.  I'll want to host and feature other blogs and writers, as well.

So, if you want to connect at BlogPaws, please drop me a line at louiesmom@savelouie.com or stop by our Facebook page and give us a shout out.

Canine Lymphangiectasia Support is now on Facebook

We now have a companion page on Facebook for those needing support.  Please join us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Canine-lymphangiectasia-support/113438495405884 .

About the Pet Health Action Network

Recently we got involved in a California campaign to formally legalize vaccination exemptions for dogs whose veterinarians determine they are too sick to be vaccinated.  Because Louie is one of those dogs, the legislation which was proposed has the potential to directly impact his life, and mine too.

Currently, California law leaves it to the local public health officer to decide whether or not letters of exemption written by veterinarians will excuse pets from being vaccinated.  The bill that was introduced, AB-2000 (also known as Molly's Law), would have required all counties to accept these recommendations from veterinarians.

My initial involvement in this bill came about due to a troublesome clause which was inserted into the language as an amendment, stipulating in essence that any dog in California with a medical exemption from rabies vaccination would have to be quarantined.  I, and others, objected to that language while agreeing with the overall spirit of the bill itself, and so, with the help of my friend Cynthia Jeremica (whose dog is also immuno-compromised due to rabies vaccine), the wonderful Dr. Jean Dodds of Hemopet, Jan Rasmusen of dogs4dogs.com, and Kris L. Christine of the Rabies Challenge Fund, I crafted a press release highlighting the problem with the proposed amendment.  Cynthia, Louie and I, along with Cynthia's dog, Ruby, all ended up on the Sacramento news to talk about the problem.  We were successful in getting the quarantine language struck from the bill and then worked hard to get the bill passed, but ultimately the whole bill was voted down in committee due to some political wrangling behind the scenes.

Though we tried very hard to get the word out about the bill to pet owners in California, urging them to call their congressional representatives, in hindsight it became clear that what we lacked was a network of concerned citizens willing to pick up the phone and make those calls.  When AB 2000 was voted down, I realized that it might be important to the health of pets everywhere if we could put information about issues that affect the health of our companion animals directly into the hands of those people most interested and most willing to take action.  And so the Pet Health Action Network (PHAN) was born.

But PHAN needs your help if it is to grow into what we need it to be in order to be an effective force for our pets.  There are several ways you can receive information from PHAN.  You can follow us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, bookmark our blog, or follow us on NetworkedBlogs.   We ask you also to please share PHAN with your pet-oriented friends.   We've just begun this journey, and we may be small now, but we don't intend to remain that way for long.

Finally, leave us a comment and give us your own ideas about how PHAN can grow.  Let's work together to make this world a better place for those who don't have a voice of their own-- our beloved companion animals.