Thursday, July 19, 2018
It’s been a month since our last Topo Chico update and we’re feeling better about his future prognosis than ever. When I last posted, we excited that we had finally been able to start giving him weekly treatments with Taktic.
After his first “bath” and dousing in Taktic, he was pretty unhappy with us but got over being mad at us in a few minutes and we looked forward to signs of improvement in the coming days. Unfortunately, the next day he (and we) felt lousy. The day after, he slept all day, didn’t eat well, and had messy bowl movements. We did a little research on Taktik and found that these are common side effects of Taktic’s active ingredient Amitraz.
Over the course of the week, he started acting like himself again and then it was time for another treatment. His reaction was the same only maybe a little worse. We felt like this was what we were supposed to do so that he would get better in the long run but seeing how it made him feel was tough. We repeated the cycle for a final week and his reaction was even worse.
In addition to not feeling well, he was losing our hard won trust and keeping a safe distance so that we couldn’t grab him and poison him again. To top it off, we were not seeing any improvement in his appearance. In fact, the most noticable thing was the redness and irrition of his skin.
We needed a new approach. Patty researched and found some organic/non-toxic treatment but I was skeptical. We found some treatments that we supposed to be as effective as Amitraz but less toxic however we couldn’t find a source to get any of them in Mexico. We decided to contact a different vet to see if we could get a second opinion.
When we took Topo Chico to the second vet, he confirmed what we were seeing and said Taktic was very toxic and it wasn’t the correct course of treatment for Topo’s condition. He gave us a prescription for a different (oral) medication that is used to prevent ticks and fleas but as a side effect also treats mange. He gave a second prescription for a (human) antibiotic we had filled at a local pharmacy.
The new vet also told us spraying Topo with a mix of apple cider vinagar and water would help clear up Topo’s hot spots. That made the vet a hero to me and Patty, especially Patty, who had found vinegar as a possible treatment in her research. The research of which I was skeptical.
We’re now a little over a week post second vet visit and Topo Chico’s face is definitely looking better. His coat isn’t worse and sometimes I think it looks better, sometimes I’m not sure it’s any different. But there’s no doubt that his personality is changing. He’s happy, playful, trusting, and affectionate. Patty takes him on a walk around our “neighborhood” in the evening and even bought him a toy that he plays with and fetches (and returns). He’s like a puppy. Oh yeah, that’s another thing. The new vet said he thinks Topo is about 2 years old, not 6 or 7 which the first vet estimated. That’s great news for all of us since he’s clearly adopted us and we’ve clearly adopted him.
~Mitchell
Happy Ramblers 