Jordan's story is the tale of surprise, patience and success.
Mostly though, it's the story of one man's determination
to resolve one dog's problems. That one man is, of course,
Dr. Plechner. Understand up front that Jordan didn't suffer
from any behavioral or aggressiveness issues. Nor did he
suffer from anything immediately life threatening like AIHA
(auto immune hemolytic anemia). Given time and left untreated
I've no doubt his immune system would have crashed and we'd
have had a dire situation on our hands, but that wasn't the case
this time around.
Jordan is a Standard Schnauzer and was, at the time this began
5 1/2 years old. Well, I say "began" because that's when I had
the first EI-1 panel run but of course it "began" much before that.
By hindsight there were subtle symptoms and visible signs about
8 months before that but each appeared to resolve itself and I
did not seek medical treatment. The first thing that happened was
that Jordan gained more weight than I would liked to have seen
the previous winter. I attributed it to his recent neutering and his
drop in activity over the winter months. I put him on a diet, took
the weight off, and thought that was the end of it. Towards the end
of the summer after I had finished grooming him one time and he
had gotten down off the table, I noted a little sort of bare spot on
one side but assumed I had done it and hadn't been paying attention
as I was grooming. The hair grew back or so I thought. In reality
what had happened is that the hair around the spot had grown in and
covered it over; the hair actually in the spot remained gone. The
next time I groomed him was the towards the end of November.
That time I was rudely awakened by finding two symmetrical bare
patches on each flank. My first thoughts were either seasonal alopecia
or a problem with the thyroid and I took him in to my vet the very next
day for a blood draw and a thyroid test. The tests came back with low
values in both the T3 and T4 so we started him on a Soloxine dosage
and I made an appointment to retest him in two weeks to make sure
we had the dosage correct and that the meds were doing what they
were supposed to.
I was already very aware of Dr. Plechner and his work in endocrinology
and immunology because of other patients he had whom I knew. My
thinking was from the very beginning that if, after the initial two weeks on
the meds my local vet had put Jord on we saw no results, I would go
immediately to Al Plechner with the problem. I wasn't going to waste
time dithering around when my own gut feel was that what I was seeing
in Jord was only symptomatic of something much bigger going on in that
body of his. Well, two weeks passed and no change in the thyroid levels
so off we went to Al.
We sent our first EI-1 panel to LA on the 19th of December and the results
that came back can be found in the database. Al increased the Soloxine
dosage and added Pred. We did that for 2 weeks and tested again with
results the same as before and the added complication that Jordan was
suffering through major bouts of gas. (Or I should say I was suffering
through major gas attacks from Jordan). He'd had this problem off and
on for a while but it was getting much worse and I told Al about it. Al
concluded that in addition to the inbalance in Jordan's immune system
he also had an allergy to the food he'd been eating and in order to get the
meds to absorb we'd first have to determine what Jord could eat. So...
for 2 weeks Jordan ate nothing but cottage cheese and brown rice.
We did another test with the same results: no changes. So....for 2 weeks
Jordan ate nothing but cottage cheese and boiled new red potatoes. We
did another test with the same results: no change. We gradually put Jordan
back on a kibble diet of IVD duck and potato, did another test in two weeks
with the same results: no change. In fact, after all this time (nearly 3
months) Jordan was getting heavier and heavier and still losing hair.
He was, at his fattest up to 55 lbs. when his normal weight is 44 - 46 lbs.
We put him on digestive enzymes and even those passed through
him, coating his stool and never helping at all. We also added trace
minerals to his diet and he is still taking those.
I was by then starting to wonder when things were going to kick in and
we'd see some better levels not to mention new hair growth. The short
version of this is that we increased the Soloxine dosage steadily and
went off the Pred and on to the vegetable based cortisol, all with no
results. By the time we got in to May, we were on high Soloxine dosages,
increasing them every couple of weeks after the tests were run, and on
Medrol. I started taking Jordan's heartrate every day six hours after his
morning meds. The point of this exercise was that if the Soloxine were
working, Jordan's resting heart rate would be raised 6 hours into the
dosage being administered. Nope - his rate stayed at a steady 84 BPM
forever which meant the gut was still aggravated and he was still not
absorbing enough to make any difference. His estrogen was still too
high and his cortisol was still too low. At this point I was talking to Al
every other day or every day and had been for weeks. I even went
down to LA in April to meet him and to talk to him about all of this.
I know he could hear the frustration in my voice every time we spoke
but he lead cheers, he encouraged me, he slapped me alongside the
head when I needed it. In short, he never, EVER stopped believing
he could get Jordan squared around. In my heart of hearts I never
stopped believing either; I just trusted the man from the get-go and was
in it for the long run, no matter what.
Finally Jordan seemed to stabilize a bit and some new hair was coming
in on his current daily dose of 10mg of Medrol in the morning and 1.4mg
of Soloxine, morning and evening. These are the doses a 140 lb dog would
be taking but because Jord's suffers from colitis and/or a gut that
won't absorb, we have to give him this much in order to get a portion of
it into his system. I still check his heartrate every day because Al thinks
that at some point we will be able to back off the Soloxine dose.
We nearly went to the injectibles at one point but Jord was showing
enough new hair growth that we decided to hold off. Jordan's latest
test for Total Estrogen done in mid July shows that for the first time
since we started all of this back in December his level is within the
normal range.
Al continues to refer to Jordan as his Clunker Case or his Problem
Child but I can tell he's so pleased that Jordan is f-i-n-a-l-l-y showing
some improvement. We still have some things to address, namely
Jordan's total intolerance for the heat and some gassy periods that
may always be with us and for which Jordan downs 2 or 3 Tums.
We're going to be retesting and monitoring on a regular basis. There
are still small bare patches on both flanks that have not yet filled in.
But, compared to where we were 8 months ago and more importantly,
compared to where we'd be without Al Plechner, we can live with these
things. Quite frankly, I don't think about where we'd be without Al
Plechner. I'm certain beyond a doubt that if Jordan were still with me,
it wouldn't be for long. Now though, we have a future and some good
years ahead of us.
Joey and Jordan Warren, the Clunker Boy
