Beatrice

 In 2003, my beautiful Pembroke Welsh Corgi girl became very ill and was diagnosed with IBD the month before she turned two.  My exuberant, rabbit-eared baby, the absolute apple of my eye, became a lethargic, thin girl who walked dispassionately by her toy box without a second glance.  She went from cleaning her plate (multiple times!) at every meal to a girl who would only eat meager amounts of food if she ate at all.  I mourned what seemed like a puppy lost.

 

Her condition suddenly became acute I had to take her to the ER during a very scary episode,  which involved a 3 day stay in intensive care.  After she stabilized and went home I took her to a Veterinary GI who recommended a treatment plan that involved steroids and a prescription I/D dog food, which I purchased.  I brought home the dog food and had a very negative gut-level reaction to the canned food and just felt that this wasn’t what I wanted to feed my girl as a regular diet.  There was nothing on the ingredient list that I could identify as food.

 

Scrambling to find and consider other options and reading stories of IBD in dogs that sounded bleak, started to read about Naturopathic Veterinary Medicine and learned of Dr. Melissa Walker, a Holistic vet, practiced at and was highly recommended by a clinic that I was well acquainted with.  I was told that Dr. Walker incorporates the best of both Western and Eastern medicine.

 

Dr. Walker was a port in the storm for Beatrice and her extremely worried human.  She approached Beatrice very gently and intuitively.  After a very thorough hands-on, in-depth exam, Dr. Walker talked to me about putting Bea on raw dog food as well as a complement of Chinese herbs and various natural supplements that she specially selected for Bea.  It was a leap of faith for me, as it deviated greatly from what I was used to with my dogs.

 

Dr. Walker was very good at explaining the philosophy behind the naturopathic approach in terms that I could understand and pretty much held my hand during the time of hope and a great transition away from veterinary treatment that I was used to.

 

Today, at age 6, Beatrice is an affectionate, sturdy, spunky, bright girl who is full of energy and totally rocks the great Corgi smile!  I am deeply appreciative to Dr. Walker for her knowledge, intuition, and expertise in treating dear Beatrice’s IBD, which has allowed Bea to thrive and live the good life that she was born to live!