Raw Vegan Tacos, Thrown Together Meals, & Furkid Updates

Yesterday I hinted at something that I have tried lately and LOVED and will be eating a lot of until I run out of the ingredients.  That is Raw Vegan Tacos.  I grabbed Romaine Hearts, Sun Dried Tomatoes, Guacamole (because it was cheaper than Avocados), and Cauliflower at a little mom and pop shop and I already had some Coconut Aminos at the office.

I marinated the Cauliflower in the Coconut Aminos and used it as the bottom layer along with the Sun Dried Tomatoes and topped it with Guac!  I have to say it was pretty awesome!

They are messy but I don't care.  The Guac sort of helps with the mess tho.

I will be doing variations of these in the near future - for sure!

I have been saying that my food efforts have been pretty weird as of late.  I either throw something together at the office, on the road, or in the camper.

We are having some issues with our house and I haven't been able to cook there.

This 2nd photo is something I threw together at my parents house.  They didn't have much that was vegan in their house and I didn't know prior to stopping by that I would be eating there.  I made up some Mac and added stewed tomatoes!  I threw some Earth Balance on there, too!  It wasn't too shabby!

There has been a LOT going on the last several months and I wasn't going to mention it on the blog but I feel like I should.

On of the MANY things we have been stressing about is the furkid situation.

In the past month ALL of our furkids have been at the vet as least once.  Charlie - our 17 year old feral cat - was acting weird and I thought he had a stroke but it was a really wicked double ear infection.  We also found out he has kidney failure.

After treating the ear infections we decided to switch his food to a Kidney Diet to help him with that as long as we can.  Since he's a really wild (feral-like) cat and always has been we don't want to stress him more than we have to by taking him to the vet PLUS there has to be 2 vets there to deal with him.

Moving on to the dogs - Cricket (pictured above) had to go in for a check-up and shots.  Riley had to go in for the same - and he had a double ear infection, too.  He has always had Chronic Ear Infections so we are used to it.  However, this time around they tried a new med on him and it seemed to work well.  He had to go in 3 times.  Then there is sweet Paco.  Oh...sweet Paco!  That poor guy!  He's had such a hard time with everything but he's a fighter!

I had to take Paco in for Kennel Cough - it's the only thing we give him - up the nose - we don't vaccinate him otherwise because of his immune issues.  Then a few weeks later we found out he caught something from the kennel so we treated that.  Then his nose started bleeding a little bit and we had him in twice for that.  After finding something on X-Rays we had to decide what to do moving forward.  We are still trying to decide.  He's be in about 4 times already.  They found something in his nasal passage.  It's either something that he sniffed up and got stuck or it's cancer.  Knowing how hard he has has it with other issues his whole life all I can think of is that it's cancer.  GOD!  I hope it isn't.  I think we have the choice made - and that is to have our vet go in and do exploratory surgery and see if she can remove the thing that showed up on the X-Rays.  But I;m afraid because of his immune issues.  Because he has ITP/IMHA that means he might not clot or might clot weird and it could kill him.  Also - if the vet can't remove it - we can't really do cancer treatments because of his immune issues.  From what I have seen about Nose Cancer in Dogs it will grow and morph his face and/or cause seizures.  It seems like a lose-lose situation.  Our vet was on vacation so I need to call her back to see how we are going to go about this.  In the meantime every couple of days he has a slight bloody nose.  We have been treating it with Epinephrine.   These vet bills have been a lot to handle all at once in addition to all of the other stuff we have been facing the last several months.  But those stories I will save for another day.

Paco Update!

I have a lot to cover today at My Blissful Journey.  First off - I'm happy to report that Paco is improving!  Last week I mention he was diagnosed with IMHA which stands for Immune Mediated Hemolytic Anemia.  BUT...in fact he's been diagnosed with ITP instead.  ITP stands for Immune Mediated Thrombocytopenia.

They are similar diseases being that they both attack their own systems and that they are both immune diseases.  The difference being - in short - is that IMHA - is when the Red Blood Cells are being attacked and ITP is when the Platelets are being attacked.

When we took him in last Tuesday his Platelet count was at 9.  Thursday the count was at 3.  This is VERY bad.  Anything under 200 is bad.  We took him in for blood test again yesterday after him being on VERY limited activity for the long weekend while at home with us.  He was at the vet for 3 days prior to that.  His Platelet Count yesterday was 468.  YAY!!!!  Eventho he's 'out of the woods' he's still not up to par.  With ITP there is a long recovery time.  Right now they are shooting for 4 months on meds.  Maybe even 6 months.  OR...maybe even the rest of his life.  BUT we are VERY pleased that his counts jumped that much over the long weekend.  We could be more happy!  Thank you everyone for their positive vibes, prayers, thoughts, etc.  I believe they helped make a difference!  Thanks again!

Furkids/Family Medical Updates & Timeline

If you read my post yesterday you will see that Paco is not doing well.  He was diagnosed with IMHA.  We are very worried.  He's currently at the vet hospital getting aggressive steroids and fluids.  I've been doing a lot of reading and research on the disease and it's NOT good.  Even if he pulls thru - it will be a long and tricky recovery.  It's so frustrating because other than the rash on his stomach he was NOT showing any other symptoms of the disease.  Perhaps that is a positive thing - meaning we caught it early - and he will do better than the majority of other cases I have been reading about.  Right now it's a waiting game and I almost can't handle that.

Last night I went thru the last 8 months in my head and put it all together...I can't believe (the following) all happened in the last 8 months with all 5 of our furkids...Suzie had two fatty tumors removed - her stitches popped and it set her back for a few weeks.  We lost our precious Gabby to Liver Cancer and that was totally unexpected.  Charlie had a wound that would not heal on his tail and he had to have his tail amputated.  Riley - just last week - had to have a large portion of skin removed from his neck and has a double ear infection that we are still treating.  6 days later - this has happened with Paco...I took him in for what I thought was a rash and it ended up being IMHA.  All this in 8 months.

In addition...my  husband has been having stomach issues for about a year and a half.  Yesterday (while everything was going on with Paco) he was out of town for more tests and procedures and it was confirmed a 2nd time - but by a specialist this time - that he does, in fact, have Crohn's Disease.

Yesterday completely sucked.  BUT...it's NOT a home without Fur-Kids.  And at least my husband now knows that it IS Crohn's Disease.  It's something he will have for the rest of his life but it's manageable.  Now if we can just get some more answers on what to do next for him.

No! My Dear Paco!

This morning I took Paco into the vet for what I thought was a rash and instead he was diagnosed with Immune Mediated Hemolytic Anemia.  He's at the vet until Thursday to be monitored closely.  It's critical that he doesn't get injured in any way.  He's platelets are currently at 9...which is REALLY low...near nil.  This is terrifying me!  He's only 3 years old!  He's been acting completely fine.  No other symptoms other than the red dots on his hips.  From what I have read 20 to 40 percent of IMHA dogs either die from the disease or the treatments that may or may not cause clotting.  I'm in complete shock about this.  I feel like I got hit with a mack truck.  I just want him to be home on my lap.  PLEASE send any prayers/thoughts/vibes my way!  I would appreciate it.