lili’s tail
We picked up Lili on 30 April 2021 at 12 weeks. I bought Lili from the same breeder and I thought I was prepared because I asked him to make sure she does not come infected with giardia. Before I took her over, she was treated three times with dewormers and nexgard, and they ensured me she tested negative. Just to be sure, the day after I brought her home, I took her to the vet and sure enough, she tested positive. I went home enraged and with the ten day supply of metronidazole for both dogs. Only now I knew better and started both dogs on probiotics and immune support with medicinal mushrooms. And started my trip down the rabbit hole of giardiasis and natural way of getting rid of it without destroying your dog gut in the process. After ten days of metronidazole, I went back to the vet and Lili was still positive. I refused further treatment.
Lili was asymptomatic. Every holistic dog care specialist on the internet says: do not treat the asymptomatic dog for giardiasis. Only the conventional vets will never go that route. Probably they will not risk the complications and will prescribe the conventional treatment, just to make sure they are safe. Not your dog, the vet. Anyway, turns out metronidazole does not kill giardia. But you know what does? Garlic and wild oregano oil. I went home and fed those to both dogs for a week. Then stopped. Neither had any symptoms. Never tested again. If it’s not broken, don’t fix it.
I transitioned Lili to raw food which I fed Lola at the time and was perfectly happy to have two healthy and happy Frenchies.
Until sometime next spring Lili started to be incredibly itchy. She scratched herself bloody, while I was changing proteins, putting her on elimination diet, going to ER at 3AM one night to ask for a steroid injection because she could not stop scratching and shaking the bed so much that I could not sleep. Steroid injection did nothing at all. At that time I took her for a blood test all trying to figure out what was wrong with her. Her liver values came elevated. So I started her on milk thistle. She was miserable. Lola was so upset with Lili being ill, she stopped eating. Lili spent months dressed in a t-shirt with a cone on her head to stop her from bloodying herself. I had two miserable dogs and was out of my mind. Vets recommended apoquel. I refused. I took her to the homeopathic vet. They gave me homeopathic drops and loads of supplements. Nothing worked.
The itchiness stopped sometime in July that year. Only to come back next spring and then go away in summer. In spring 2024 it was so bad that I finally caved in and started her on apoquel. thirty minutes after I gave her the first tablet, she stopped itching. That is how powerful that thing is. Miracle drug. By then I have read enough horror stories about it, I knew that it’s not our solution. I lowered to dose to the point where it was just taking the edge from itchiness so that it was bearable. I gave it for two weeks and then stopped. The itch was gone.
In March 2025 Lili was diagnosed with mast cell tumour. She was four years old and raw / home cooked fed, drinking filtered water, not over vaccinated, not treated with flea and tick preventatives, not exposed to pesticides and herbicides, living in a clean house where all cleaning liquids and powders are hypoallergenic, ecological, and pet friendly. Yet, she got cancer. I was devastated. We were lucky that the mct was low grade, so it was removed and so far she is cancer free.
All along, the battle with her unexplained elevated liver values continued. They were going up and down not following any pattern and not actually reacting on any supplementation I tried, never falling down into the normal range. In 2025 after her mct surgery, we did an ultrasound of the liver which showed nothing abnormal. In January 2026 her liver values skyrocketed. At the time she was on NAC and SAMe and milk thistle to support her liver and I had a feeling she was looking and feeling great. I was out of my mind with worry. The vet suggested that she might have a liver shunt and recommended to travel abroad to get diagnosed because in Hungary apparently nobody can diagnose or operate on a liver shunt in dogs. However, before making that decision, we did another ultrasound. And we found sand in her gallbladder. She got a drug to take one month and in March her liver values were finally normal. Did she really had gallbladder sand since she was a puppy? And all those elevated liver values are now a thing of the past? We will see.
The other day on Instagram I saw a post of a vet who is promoting natural treatments saying that one of the most important things to avoid as pet parent is regular preventative testing when there are no symptoms. I thought to myself: if I never did a lab test on Lili I would have saved myself a lot of worry. But my dog would have suffered. She was asymptomatic, but I bet that sand in her gallbladder hurt or at least caused some discomfort. Dogs try hard to hide pain. I am glad I tested. And I will continue to do blood tests for both my dogs twice a year.
On the other hand, if I did not test for giardia when she was a puppy, I would have saved us all trouble and unnecessary medication and cost in vet bills. Let’s call it a lesson learned. One thing is obvious, I am their guardian. It is my responsibility to educate myself in order to best protect their interests. One small step at a time.