Akiva is a 11 year old ShihTzu and he was diagnosed with autoimmune arthritis. He became anemic and joint damage was very obvious within a few months after diagnosis. By summer he could no longer walk and had significant muscle tension and pain.
We had him on a number of conventional pain medications throughout the year, most of them provided minimal relief. Akiva saw a number of conventional vets, including multiple specialists at the state university who were not optimistic about his recovery or longevity. He was also diagnosed with a grade 3/4 heart murmur.
We put him on a herbal joint supplement (Flex-N-Free), which did provide a fairly good amount of pain relief. He was comfortable when he was relaxing, but could move around very little and wasn’t able to sit up much at all. It was pretty clear that the autoimmune disease was still active at this point.
In April I learned about McDowell’s Herbal Treatments and started working with Kate. We started Akiva on a series of formulas and within weeks he started to improve.
That was 18 months ago now.
We have paused the herbs a couple of times to see how he did without them, and we saw the symptoms return within a month or so. We know that the herbs continue to work very well for him!
The conventional vets didn’t expect Akiva to live for more than a year and the only thing they could have done was put him on high doses of steroids. Now it’s nearly 3 years after his first diagnosis and he is comfortable, engaged with life and overall doing well. I very much credit this recovery to the excellent work that Kate and the McDowell’s team did.
A couple photos are attached below. First one is the most recent from the California Redwoods and one is Akiva at Olympic National Park in the Seattle, Washington area.
Akiva was well enough to travel with us this summer, camping, he went nearly 10,000 miles this summer!!
