Additional Facts and Events...

Stella has eaten only dry kibble throughout her life.  We have recently begun changing her diet (and Betty's) to "grain free" dry kibble with "grain free" canned food.   This has nothing to do with her MCT's, just a matter of trying to make better food choices.

She currently takes Proin for hormone-based urinary incontinence.  Sounds terrible, I know, but all of our dogs at some point have experienced "drippage" and the medication works wonders and none of our pets have ever suffered from side effects.  We also give her two different eye medications (drops) since her eye surgery; Tacrolimus and Neopolydex.  She takes Heartgard for heartworm prevention and is on Frontline for flea and tick prevention.  Both of these meds are given from April thru December as we are in a hard frost region and the dogs do not go into heavily forested areas.

Twice in her lifetime Stella has experienced some sort of seizure.  Once as a pup and once about a year ago.  Both times it seemed as though she literally "fainted" (eyes shut, body completely limp) and within seconds she was up and acting completely normal.  Both times the vet did blood work and did not find a cause for it.

Last July Stella experienced a major stressor when her BFF Patrick (our Beagle) died suddenly.  This took a very emotional and physical toll on her.  They had been together for 6 years.  Stella loved Patrick so much and could never stand to be separated from him.  When he died (at age 11) she became withdrawn and her personality completely changed.  We could not get her to eat and she would not play with her toys, not even her favorite stuffed cheeseburger.  This went on for almost a month before we adopted Betty. No one could ever replace Patrick in Stella's eyes but Betty was a good distraction for her, especially when her Shepherd sister died 2 months later.  Stella has since returned to her regular self.