Y
ou’d have thought she was a
model coming straight from a
photographer’s studio. “Strike a
pose,” Dan Mullaney would tell Tiffany,
and she’d move into position for the
camera, ready for the perfect photo.
“There was no doubt she knew exactly
what she was doing,” Mullaney says.
Tiffany Louise, a most precocious sable
Pomeranian, was quite the little lady.
So when Tiffany’s fur started falling
out and she began having seizures,
Mullaney and his wife Teri launched
a desperate crusade to help their
beloved pet. Her doctor, a respected
conventional veterinarian, ran tests and
diagnosed Tiffany with liver failure. Her
prognosis: two months to live. The vet
suggested that the Mullaneys give their
dog milk thistle (Silybum marianum)
and a commonly prescribed phar-
maceutical drug that the Mullaneys
quickly had to discontinue, because it
made Tiffany even sicker.
Unwilling to accept the finality of
their vet’s report, the Mullaneys sought
a second opinion. Their search led them
to Shawn Messonnier, doctor of veteri-
nary medicine, a holistic veterinarian
near their home in Plano, Texas. Based
on details in Tiffany’s blood work, Mes-
sonnier, author of The Natural Health
Bible for Dogs & Cats and The Natural
Vet’s Guide to Preventing and Treating
Cancer in Dogs, arrived at a different
diagnosis: Cushing’s disease, a glandular
disorder that causes overproduction of
the hormone cortisol and, consequently,
obesity, muscle weakness, osteoporosis
by victoria l. Freeman
and other conditions.
“Many vets mistake Cushing’s for
liver disease,” says Messonnier, “be-
When Pets Go
cause there are similarities in blood test
results.” He suggested several natural
therapies, such as a whole-foods diet,
Natural
a multivitamin supplement, an herbal
supplement and a glandular support
formula.
Cushing’s can be fatal on its own or
can lead to other life-threatening condi-
tions, such as diabetes, liver or kidney
failure and congestive heart failure, but
The alternative and complementary therapies
Tiffany rallied on the holistic treatments.
And, even though the Mullaneys had
that work so well in humans can also have
to say a tearful good-bye to Tiffany just
before her 14th birthday, Mullaney says,
“I don’t have any
value for your animal companion.
scientific proof, but I believe the holistic
24 New Haven/Middlesex Counties
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