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[Richard]

Hans went to the vet this morning. His echocardiogram has now normalized to what it looked like before the chagas bugs got to his heart. Bloodwork is being sent now to A&M to see if they can find the Chagas organisms still in his blood. This is AWESOME!!! Looks like he's going to be the miracle dog and the first to beat Chagas disease! (knock on wood). I swear I think our vet was even more excited than we were at his improvement.

In other news, he still has problems with edema in his right hind leg. Looks like the bugs did some permanent damage to his lymphatic system there. It doesn't bother him but we now wrap his leg with an ace bandage during the day to help push some of the fluid out so it doesn't swell to much. I'm ordering leeches to try on his leg . One vet says they do wonders on fixing damaged lymphatics so we'll give it a try. This should be interesting and a little gross.

[evayola]

How fantastic! That is so amazing and I am thrilled for you and Hans! Good luck with the leaches, it is amazing what they can do. Congrats

Eva

[carolh]

Hooray for Hans.  Hooray for you Richard.  Thanks for keeping us posted.  You'll get used to the leeches -- I speak as one who likes to tramp in rivers (now without the dogs, thanks to blasto).
Carol

[Richard]

Hello Everybody,

Hans is still doing great. We had stopped the itra/amiodarone treatment for a quite a while and Hans was doing just fine. Then we had contacted the doctor in Venezuela who had done the original human study on this treatment and he was really excited to hear about it. He had us send bloodwork to him so he could test if  Hans still had Chagas parasite in his blood (a test he developed that isn't available in the US). That test showed he did still have parasites in his blood even though he was asymptomatic. Although we aren't sure what the test results mean since they don't have any baseline for canines. So we went ahead and started him back on treatment until we get more info.

Our vet now has dozens of dogs on the treatment and the military has recently contacted him about it. They have a bunch of dogs and Reeses monkeys that have contracted the disease. The Dr. in Venezuela has just recieved a grant so he is now able to do testing on all the dogs my vet is treating so we should eventually get enough data to know if Hans need to stay on the drugs or not.

So this is all pretty exiciting. As my vet says, this may end up saving thousands of dogs and it's all thanks to Hans  .

Anyways, just thought I'd give a quick update.

Take Care All.

[Richard]

Forgot to mention, the damage to Hans's lymphatics was permanent so we keep his legs wrapped to prevent them from swelling. He ended up developing some chrronic wounds (similar to what diabetics get) that were really getting bad. So we tried a number of meds/ointments but they kept getting worse. Finally I started looking on horse forums for ideas (apparently horses tend to get some really nasty wounds) and found out about manuka honey. The stuff is amazing at healing wounds. So if your dog (or you) ever have a wound that won't heal try manuka honey, it works.

[Wilson3]

your the 2nd person to use the honey on here good to hear it is working

that is wonderful that you contacted that vet and that Hans can help many more to come
you took that extra step and millions can be helped ... 
as the saying goes.. "Things always happen for a reason"
Really glad to hear Hans is sill doing so well!
wilson3

[kmouse]

I read your story and saw your picutre of Hans - what a beautiful dog! i was pleased to see that he is doing well. Also all the wonderful information that you have provided. Our dog Happy is just starting his battle and we pray each and every day that he will make it thru. Thank you for sharing what you have learned!