A hard week...

Charlie is such a beautiful dog...thiese are two of my favorite pics of him. We found out this past Friday that Charlie has tumors and they are likely cancer. We noticed that he was bleeding from his nose then it progressed to his eye where we could see what looked like a tumor on his nose. X-rays confirmed what we already knew. They also confirmed that it is not just his nose but on his heart and other places. It has been a sad week around here. Charlie has been with us for two-thirds of our marriage and lived in three of our 6 homes. He is a survivor of heart worms, copperhead bites, numerous wanderings when he was younger that resulted in many great stories and living on the ranch. After his successful battle with heart worms we determined to get him a companion and by providence we found Chase which we believe to have added many years to his life. In fact we gave Chase his name because all he wanted to do was chase Charlie.

As of now Charlie is doing fine...chasing deer, barking at neighbors passing by, eating and laying around like normal. In the last two days since on antibiotics and Mommy's herbal concoctions he has started blowing out tissue through his nose that may be a sign of the tumor in his nose breaking up. David and I clean his nose with saline rinse and give him syringes of water and herbs in his mouth that usually start the sneezing fits, but are productive in getting the clots out of his nose. Sorry, this may be more detail than anyone wanted to know! Herbs I have been using are Yarrow tea, spirulina (suppose to be great for fighting cancer), astrangulus root, black walnut hull powder, colloidal silver drops in nose and eye, echinacea, blood builder(kelp, alfalfa, dandelion root, strawberry leaf) and raw milk kefir. A couple of helpful sites I found on treating dogs naturally are Holistic Cancer Treatment for Dogs . Preventing and Healing Animals Naturally
Below are pictures of Charlie over the past 10yrs...note how little Emily and J.Michael are! We continue to treat Charlie and have been in close contact with our vet who has been a great help.

Charlie about 7 months old. Emily is 4yrs.
Spring of 1999.

I love this picture...J.Michael and Charlie have been great
pals for 10yrs. This was taken at our house on Franklin St.
in Hillsboro,TX when J.Michael was 5yrs old.

Charlie was even in our family portraits for
Christmas cards. Dec. 2003



Charlie in the Hillsboro annual 4th of July parade 2004.


August 2004

Playing in the Lake at the Ranch.

J.Michael with Charlie and Chase his dogs and friend Taylor.
Summer 2005



Kathlena warming up to Charlie after 1month home. June 2008

Charlie and Andrew became quick friends. There is just
something about boys and dogs. July 2008

Charlie and the snake

As I awoke to the sound of barking today, not unlike other days really because the dogs are usually barking at something but today would be unlike any other. If you are Hank the Cowdog fans this story is going to sound all to familiar to you.

As I was saying Sally Mae...er umm I awoke to the sound of barking. J.Michael aroused quicker than I, ran out to investigate the situation. He quickly gave a report that the dogs had found a snake and not just any snake but a copperhead. I must admit I really did not think that it was a copperhead as we have had false sightings before. J.Michael was quite adimant though and said that Charlie was slinging it in his mouth. I am thinking that this is not good...I then ask J.Michael if the snake was dead and he replied "I think so it has lots of teeth marks in it" but apparently it wasn't because by the time we reached Charlie the snake was gone. Again, I am thinking maybe this was not a copperhead but the infamous "faking death long enough to get away" hognose snake that we have encountered many times in our backyard.

It wasn't long before we had pretty much confirmed it was a poisonous snake of some kind as we found Charlie with his head swelled up like he had eaten a watermelon whole (see pictures above) and it was still in his mouth. He was a little stumbly which gave me great concern so, I ran into the house and put watered down kefir in a suringe(the kind you use to marinate turkeys with) and squirted some in his mouth followed by two children's benedryls (chewable) which I keep on hand only for the dogs. This works for dogs with bee stings as well-another story for another time. Anyway, I didn't have but 2 left and for his size Charlie really needed 4 but I proceeded to grab up some herbal remedies too.

I rubbed clove oil on the puncture wounds...3 total along with thieves spray. I then put some olive leaf tincture in water, using the suringe and gave him several more suringes full of water. By this time he is swelling up nicely...Emily took pictures of course, see above. One of the important things is to give them lots of water to flush out toxins. I also made a poultice of bentonite clay, charcoal, and plantain in mineral oil and held on the wounds. Then I also gave Charlie a suringe of bentonite clay, charcoal and water to draw the poison out from inside and flush it out his system. As I was giving him this I noticed he seemed warm so I reached for my Yarrow and made a tea for him and again gave him this in the suringe. The kids and I prayed over Charlie and waited.

We watched him closely over the next hour and he did not show any signs of worsening so I continued to give him the yarrow tea, bentonite clay water, olive leaf, garlic, and kefir. Amazingly over the next few hours not only was he not getting worse but he was acting like himself and the swelling had gone done considerably. PTL!!!

Some may be thinking...why didn't she just take him to the vet? This did cross my mind especially at the thought of it being a copperhead most likely that bit him. Charlie is almost 10yrs old and has survived some serious illnesses through medical intervention that most dogs do not. I have been working on him for the past 6months to treat him naturally so, I just believed he was strong and that the Lord could heal him through the herbs so that is what I did.

I was called out to the yard again around 3pm when Charlie decided to make sure proper credit was given for his work. He brought us the dead copperhead. Pictured above...he is proud of his work. Mystery solved...it really was a copperhead after all.

I am happy to report that by 8pm , twelve hours later, Charlie is his old self again. He is out on patrol with almost no swelling left at all. He is a good dog and I am so thankful that he rooted out the copperhead and protected us. All in a good days work for the head of the Shiflet Home Security.

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Charlie back to his old self today(24hrs later) with no signs of the previous days incident. Amazing recovery. PTL!!

Okay, I know this post is not about adoption but one day Andrew and Kathlena will love Charlie too and I thought they would appreciate hearing this story. :)