Our dog suddenly developed what we thought were allergies to the environment - potentially grass seed because he occasionally had previously been itchy for short periods during spring/summer. I was, however, conscious that he had 15.5 centimetres (six inches) cut out of his gut and two weeks of various meds prior to emergency surgery for what had been an undiagnosed bowel obstruction. On top of that he had to endure three or four 2-3 hour round trips to the after hours vet and Massey University. I was aware that in humans when any part of your gut/stomach/bowel is removed then there is reduced nutrient absorption. I started to wonder whether that was the problem so looked at probiotics. We have been using the acute twice a day for about 17 days together with the internal (spray on food) product once a day because we only feed once. There was an instant improvement evidenced by a significant reduction in scratching. After a few days the scratching increased slightly but nowhere near as before. More recently he has developed "hot spots" and is looking worse in some respects. I think the excessive licking hasn't helped. He was doing that anyway, but he appears to LOVE the taste of micromed. The licking and what ever the condition is, has over time resulted in the thinning of his hair. He is a staffy so didn't start with a thick coat anyway. Licking and scratching bare skin leaves scratch marks with occasional broken skin. So, his current presentation is that he has less scratching but now has developed "sores" or raised red lumps. I did not at all attribute the decline to micromed. What is a relief and very interesting is that I have carried on spraying twice a day. If I see the the angry looking "wet" looking but not broken or oozing lumps in the morning spray, by the night application they are no longer inflamed, are less "angry" and have dried. Same if I notice them at night. By morning there is a significant improvement. I attribute the change to micromed. I rang Maria yesterday who was extremely helpful. She explained there could be a number of things going on but the most immediate thing being the huge amount of drugs he was given. Like, four lots of general anaesthetic. (I didn't tell her it was more than once). There were of course other possible causes but the impact of the huge amount of very potent drugs will have caused neurotoxicity. (the adverse effect on the structure and function of the neuro system. Humans get this - think alcohol abuse & codine, treatment for neurological conditions and even nerve pain. It isn't just methamphetamine and THC/Cannabis)
I am a mixed follower of traditional and alternate medicine but definitely an anti processed food or processed anything person. BUT I am very conscious of populist "fads" so like to rely on scientific research/studies. I listened to Maria. Her explanations and advice made sense. Everything she said she supported with to science. I had already been researching looking at the expert opinion of both "alternative" and traditional proponents. I consider the advice from Maria to be well supported by scientific studies.
I was also very impressed that Maria answered her phone after two rings and spoke with me for half an hour then, after suggesting an approach and articles to read, she suggested I phone her in a month to discuss our dogs response so that she could give further advice if required. Our conversation was focused. She did not launch into a populous one approach covers all rave. She asked open questions without suggesting the answer she needed. She analysed the data I provided then came up with a few potential issues, triaged them, then suggested which issue we should target first. She did not suggest a scatter gun approach which I thought was good.
Despite what appears to be a decline in our dogs skin, I absolutely think micromed has made a difference. I have read some, but not many, reviews where users have found micromed has made no difference. This has prompted me to untypically place a review.
My sense is that it is likely to take some months for our dog to recover largely due to the essential chemical intervention he endured. (He was nearly dead and so bad that we were advised there was a high chance he would not survive such extensive surgery and treatment). Some conditions and animals may not respond to micromed but there is a huge body of research about the importance of probiotics in humans. My comment is this: 1. I think that due to there being so many rave reviews that there may be an unrealistic expectation of instant dramatic improvement 2. Depending on what is going on the acute spray may be needed for two weeks intensive application. 3. The micromed may need to be just one of several interventions/approaches. My most significant comment is that if you feel Micromed is making no/minimal difference then phone Micromed directly because the advice is invalu...
