“After a year, I had hope”: Jini’s Story
Our pets are our family. They deserve every possible chance at a healthy, happy life. When you are faced with a “sick” pet, it can be heartbreaking to watch them suffer. Especially when the hope seems to be dwindling, along with their zest for life. We encourage pet parents to never stop advocating and digging deeper for how to maintain and restore you pet’s health. It can be a hard road, but they deserve it.
This is Jini’s story about hope and what happens when pet parents fight for their fur babies. Too often a pet parent is told their pet is getting old, has genetic predispositions, or receive surface-level diagnoses. We believe that true healing and health start with the Roots: root cause, root wellness, and root nutrition. We are honored to serve Jini and her family, and to see her recovery after a really hard road. Thank you Nivedita for sharing!
Jini’s Story:
“In 2017, I was losing hope for my nearly 11 year old German Shepherd, Jini. She was lethargic, she was overweight even though she was barely eating due to a poor appetite, and she was slowly losing all her fur. It got so bad that each night, I would go to bed with her near so I could check to make sure she was still breathing. I would lift her with a harness onto the bed since she no longer could come up on her own due to a limp and weak hind legs. Each morning, I was cleaning the flaky mess she was leaving behind due to her condition, whatever that was. Three different vets had given me false hope that it was just a case of mange. No one could pinpoint the root cause of her condition. The pills and potions they gave me did nothing to prove this as these things did not work and she continued to get worse. She had started seeing a chiropractor, Dr. Angelo, for her limp and that seemed to be helping but nothing else was. I had all but lost hope at this point and just wanted Jini to be comfortable the remaining time I had with her. So when Dr. Angelo recommended I go see a new vet in town, Dr. Adam Lassin, I was skeptical to say the least but figured after three vets and six months of no diagnosis, I had nothing to lose at this point. So I made an appointment for Jini with Dr. Lassin in May 2017.
Upon first meeting Dr. Lassin, I noticed right off that he was friendly but very direct. He immediately noticed the tell-tale pattern of hypothyroidism in Jini’s fur loss and asked if she’d had a full thyroid panel done and I mentioned her blood work just a few months prior in January. Dr. Lassin said that’s not enough and ordered the full thyroid panel along with a few other tests. He continued with the routine examination and as soon as he had the results of the thyroid panel, he called me and let me know what he had suspected… that Jini had a severe case of hypothyroidism. He told me that I have a few choices and gave me all the options I had available to me. What I really loved is that he had a holistic approach using integrative medicine, both eastern and western practices allowing me a lot of flexibility. He was very honest and open about the potential consequences.
In the end, I opted for the integrative approach because Jini needed synthetic thyroid but there were other symptoms that were secondary to her hypothyroidism that also needed treatment and we worked out a more natural approach using Traditional Chinese Medicine and other holistic methods. We also learned she was reacting to several different proteins so we had to eliminate those from her diet based on Dr. Lassin’s recommendation. And I finally started seeing positive results! Jini initially lost weight too rapidly so Dr. Lassin was always available to make adjustments to her thyroid dose but once that stabilized, Jini began thriving. She had an appetite again and she was beginning to become more active. Her fur started coming back. She was interested in people and generally everything around her. I heard her barking again after several months of no interest in anything around her. For the first time in nearly a year, I had hope!
Jini celebrating after her 14th birthday!
That hope did not go astray. Jini turned 14 on July 16, 2020. And what better way to celebrate than to see the vet that has helped her get to this point, Dr. Lassin, at his brand new practice, Roots Integrative Veterinary Care. She is looking better than ever. She can climb up onto the bed and sofa on her own again. She is going on her long walks, she is eating all her food and she is playing with her toys and her ball again. She is chasing other dogs, she is demanding to be petted by people, and she is barking at the postal workers and UPS and FedEx trucks and all the other neighborhood threats we see everyday. Jini has never looked better as a senior dog and we have Dr. Lassin to thank for the guidance and care he’s given her. We have a long and very inconvenient drive to see Dr. Lassin, but we do it because he is the best out there. He will always be her vet and our vet for all our fur babies! Thank you, Dr. Lassin and your wonderful team for your love of animals and veterinary care and best of luck in your new practice.”