Well, I haven't posted here about Maya in quite some time. Over-all, she is in full blown teenager mode! She's approaching 11 months and boy, she is such a funny young lady! She has become more and more vocal, and mouths off to me when she isn't getting what she wants Such a personality on my baby girl, as she grows older... I am seeing more and more qualities of each of the breeds she is mixed with (husky, chow chow, and heeler) She can be intensively driven and focused at times, and yet also very VERY stubborn at times (pretends- she- can't- hear- me syndrome). She has developed a couple of fearful tendencies in certain situations and around certain things, which, although they are a little concerning, I am encouraging her consistently through only positive reinforcement (and completely turning my back and ignoring the aloofness or fearfulness), and we are making very good progress! The big one is when it's time to put her harness on to go for a walk- she has become, (for no apparent reason, as it has always been a very gentle and neutral experience), either fearful of the process of putting the harness on, or perhaps the object itself, and will scurry away and hide behind the kitchen table. But by ignoring her, and praising immensely when she walks back over to me by the back door, she's slowly becoming more comfortable and exhibiting the behavior a little less often. Besides that, she is smart as all hell, learns new tricks very easily and is doing very good with her heeling and loose leash walking too! As far as her health goes, however, I do have some more troubling news. Maya has always been a finicky eater. Her pickiness has, however, become worse and worse over the past few months. I have exhausted all feeding options, and have gotten to a point where I cook (she won't touch raw) either chicken, beef, or eggs for her to mix with her kibble (currently Nature's Variety Instinct rabbit). There are days recently where she will not even eat more than about half a cup of food.) The most I can get her to eat is about 1 cup of kibble split into two feedings, each time mixed with some beef, chicken, or eggs. Those are the really good days. Each meal is stressful, I just want to see her want to eat and thrive. I began to really get concerned about a month ago when I noticed how thin she was starting to get (note* she has not lost any weight, but has not gained much either, and as she gets taller and longer, she also gets thinner... weighed 31 pounds at 6.5 months, weighs 34 pounds currently at 10.5 months) and I also noticed the quality of her coat becoming thin and wiry, poor over-all to thick plush texture of her fur a few months ago. So we went to the vet, (who is absolutely wonderful, by the way), and did a basic blood panel in addition to a stool and urine sample. Everything came back negative. Our vet said that besides being underweight, she looks great, teeth/ gums are great, everything sounds/ feels/ looks on point. Her level activity or happiness has not changed or diminished. The only notable change in behavior was the fearfulness that has started. Just this week we went back in for another blood test, this time GI panel, and also a heartworm test. I should be hearing back from the vet by Monday at the latest, and I have my fingers crossed that A) we figure out a plausible reason why she gotten to the point where she has almost no interest in food whatsoever, and B) that it is hopefully something simple and easily treated!! I am a worried wreck, but I am just trying to provide her so much love and comfort in the meantime.

But anyway, I do have some (well, many) photos to share with you! I made Maya a new winter jacket to keep her warm while she plays outside (she is thin and gets chilly after a while, but loves to play outside and gets rammy indoors if she doesn't get out to play for a while!) Here are a bunch of photos from today of her being her cute self out in the backyard











































Anyway, thanks for reading and looking at the pics! I will post an update when I hear back from the vet.

EDIT: I don't believe these photo links work. Photobucket is down so I used a different photo hosting site instead... Once photobucket is back up I will get these photos up to share

EDIT again: Photos are fixed!

Welcome back! I hope you get to the bottom of whatever is causing her lack of appetite, and can't wait until you get those pics uploaded

Thank you Megan!

Oooh adorable pics. Love her lil coat.

Thanks again Megan!

Anyway, a lil update on Maya's health & lack of appetite situation. The gi panel came back completely negative/ normal. One thing did show up though- Maya has been infected with a tick borne disease called anaplasmosis. (I treat her monthly with Adavantix, but it's not 100%; we live in a lightly wooded area and I've definitely pulled some ticks off of her in the summer and into late fall.) After doing some research on it (I had never heard of anaplasmosis before), it is my understanding that this can cause.... dun dun dun... lack of appetite! Poor baby has been sick for months now. I feel better knowing that there is a reason for what we thought was "pickiness" for so long. And that we can now treat for it and get her feeling better and gaining weight. And thank goodness it is easily treatable. Treatment is a 30 day course of doxycycline. We are treating for intestinal worms too, just to be safe. (Stool sample was normal, but vet says she may not have been shedding worms at the time I collected the sample.)

Hopefully she will start feeling better and putting on pounds soon!

She is beautiful!! I'm glad you got to the bottom of everything!

Good news! Glad you figured it out! Hope she starts feeling better soon! She is so precious.

Hooray for getting to the bottom of that! I know a few weeks ago Yuki was pooping wayy too much and I couldn't figure it out, stool samples were negative and she got a clean health bill, but then I found out I was simply feeding her too much. I guess at 7 months she still needs what she got at 4 months lol

She is beautiful and so grown up! I love her winter coat.

I'm so glad you got to the bottom of her appetite issue and hope to see her get better!

She's beautiful! Glad you found out what was making her lose her appetite!

great pictures! love her coat