Report

By Michael Rampak (he died in 2004)

4 December 1999

As I received several inquiries about the treatment of Bushi's I decided to announce already how I treated him.

First I wanted to wait a few months longer to see how everything would go during a longer period of time. But as I already have such a great success in treating Bushi's I wanted already to start with the dispensing and update them monthly.

Something I have to clarify first, at the moment there is no possibility to heal SA to my knowledge, however, you can treat the effect of SA. I don't know if you can generalize this therapy, however, up to now I was very successful in treating Bushi.

Do I have to put Bushi down?

If you were seriously thinking about putting your dog down, how I did, and then find out that with quite a little effort you can transfer a nasty stinking, with inflammation covered, hairless creeping "something" into an Akita, you will be happy that you did not think that thought quite to the end.

I was thinking in putting Bushi down after I spent several thousand DM in medical bills and treatment without any success and Bushi's condition got worse.

Start of the Treatment

Last weekend in June 1999. All inflammation on Bushi's body were treated with "Calendumed" ointment. That will soften the crusts and you will be able to remove the crusts from the dog's body without pain after 4 to 6 hours. Where the remaining hair sticks together with the crust, you can carefully use a flea comb to remove the crust. If you can not get rid of all the crusts the first time, start all over again, in any case, you have to get rid of all the crusts first.

Don't stress out your dog, give him a break, continue with the procedure the next day and the next and so on, repeat the treatment 3 to 4 times a day, put also the ointment on the crust-free inflammation.

First, Bushi received 250 mg Vitamin E, one capsular daily, and 3 times 5 to 10 pills Calendula D2, after 4 weeks D4. Just put it with a spoon on his tongue.

One or two days later, when you got rid of all the crusts, put "Hettral St. John's Wort Oil" on the dog, 100 ml to 200 ml (milli liter), according to the remaining hair. Put the oil from the head to the toe, the dog has to look like he was fallen into an oil barrel. It's important that the oil reaches the skin and then rub it in gently. Careful, do not bring any oil in the dog's eyes or ears. If the inside of the ear is dry, put some Calendumed ointment in.

After you put the oil on the dog, you should keep your dog busy for 2 hours, the best is you take him for a long walk to avoid that he can lick off the oil from his body. If necessary, use a lamp-shade-collar. After 2 hours, give your dog a bath. In Bushi's case, I use "Editerm" from Virbac. Shampoo your dog two times, don't rub, the oil shall only be removed from the hair. At the end, I use a conditioner of "Humilac" which is also from Virbac. After the dog is dry, his fur will still be oily. Use a paper towel from time to time. After 2 or 3 days the remaining oil will be absorbed from the hair and skin.

You can mix your own St. John's Wort Oil: 200 ml high-quality Olive Oil and 10 ml Hypericum Original Tincture.

Repeat the treatment every 10 to 14 days

Repeat the oiling and bathing procedure every 10 to 14 days. In Bushi's case, a large amount of dandruff came off his skin during the first 8 to 10 days and his was scratching himself a lot. First, I thought I made a mistake but then I found out that this was just the natural healing process.

The first thing I noticed after a few days: that nasty smell what Bushi developed was gone. Now he smelled a little bit like rancid oil. On the hairless spots where the dandruff was gone first, the skin looked already healthy.

Two weeks later, I repeated the whole procedure, this time I used baby oil from "Buebchen" which contains no chemical conserving substances and only a minimum of perfume. 200 ml baby oil and 5 ml Calendula Original Tincture, let it work in for one or two hours and then use and shampoo and conditioner as described before.

First Success after 4 to 6 Weeks

After 4 to 6 weeks all superficial inflammation was healed and gone. On the hairless spots first hair started to grow back.

Each 2 weeks put the oil on the dog, let it work for 2 hours, bath and condition the dog. Mid of August 1999 it seemed that Bushi's hair grow started to explode. All inflammation were healed and he developed an activity which I have never seen before with him. At the same time, his appetite started to increase and as I know that hair consist of protein to a large amount, I fed him an extra meal every day.

End of September, Bushi regained 85% of his former looks. I increased the interval of the oil treatment to 3 weeks, at present 4 weeks.

Beginning of October, I added OMNIFLORA N, to improve his intestinal flora which suffered under the influence of all the given antibiotics.

It's now beginning of December and I have to think in something else as I did the oiling procedure outside up to now. Maybe I can also do it in the shower, well, then I have to sit two hours there with Bushi.

Up to now I can not determine what was the decisive factor of these products. I think everything started with St. John's Wort Oil: The result is lying beside me and smells like a dog which is the most beautiful Akita for me in the whole world.

With best regards
Michael

12 December 1999

Treatment in the Shower

Because of the cold weather I treated Bushi the first time in the shower where I put the oil on him and gave him later a bath. When I finally lured him in the shower with plenty of good words I discovered there was not enough room for both of us, only 90 x 90 cm (3' x 3'). Well, I grabbed a pillow, kneed on it and started to put the oil on Bushi.

After half an hour of putting the oil on him and rubbing it gently into his skin, to my surprise my intervertebral disks were still intact, I wanted to let the oil work at least for an hour. As long as I was working on Bushi, the time went by fast but now he showed first signs that he was ready to leave this small shower.

In order to shorten the time I started to tell Bushi stories and fairytales from my childhood which made my wife laugh out loud as she was nearby working in the kitchen. Finally time was going by fast and when I was done with the bath and the conditioning I wrapped Bushi into a towel and carried him outside in the yard where he started to run and jump like crazy. As a reward he got then a big doggie cookie.

When we had some coffee in the afternoon, my wife told me that

• the Mean Wolf who threatened Little Red Riding hood was killed by a hunter and not by an Akita
• the Frog turned into a Prince and not into an Akita
• in the Bible it's not mentioned that the two dogs which Noah saved were Akitas

With best regards
Michael

14 May 2000

Treatment still successful

Since December 1999 and my last emails to the list, nearly half a year passed by and when people asked my how Bushi was doing I always replied: "He is still fine".

It sounded like if I would wait that he would do worse again. The first 6 months after starting with the treatment I was afraid that there could be a relapse. There has to be something else, it could not be that easy. During the winter I had to put the oil on him and bath him in the shower which was not that easy. But it was worth it to spend approx. 3 hours per month for the treatment.

I started with the treatment in June 1999, at the beginning each 2 weeks, later each 3 weeks and finally only each 4 weeks. To see what would be the maximum I increased the interval to 5 and then to 6 weeks but then his skin was flaking off again and was very dry. Immediately I went back to the 4-week-treatment.

There was not a big change in the way of the treatment: each 4 weeks I put the baby oil on him, let it work for 2 hours, shampoo it off 2 times with Etiderm and put the conditioner with Humilac (8 cups for 1,5 liter water) on him. If I put too much oil on him I have to shampoo him a third time.

In January 2000 I stopped giving him Calendula D4 and he will get Vitamin E twice a week 250 mg.

Since I started with the treatment in June 1999 Bushi did not have any more inflammations and his fur looks much better, he regained 85 to 90% from his former looks. In springtime he lost most of his undercoat but it grow all back again. In January Bushi got his shots despite I was very concerned as each shot will influence his immune system. But everything was fine and in future he will get his shots regularly.

Unfortunately, I did not hear anything from other Akita owners if the treatment was successful or not

Unfortunately, I did not hear anything from other Akita owners if the treatment was successful or not.

Six owners of Akitas with SA contacted me due to my report in December 1999. As far as I know, none of them belongs to the list. I have heard that 2 dogs are doing fine now, 1 dog had to be put down, 1 dog was too old for the treatment and I did not hear anything about the other two once. All of them told me they would keep me informed how the dogs were doing but unfortunately none of them kept their promise. If I have heard something it was though a third party.

Bushi and I we will stick to the baby oil and Calendula Original Tincture for the next few years to treat this disease as there is no medication according to my knowledge. It seems that the hope for Ciclosporin will not be fulfilled.

Concluding Remark

Finally a remark to the report of the self-invented therapy for SA in the Akita Club Member Forum.

I worked out this therapy by myself but I also had some help from the email list. For instance, from Sabina Thiemeyer who helped me a lot with information and translations about SA and Kathi Eike who draw my attention to the St. John's Wort Oil for treatment of inflammation.

There were many big and small pieces which were collected from the Akita Friends and they were all put together to a picture which fills my heart with joy every day I look at it.

Up to now I can not determine what was the decisive factor of these products. I think everything started with St. John's Wort Oil: The result is lying beside me and smells like a dog which is the most beautiful Akita for me in the whole world.

With best regards
Michael Rampak (he died in 2004)

Information about Bushi

starting September 1996,
alots of examinations and allergy tests, because we did not know what to look for