The end of the taper...

It's been a great few months on the steroids.  Since my last post, over two and a half months ago, Riley has never missed a meal and he continues to eat ravenously.  Actually, he's kind of a pig!  He can't stop the food thing.  He even whines and cries a bit with excited anticipation at meal time, watching us prep the food.  It's a bit rude and we're attempting to correct the misbehavior but, frankly, we're so thrilled that he gobbles up all of his food, we almost don't care!

The wasting that he's had is almost completely reversed.  As you can see from this recent photo of him, his facial wasting is completely gone; 

He has followed the taper to the end and after Friday night he will have no more.  Dr. West said that, typically, if a dog would have a "rebound" in his symptoms, it happens at the point when we go from daily dosing to every other day dosing, and that was almost a month ago.

There is no doubt that his "air scratching" symptoms from his COMS/SM is definitely up from what it was a few months ago at the beginning of the steroids, but it's not any worse than it has been for the past few years prior to the "incident" and flare up last September.

We are so very grateful to be starting off 2013 with our boy, back to his normal self.