That's tough, Andrea. I know it's really a really hard position to be in - the hardest thing to do is nothing. In general, my position is to do nothing, at least as far as chemical medications, unless it's really necessary. But that's easier to say than do when it's not your dog. I ran across this (pasted below) and thought of you. Maybe it will be useful. I guess I'd probably try to avoid medication unless it was really bad. Maybe you could see
Dr. Ditonto in Ada? I've been really impressed with her.
Jeffrey Levy, DVM - "The greatest harm of drug treatment is usually not so much the toxicity or side effects as it is the effects of suppression. Allopathic (conventional Western) medical thinking generally seeks immediate gratification: just make the symptom go away. So the patient may be better in the short term, but is usually worse in the longer term. Homeopathy is just the opposite: sometimes the symptoms are worse in the short term (such as with aggravation or the reversal of a previous suppression), but the real benefit is in the longer term. A symptom, say itchy skin, is the body's response to a deeper problem. When a symptom is suppressed, it is only the outward manifestation of the problem that goes away. Since the deeper problem is still there, the body may, in time, produce the same symptom again. Another possibility is that, as a result of the suppression, the deeper problem progresses to the point that a deeper, more serious symptom is produced. So the itchy skin may go away, but then chronic diarrhea develops. If the diarrhea is then suppressed as well, it may lead to, say, liver disease. But hey, at least the skin is cleared up! I see this pattern, or variations on it, very frequently in reviewing the medical records of new patients. It is the unrecognized, and often high, price that we pay for the quick fix, for immediate gratification, for the shot or pill that seems to make the problem go away."