My dog's portrait and a plea to all steemians!

This is a rendition of Pax. The most beautiful black labrador, part of my family for 13 years now.

Pax's health hasn't always been perfect. He has taken thyroid substitution medication since he was 3 years old and his digestive tract was highly sensitive. Pax is very sweet and empathic and he connected with our family at a very deep level. He feels our nervousness, sadness, happiness, and he has a simple demeanour towards many situations, except emotional turmoil, which seems to disturb him immensely. He seems to keep careful track of all the events in the family, all interactions and reacts with much wisdom to all outsiders, animal or human.

Recently Pax had some serious health problems that made him stop walking - Sciatica, back issues and stopping his thyroid medication. I never gave up on him and started treating him with a raw diet and natural remedies, since his intestines were so irritable. Unfortunately most of his life, Pax ate kibble, although I was always against it. He has a number of cysts probably from taking the thyroid medication. As he stopped the lumps got smaller and as he was back on it, they shrunk. I don't believe Pax should suffer because people tend to atribute everything to old age - as if there were a solution for that. You can get old and not waste away, as a human or dog. So I want to help Pax get better.

I'm having a lot of difficulty finding good information about natural substitutions for thyroid remedies for dogs. It's also difficult to find enlightening information about the side effects of thyroid medication in dogs and cyst growth. Surgery is not a good option for him right now and removing the cysts does not guarantee they won't come back anyway.

Meanwhile, please enjoy my art :)