Z-girl is allergic to everything under the sun. She’s had atopic dermatitis, which essentially means she had a rash. Of course for dogs, a rash means their hair falls out in the areas where there is a rash.
The doctor put her on steroids but we stopped that because we feared liver damage. Then they put her on this medication that came in the form of a horse pill and $ figure that made our bank account smaller. Lrudlrick was tired of shelling out the $$ for the pills because they only treated the symptoms which meant it would be a maintenance drug. So instead we tried twice weekly baths with thick goopy medicated shampoo.
That started working. We were relieved until her eye started getting goopy. She had this dark ring around her right eye and she started looking like Petey.
Then her ears started to smell, really smell. So we started cleaning them twice a week but they still were a bit funky.
Then she developed a reverse sneeze and a cough.
It has gotten to the point now that the doctor has put her on as Dr. House would say, “broad spectrum antibiotics” and a restricted diet.
Personally, I don’t think it’s her diet since it’s been the same forever. Because of P-man’s ACL rupture, we used to feed them Eukanuba Senior Plus with Glucosamine & Chondroitin. They loved that stuff. Now we have to pay an additional $10 for Eukanuba Response FP, which is for dogs with skin conditions. These are the main ingredients: Potato, Herring Meal, Catfish, Animal Fat, Dried Beet Pulp, Fish Digest. Mmm. Tasty.
So now every morning and every evening, my husband does the Z-girl ritual:
Ear cleaning BID
Panalog ointment applied in the ear BID
Eye cleaning BID
Neobacimyx-H applied to the eye TID
Clavamox 375 mg 2 tab orally BID
Hydroxyzin 5g 1 tab orally BID
Triaminic Cough and Sore Throat 2 tsp orally PRN
Oh and P-man gets Cosequin DS 1 cap orally OD
One of my kitchen counters has now become a pharmacy of meds and cotton balls for the dogs. With all these meds and ailments, would you believe our veterinarian said that Z-girl’s allergies are nothing compared to some cases he’s seen?
Poor Z-girl has been pretty comfortable with it all though. It’s now become routine. She no longer shivers in the bathtub. She jumps in all by herself. I guess it’s more like a spa treatment for her now. She lies patiently as we clean out her ears and eyes and even waits patiently as we gag in disgust at the icky stuff coming out of her ear.
I just wish we knew what she was allergic too. We thought the tests were conclusive about pollen and ragweed. This all started after we moved by the park. I read somewhere that it may still be pollen and ragweed and that the body is just simply reacting to the stimulants in other ways. We attack the skin rash and it moves to the ears. We attack the ears and it moves to the eye. We attack the eye and she develops sneezing and coughing.
The doctor said we now have to wait. See what is working and slowly remove each antibiotic and determine what is the primary stimulant to her histamine buildup.
As long as he doesn’t put my dog in the MRI of doom, I’ll follow his orders.
Anyone else have a dog allergic to the world?
L: Haha. ‘This food is specially formulated for dogs that are allergic to food.’ – Lrudlrick reading the brochure on dog food allergies.
Related tags: allergies dog
