My, this sounds like one of those 1950s teens gone bad novels, but unfortunately it’s not. It appears that I’m not the only one in my house with uncontrolled allergies. Nope, Scooter has them too.
Poor dog, we’ve been going through a dry patch here. Now there’s nothing to make a nose twitch (unless you’re on Bewitched!) like a month of tree pollen falling and no rain to wash it away. My car has a thin dusting of yellow pollen on it at all times. I’ve been sneezing and wheezing something terrible. I’ve upped my medication and my shots. I think next will be daily shots, and not the good kind.
But now Scooter has it too. His comes in the way of feeling itchy. He’s been scratching a lot lately, and he licks his paws constantly. So off to the vet we go. I get told to give him Benadryl, which helped, but not much. So we got dog steroids to give him. So he’s started those, and we’re keeping an eye on him.
Fortunately, rain is in the forecast, so perhaps the end is in sight (or it would be except for red, itching eyes!)
Of course, this gives me time to read Edgar books: 265 books read! Currently reading, The Broken Window, by Jeffrey Deaver.
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Jeff….our JackRussel was a mess with these issues too. Off to the vet….shot of whatever….big bills….only for the issues to return.
Don’t know who or where we ran into our solution, but it turned out to be his diet.
There was corn in his dry dog food. I think it may have been the breeder of our Airdale that suggested we steer clear of those food where corn is in the first 5 or 6 ingredients.
We did and ta-da….now we have a pretty good JackRussel on our hands.
JackRussels have may other issues to deal with….but no more skin, eye, nose, sneezing, etc problems.
We use Purina One for both of our guys.
There is more expensive stuff out there….and probably better….but this works for us….on them.
Zz
by Zorro
on September 26th, 2008 at 6:49 am
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Jeff, I see Zorro gave you the advice I was going to offer. Getting rid of the corn in Oscar’s diet worked wonders. Also, our vet once mentioned that plastics can irritate dogs. He suggested getting rid of plastic bowls and toys. That wasn’t Oscar’s problem, but it might be worth trying on Scooter. PS, we need an update picture of Scooter one of these days. I’ll bet he’s adorable!
by Casey
on September 26th, 2008 at 7:13 am
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So do dogs take human Benadryl, or is there a different dog kind?
by Judy
on September 26th, 2008 at 7:48 am
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Jeff;
Sorry to hear about your allergies.I worked for a polling company in Rochester N.Y. and we researched the worst cities for pollen Your city didn’t even make the list.
Top 25 Worst Cities for Allergy
1) Atlanta
2) Augusta, Ga. and Aiken, S.C.
3) Louisville, Ky.
4) Charlotte
5) St. Louis
6) Austin/San Marcos, Texas
7) Springfield, Mass.
Little Rock, Ark.
9) Knoxville, Tenn.
10) Allentown, Pa.
11) Orlando, Fla.
12) Jackson, Miss.
13) Tulsa, Okla.
14) Chattanooga, Tenn.
15) Nashville, Tenn.
16) Lexington, Ky.
17) Columbia, S.C.
18) Dallas and Fort Worth, Texas
19) Spartanburg, S.C.
20) Houston
21) San Antonio
22) Jacksonville, Fla.
23) Philadelphia
24) McAllen, Texas
25) Greensboro/High Point
by Orroz
on September 26th, 2008 at 10:23 am
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I give my girl Purina One as well, with the occassional ’snack bag’ of Innova EVO red meat dry food when I can afford it. Corn is the main contributor to dog allergy issues like that, and, like Casey said, the plastic bowls as well. Walmart carries the porcelin bowls; we’ve had her current set for over two years now, and they’re still going strong. (And dishwasher safe, which is a huge plus)
She gets Benadryl as well, for her size she gets 2 of the regular sized tablets. She had a bad day of hives, sneezes, and a lot of scratching when summer started in full swing, and I now keep a bottle on the kitchen window. (Judy, yes, it’s human Benadryl :-D) Does Scooter take his without a problem? Thunder Butt has figured out that the little pink pills make her sleepy and spits them out at me when I try to get her to take them normally.
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Scooter is so trusting that he’ll eat practically anything out of our hands. So we just stick 1/2 a people Benadryl in a hot dog, and he eats it up with no problem.
We’re trying frequent Epsom salt baths and changing up his food to ones that do not have any corn in them. I hope that helps..
by Jeff
on September 27th, 2008 at 8:43 pm
