Didn't Get to Knit
Instead of knitting yesterday, I ended up taking my black dog, Truffles, back to the vet less than a week after her rabies shot.
She's gotten the occasional "hot spot" in the summer ever since we adopted her from a rescue. This year she's done really well, no hotspots so far. Until Tuesday night, when she was licking and chewing long black hair off herself. Ow.
The vet believes that the underlying problem is probably allergies. Instead of respiratory symptoms, like congestion, allergic dogs tend to get dermal symptoms, the way a human might get hives. She was fine while the summer was dry and droughty, and then within days of a heavy rain got a hot spot.
Truffles tends to get obsessive-compulsive about these itchy spots, licking them so much they take a long time to scab over and heal. So today my poor itchy puppy has the plastic cone on her head, and she's not very happy.
I want to get a picture of her, but she's finally dozing, and I think I'll let her sleep.
Labels: dogs
posted by Alwen | 9:27 AM
3 Comments:
Poor doggie. Our vet used to give out sedatives to our dog (who was allergic to fleas, if you can imagine). When she was really bad, we'd keep her doped up. I'm not sure if vets do this any more, or if they ever really did - the vet we knew was an old family friend and knew we could be trusted not to accidentally OD the dog.
My mother (who was a vet's assitant her entire adult life) used to shave the spots with a disposable razor, apparently removing the hair can help healing. (???) Though getting the dog to hold still for it can be more trouble than it's worth.
Poor, poor doggie.
My dogs are scratching more than usual also, but so far no hot spots.
Pappy was prone to hot spots until we started getting him clipped short in the summer. It doesn't prevent the scratching, but the short fur helps the licking dry up faster.
Sympathy to black dog. It must be awful not being able to reach his discomfort spot.
the post title alone made me sad but the poor doggy is also a sad story. It must be awful to be a big hair hound in summer, and to have allergies at the same time.
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