Two years ago, when my "niece" wanted to play dress-up:
Posing at my mom and dad's:
All this by way of telling you about our unexpected trip to the vet today. Reba has chronic yeast infections in her ears, and they seem to be getting worse and more frequent. When she has one, the pain and itching cause her to shake her head a lot. Last night, my PCA and I discovered a HUGE hematoma in her left ear -- her head shaking caused her to break a blood vessel in her ear, and the blood pooled under the skin. So this morning my friend Kim drove us to the vet where I had to leave her to have the hematoma drained. While I was there, I asked them to do her yearly heartworm test (so I could get more heartworm preventative) and do a fine needle aspiration of a lump on her side. The doc looked her over thoroughly and noticed from her skin that she appeared to have allergies. He said the allergies could exacerbate the yeast problem, and most allergies are from food. So long story short and $734.59 later, this is what happened:
-- She was konked out, her hematoma was drained and her ear bandaged, and her ears were thoroughly irrigated
-- I bought a small bag of prescription, hypoallergenic dog food (I won't bore you with the scientific details of how it's hypoallergenic) that we'll see if she eats. We'll probably keep her on it for 2-3 months and then introduce her to various foods (boiled chicken, hamburger) to see if she starts itching again. It may just be that she's allergic to one particular thing (like chicken), and then I can buy her regular (non-prescription) dog food without the allergen. She cannot have ANYTHING else during this trial period -- no treats, no peanut butter.
-- I'm to up her Benadryl from 25 mg 1X daily to 100 mg 3X daily. I also have to give her an oral antibiotic (because of the surgery) and an oral yeast treatment 2X daily each -- WITHOUT the aid of peanut butter! Just now, while talking to Mom, I thought about calling to see if the vet has hypoallergenic canned food in which I can hide her pills.
-- We go in for weekly ear checks for the next three weeks.
-- She's supposed to wear her bandage for three weeks. *laughs* If she doesn't shake it off before the next ear check, I'll be surprised.
So that was my fun day today, along with HEAVY rain (yes, I got wet) and lunch with another faculty job candidate. My mom as we were hanging up -- "Go get some rest."
I'll try. Good night, Faithful Reader, and I hope you have a great day tomorrow and a great weekend.
6 comments:
Oh my goodness, sounds like you had quite the day yesterday!
What a gorgeous dog Reba is. That is so neat that you were able to train her. I was going to train my dog Chelsea to help me out, but I guess I just didn't have the patience for that. My Chelsea (a Labrador/Spaniel) suffered from the chronic ear infections also. Does Reba's ears stink when she shakes her head? I remember Chelsea's ears would stink up to high heaven whenever she would shake.
Michelle -- Yes, Reba's ears REEK when she has an infection, and that plus the head shaking are the clear indicators of a yeast infection. They are common in "floppy-eared" dogs because any moisture that gets into the ear cannot easily evaporate because the pinna (ear flap) covers the canal. Infections caused in this manner are easily prevented -- don't get water in the ear, or dry the ear very well.
In Reba's case, though, the vet thinks her extremely frequent and intense infections (within a week of treating one she has another) are due to allergies of some nature. The allergen irritates her body which messes with her immune system which leaves her more susceptible to infection. The most common and easily tested source of allergies in dogs is food -- thus our food trials.
Next summer when you are home, plan on a trip to the Black Hills, and you can get all that vet care plus pay for your trip for about the same cost! I take my dogs to my mom's super awesome vet when I am home in Wyoming, cuz it is ultra cheap and good care. Last time we got Cheyenne all her shots, and a check-up for like $40 dollars and the time before that, both of my dogs got their teeth cleaned (with sedative) and all their shots for $90. It makes me cry when I have to use the vet here! Glad everything is treatable!
I too am glad that you have an service dog like Reba who can make life easier. I do have to ask though, since I have been trying to figure out the logictics myself, do you do the walking twice a day yourself? I can't figure that part out for me, so asking.
I feel very sorry for Reba with her infections and sorry for you for getting wet AND being $700 plus down.
Jennifer -- I usually do the majority of Reba's vet care at home. Unfortunately, this couldn't wait. I also didn't mention everything that was done and the medicines that were prescribed to add up to $700+. All things considered, it was an excellent price, but it was a lot for a gimp who pays her PCAs out-of-pocket to spend all at once.
Beth -- A lot of Reba's bathrooming is my PCA opening the door and me rolling out on to the patio because I live in a ground floor apartment. My attendants help me with picking up her poo, filling her food and water bowls, giving her medicine to her, and bathing her when necessary (which isn't too often since I have to get her groomed). As I mentioned before, it's easy for me to get my PCAs to do these things because I'm self-directed and have the luxury of including those tasks in the job description. Her walking is done by going with me to and from class and the office -- and I have a power wheelchair.
Hopefully we can figure out in the next few months what exactly she's allergic to. If we can isolate the allergen, then I can make sure she doesn't get any and thus hopefully prevent/reduce the yeast infections. Then I won't have to keep spending money on ear cleaners and topical ointments and medicated drops and the occasional hematoma drain (she had to have two performed within a month two years ago).
Hi
I've never posted a comment, but thought I might add something to the dog/allergy thing. One of my dogs, a retriever, has the food allergies from hell.
There are a few things that make his life tolerable and manage his allergies wonderfully- 1 is I feed him a raw diet (makes eliminating certain foods incredibly simplistic, he is highly allergic to chicken & turkey, do you know just how many commercial dog foods put chicken EGGS in them?! It' still CHICKEN! Same proteins! but I digress. My vet who is rather anti-raw even agrees with me on this one, he has come to realize that Niche would probably be in total hell 24/7 if he was on anything but a raw diet), and 2 I take him when he is having a flare up to a vet acupunturist who works at a local vet hospital. The 3rd thing I do if he is having an incredibly difficult time is 5mg pred 1x daily for 2 days. I try to use this very very sparingly since pred can have such adverse side effects. Oh yeah, when his ears are a mess I also do daily head bathing with a medicated hypoallergenic shampoo which helps reduce the itching. And almost forgot, I also now give him a human grade high quality pro-biotic every day and that is helping a lot as well too.
Knock on wood he's never had a hemoatoma, and I rarely have to use an ear ointment or antibiotic.
Food allergies can be the worst though.
The other thing to be careful of is what the groomer is bathing her with. And to use cool water when bathing. Niche is allergic to a lot of things they put in various dog shampoos. I can only bath him with the mesalab hypoallergenic to assure that he won't react to it. Then again this dog goes in the swamp and comes out fine, just can't bath him with 99% of stuff out there.
Don't know if any of this helps. Good luck!!
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