Wednesday, July 10, 2013

nachos has issues

poor little nachodoggy.


he has allergies.

he has had allergies off and on since we moved from california to north carolina. for a few weeks in the spring, summer, and fall, he licks at his legs to the point that he bites the fur off and he's left with open sores. the vet calls them 'hotspots.'

after reading "some of my best friends are germs" in the new york times last month, i am wondering if he just does not have the microbes needed to deal with southeastern allergens, since he was born and raised in the desert of southern california.

last year the vet prescribed antihistamines which i gave him 2x/day for 2 weeks and did nothing at all whatsoever to relieve his itching.

allergies are the single greatest cause of vet visits in the US. he could be allergic anything - though grass is what i suspect. it could be cleaning products, leather, plastic, wool, carpets, corn, wheat, anything. 

it was so bad last week, he was scratching and licking and biting himself 23 hours a day. he wasn't sleeping. nobody in the house was sleeping. he is not quiet when he is scratching. he slams his feet into the floor. he whimpers. he pants. it's really sad. i tried to empathize and i imagine it feels like poison ivy, but worse, because he doesn't know that itching it spreads it. it got to the point i was thinking his misery was so great the kind thing would be to put him to sleep.

but instead of euthanasia, nacho has been getting oatmeal baths! for humans. the same oatmeal baths that helped my poison ivy. i mix the oatmeal and hot water in a bowl and then dump the bowl into a kiddie pool outside full of cold water. every day, nacho takes an oatmeal bath in a kiddie pool in the driveway.  he loves it.

kevin found this stuff online called dermapaw and figured it's worth a shot. it's all natural and soothing - it looks like a little jar of vaseline. i put it all over nacho's legs and belly at bedtime. and then - the best part - nacho wears socks!



every morning the socks are off, but still - it's pretty cute while it lasts!

i would say his itching has been relieved drastically by these two treatments. after 3 days, it was down about 50%. Today (5 days) it is down about 75%, if not more.  he seems so much more comfortable.

thank you aveeno oatmeal baths and dermapaw!

side note: the title of this is "nachos has issues." this is what kevin's 4 year old niece told us when we were talking about how nacho used to be afraid of small children. she obviously was repeating what somebody had told her, and it was hilarious. the same niece also looked at pouncey and said 'pouncey has a penis.' to which her father responded, 'pouncey DOES have a penis.' kevin & i have adopted both of these phrases - nachos has issues, and pouncey has a penis - into the vernacular. thank you unintentionally hilarious toddlers!


5 comments:

A Day in the Life of One Girl said...

Poor little guy - miserable! I hate it when I can't sleep!!
Ha! Just the other day my son reminded all of us that our dog did NOT have a penis. Thanks for the update!

Anonymous said...

Skippy....get with your mom. Little Henry has had the same experience, incuding going to the vet several times for answers. He's been good for quite a while now but it's very painful to watch him go through it.
Poor things

kid D said...

poor fella

Anonymous said...

Lelly

Henry was itching like crazy last year..May maybe...Vet said allergies & gave him a cortis
one shot....worked for 1 month..started again ...went back ..got another one..lasts only a month though.
Then found out he had fleas!!! yuck
Had him defleaed & the house too
Hasn't had the crazy itching since...I think he was misdiagnosed & had fleas the whole time.
Has your vet offered a cortisone shot?
It's brutal watching them scratch!!

MOM
XOXO

skippy haha said...

thanks for the comments! the vet did not offer cortisone shot. may try that if it gets bad again.

i saw online people suggested benadryl too. at least it would make him drowsy so there would be some relief there.

how did you deflea the house?

we are giving them all trifexis a chewable flea & worm pill now since we moved here, because the other topical stuff frontline would wash off after 2 days in the river. asheville is such a buggy jungle we have to give them the pills every 3 weeks instead of a month to keep fleas away. pouncey was covered in fleas when we first got him, and for the next couple months until we found the trifexis he had fleas. but he doesn't have the dermatitis like nacho.