It’s in the air

Last week I took Dogger into the vet. I had diagnosed her with diaper rash/prickly heat/seasonal allergy and thought perhaps a nice course of benadryl would be a good course of action - it has worked in the past. It was just that I had been treating Doggers little skin problems and the normal course of treatment wasn’t working. Also I ran out of triple antibiotic ointment and anti itch cream. I just wanted a second opinion Dogger also had a little drippy eye action and maybe a slight case of itchy ear. All very treatable, all things I could take care of with a quick trip to the first aid section of the dollar store.

So, why, you ask, did I go to the vet?

The itchy ear wasn’t going away even with religious use of ear mite lotion, the eye thing was grossing me out, and her rash was getting embarrassing. She also was losing fur and Nephdog was very ill and all it takes is a seeing someone else with something dire to make you think that you may have something dire yourself.

So. I took her in. A couple of hours and $245 later, she had a yeast infection in her ear ( question, what about vagisil? Or yogurt?) , an infection of unknown origin in her eye and a nasty case of itchy yucky on her pink parts.

Now, I spend my time dripping drops into her ear, smearing goo into her eyes and forcing a total of nine pills down her throat. All this twice a day. Four of pills I force down her throat twice a day are high dose prednisone.

Did you know that pred can make you very thirsty? And can increase your urinary output? And if you drink as much water as you want you will make as much water as you drink? Dogger is a large dog. She had a large bladder. A week on pred has shrunk her bladder to the size of a thimble. I came home the other day and found three puddles the size of stock ponds on the office carpet. So. I take her out more often. I take her out and she floods the yard. I came home at lunch yesterday primarily to put her out. I came home and found more puddles! I had no idea her crate could double as a wading pool.

And it was my fault. I came home, I put her in the yard and I watched her do her thing and do her thing and do her thing. And then I brought her back in and gave her more water! And she drank it and I gave her more water! Because the pred makes you thirsty and being thirsty is just miserable and I didn’t want my puppy to be miserable. After I got back to work, I talked to one of our pharmacists and she said that while Dogger is on so much pred I might want to limit her fluid intake I didn’t know I could limit her fluid intake!

I didn’t set limits and she got her very own wading pool.

The Kitty is also on pred. He at least can use a kitty box, unless of course its 4:08 am and he is waking me for the second time and I really want to be asleep... his crate also can also double as a wading pool. I walked in the door yesterday after work and it was like walking into an open diaper pail.