To Put Things Simply: He Has Eczema

May 14, 2010

So finally after several days, I was able to get a hold of Trouble’s old dermatologist and ask them to fax us his medical records so we’d have them on hand, should we decide to seek a dermatologist closer to us. The doctor finally called me back after several hours about whether or not we should continue his antibiotics (he’s running low) and where we should proceed from that point forward. He advised me that Trouble should stay on his antibiotics until all of the leisons had disappeared and he wanted to know if we needed a refill. I told him we’d wait to see what happened because he is doing much, much better so I didn’t necessarily think we need to get him more until we see what happens.

After reviewing his records he has atopic dermatitis (in other words ezcema), which is the second most common allergy in domestic dogs (fleas are first). It can be triggered by several things which includes food, house dust mites, pollen, moulds, and mildew just to name a few. Since he’s moved out here, he’s been doing much better and we’ve seen significant improvement. He came to us in pretty bad shape. His feet were really swollen, so swollen that he had blood blisters and ended up leaving blood stains on our carpet. In addition, half of his body had lost hair due to the itching and he had red splotches and bumps on his stomach, chin, legs and pee wee.

Now looking at him, his paws are no longer swollen, in fact his front paws have healed completely and his back paws are on their way. His chin no longer has the redness it had before and his stomach and pee wee are slowly healing and looking more and more like a dog should. In addition, the hair that he lost is growing back and he just seems much, much happier. Now the only problem we currently have is the meds he’s on. While they’re obviously helping, I really want to look into holistic approaches because a, it’ll be more cost effective, and b, in the long run it’ll be healthier for him. I plan on doing a little more research this weekend and next week regarding his condition and possibly scheduling an appointment with a holistic vet (assuming I find one I like).

I’m really happy to finally know what has been ailing him and that there are methods other then the four different medications we have him on to help him get better. He’s only been with us for a week and we’ve fallen in love with home so we’re going to try and do our best to ensure that his quality of life is better then he has been.