Today I discovered at my dogs,(yes I said dogs as in three of them at the same time) yearly veterinarian visit that my eight year old dog has severe food allergies. We have had to completely switch her food to something that she has never had before to rule out anything that she could be allergic to and let me tell you that was not a very easy thing to do, considering how many dog food products that are out there. This means that I had to sift through the very abundant ingredient list on many brands of dog food. After our vet visit after the umpteenth ear infection, or so we thought that our poor dog has had over the years, my husband and I spent nearly an hour and a half searching the internet for ingredient lists of all three of the different brands of dog food we have had our dog on over the years we finally found a product that doesn't have any of the ingredients listed that previous ones we used had. Tomorrow will be day one of my dog’s medication and food switch. Wish me luck!
Our dog's veterinarian has Angel on ear drops once a day and Prednisone twice a day for ten days then once a day for ten days then every other day after that. (Confused yet?) Boy this will be fun trying to get my dog to take these pills twice a day without the help of a cheese ball or hotdog piece! Thanks a lot allergies! I am hoping that my dog shows improvement after the ten weeks of the combined food change and the medication. I have to take Angel back to the vet to see if there have been significant improvement after her medication runs out, lets hope this did the trick or we will be back to more medication and a DIFFERENT kind of food yet again... I was given the warnings that she may need to drink more during the day which in turn means MORE potty breaks. She will also be wanting to eat MORE but she has to be on a very strict diet because of the medication she will be taking which could cause her to gain weight... not to mention I have to keep a very strict eye on my five year old son sneaking Angel food (Picture this: Mommy, Angel ACCIDENTALLY *yeah right*ate my food) The whole purpose of this drastic food change is to figure out if it truly is a food allergy that is causing her ear problems BUT if she eats anything other than the new food and the medicine she was prescribed I may as well have not done the food change in the first place...and had the extra cost of the ridiculously overpriced dog food coming in at $54 for a 28 pound bag compared to $16 dollar bag I use to buy every week! I sure hope this helps my poor dog....
On the bright side, besides Angel's allergy and ear issue and being two pounds overweight she is in overall good health. My other two dogs are very healthy as well. I feel so bad for them every time I take them to see the veterinarian because I have to be the one to hold them to comfort them while the doctor sneaks behind them to poke them in the hiney! Angel is a female black lab/boxer mix (the one with the allergy problems) is eight years old and very puppy like at times, weighing in at 82.4 pounds.
My second dog Kyler is an almost three year old male chihuahua, weighing in and 8.6 pounds. He is in perfect health besides being not even a half of a pound overweight... (The doctor even commented on his very pretty white teeth!) He had cherry eyes as a puppy, but needed surgical attention because they were making his vision cloudy. I am very proud to say he is much better and can see perfectly now.
My third dog is Lilly, she is very shy and does not like people other than my husband, myself and my son. She is one years old and is a chihuahua/terrier mix weighing in at 6.2 pounds. She is very healthy and in fact she has gained TWO pounds since her last visit to the vet last fall when she was UNDER weight! Yeah, go me for finding the right food for her since she is so tiny and picky ( I have to find food that is tiny enough that it doesn't hurt her little mouth to chew it and make sure she likes it... that is not so easy).
So as a close I hope tomorrow goes smooth for me with trying to convince Angel (more like beg her) to take her pills without spiting it out or throwing it up and praying that the new food doesn't upset her stomach...
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