Thursday, September 22, 2011

When it Rains....


Oh where to begin?  I have been so busy.

Zeek (g-pig) is failing, Ike has been sick, and Bug is randomly losing weight. Initially I attributed the weight loss to playing with Hush. I increased Bug’s food and he regained the 4#s he lost. He was feeling skinny to me over the weekend and I weighed him on Monday - he is down 1.5# …. He is still getting the extra food and Hush is gone. I made an appointment to have bloodwork done, which the CVH really wanted me to do after the initial 4# weight loss. Then last night I discovered some sort of skin issue on Bug’s back. Dr. F thinks that is great – he hopes it is a curative skin eruption. I am a wreck due to it coinciding with the weight loss. I am hopeful (ha) it is a hot spot. I have added a cup of oatmeal to Bug’s diet in hopes of getting the weight back on him. I know grains can trigger hot spots. He also had a bath on Saturday. I did blow him dry, but perhaps the two items together caused a hot spot? I have never had to deal with a hot spot, if that is what it is, before and freaked out when I found it last night. It is not in a spot he can reach which should be good in terms of healing.

In other news, we have been attending agility class and just started up with our Rally lessons again after about a month off. We are going to start looking for some matches to attend in the fall, but first I have to get everyone healthy.

5 comments:

Kathy Mocharnuk said...

hummm, hope the blood work is all ok...my SKyler, Chloe and Liz were having yucky looking skin but I started bathing every week or two with tea tree and aloe shampoo and leaving it on for five minutes and then I blow them dry and their skin is looking much better, hope your problem ends up as simple as that....I will be thinking of you guys!!!

K-Koira said...

Hope Bug is okay. Sounds likely that it is a hot spot, so hopefully the vet will confirm that, find something super easy to treat that is causing weight loss, and the stress will have been for nothing.

Taryn said...

Oh, I sure hope Bug is OK!

Joanna said...

Usually something on the back that you find after a bath means you didn't get all the shampoo out well enough. Dogs get chemical burns REALLY easily. I've gotten in the habit of using only very plain human shampoos because dog-label shampoos are just too harsh for as often as I use them (and even a speck left on the skin causes anything from scabbing to flaking to an open hot spot).

Jules said...

Diagnosis - Bacterial dermatitis - precursor to a hotspot. So it is probably a combo of the bath/shampoo and the grains. He is looking rather like a patchwork corgi now. Unfortunately the blodwork raised some questions so we will be back at the vet today for an ultrasound.