Here's the thing. River is going to be 5 years old in December and for the whole 5 years hes been alive, the poor guy has always had something wrong. From skin, to ear, to stomach problems, it is always something.
When we lived in Charlotte, poor River went through one phase when his skin turned almost black. It wasn't itchy or anything crazy, but it wasn't right. The vet simply told us to change his food over to a more sensitive (expensive brand) so we did and his skin cleared up. So we immediately thought he must have been allergic to some sort of food and as long as we keep him on that food he should be good.
He also gets ear infections all the time. Its not out of the ordinary for dogs with floppy ears who swim alot (that's River) to get them if their ears don't dry out enough, but he sure was getting them alot more often than Hannah. We got a special cleaner for his ears and used it often and again that seemed to work.
Also River has always had some weird sort of stomach problem where he throws up often. We never figured out what it was because it didn't seem like a huge problem. I know what you're thinking..."ummm hes throwing up and its not a problem?" Well he would throw up and just be perfectly fine afterwards. He wasn't throwing up food either, it was always yellow foamy stuff, so we always figured he was just hungry and would feed him. So it seemed we had his "condition" under control in Charlotte....somewhat.
Fast forward to moving here to Austin and the situation just got worse. We didn't notice anything major at our first home here, except that his skin did get a little irritated and he was alot more itchy than normal. Also if you remember, he had that weird allergic reaction to something where his face puffed up.
Then we moved to this new house downtown and his situation got SO BAD y'all. First he was just itchy all the time, then he was itching so much that his skin got an infection. We treated it once and hoped that we could keep it under control, but we were wrong. Usually when I'm home with him all day I can distract him from itching, but when we went out of town a month or two ago, we came back and it was so bad. I'm really surprised that the doggie daycare people didn't say anything (kind of mad about it actually).
Many people have mentioned just giving him Benedryl to clear up the itching, but the thing is, the itching is all the time and I dont want him to always be on Benedryl, it makes him sleepy and not himself. Id rather figure out what is wrong than cover it up with Benedryl.
When we pet him we could feel scabs all over his body, but it never looked like this....
So I immediately took him back to the vet. They shaved him and look what his poor body looked like under all that fur.
Poor guy! He was miserable. So again he got a steroid shot and some antibiotics since he had a skin infection from scratching so much and bacteria getting into the cuts. He also had a severe ear infection which I was surprised about because usually we know when his ears are bothering him, he will constantly itch them which he wasn't doing.
The vet also suggested that we finally take River to the animal dermatologist. Its pretty expensive but since we obviously couldn't get it under control, he is clearly allergic to something. She also mentioned that Austin is known for severe allergies in humans and animals and they see this alot which would explain why it wasn't like this in Charlotte.
Before we took him to the dermatologist, River had a reaction to the antibiotics. I'm telling y'all, he/we don't get a break. I just feel so bad for this little boy.
So I took the boy to the dermatologist and from all his symptoms I explained, the vet seems to think he has both a food and environmental allergy and we are going to try to figure it all out. Obviously there is no cure for allergies, but once we know what he is allergic to we can do preventative care instead of treating him after he is already miserable.
Its already been pretty expensive but at this point, we really just need to figure it out because treating him is just as expensive. Right now he is on a strict diet to find out what food allergy he has and I also have to give him a bath once every other day with a special shampoo. Its hard work to wash him every other day, but Ive decided I'm going to do everything I can for this poor boy to figure out whats going on with him.
I'm not sure what the dermatologist plan is as far as the food diet, I just do what she asks and then the environmental test will be done with injections and seeing if his skin reacts (kind of like the test they do for humans)
So for now, that's it. Hes been on his new diet for about two weeks and Ive kept up with the bathing every other day and his skin seems to be good. He also seems to have alot more energy than normal trying to mess with Hannah 24/7. Ill keep y'all updated on this journey.
Love,
Rivers Mom
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