After finding that Bohdi had rubbed his face raw on the carpet Sunday night to the extent of it bleeding, we were off to the vet's office Monday morning. You may recall me mentioning that he was chewing his feet/paws lately. I first presumed it was due to boredom. Maybe not after all. He received an antihistamine shot, and we were sent home with Hydroxyzine (75mg every 8 hours).
Causes? Fabric softener on his sheets? An environmental allergy? Well, apparently, the antihistamine should be working if so and it doesn't seem to be making any difference other than making him drowsy.
I am leaning more towards the issue being a food allergy. I am switching him over to a high quality dog food. In doing some research I found that Beneful is loaded with low quality and non-absorbable fillers. PLUS, corn, wheat, and soy are all accounted for in the Beneful recipe as top ingredient and they are also top causes of food allergies in dogs. With internet research, I found many stories of dogs developing allergies to this food over time. We are trying AvoDerm Lamb and Brown Rice formula and are trying a speedy switch over the next 3-4 days. During the trial on the new food, he can have absolutely no other food (he will continue with the Deramaxx and antihistamine). Luckily, the food is so pure it is easily changes to a wet food consistency by adding some warm water and Bohdi takes his meds hidden in the food.
It is also helpful that he LOVES the food. For over a month or so, he has been nosing the Beneful and not really wanting to eat it. I thought it may have been that he was getting spoiled by the wet food that accompanied the medicine and was getting picky about dry food. Not so. He dug right into the 25Bene/75Avo mix.
Also, I will be holding off giving him the Glucosamine until the new food is established. I will try and reintroduce it to see if shellfish could be the culprit.
This poor dog. And poor me!!! On Monday I went to my OBGYN and found out I'm 3cm dilated and 50% effaced. I would appreciate a little help from the powers that be in healing my dog. As it may be, I could be having a baby in the next week or so.
Wish us luck!!!
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