Now What?

Yesterday was the 51st time Sonny has been seen by the vet in 38 months. Sonny has NEVER had a "well check". She's never been well. And she's never gone more than a month and a half without being seen for one ailment or another. Sometimes she's gone once a week.

This go round, Sonny has been getting up multiple times during the night to chew at her paws, lick her belly, shake her ears and scratch. It was driving us to distraction, so we made an appointment to take her in. Not so much because she was hurting. Mainly because she was disrupting our sleep!

So we took her in, thinking it was her ears and her paws again. Another yeast infection. Or so we thought. Turns out we were right about the ears. Eardrops will do the trick. The paws? Not a yeast infection this time. But Dr E did find pustules on her belly and a few other spots. Some sort of skin problem. She's had it before.

One of the reasons she has been on antibiotics and a special food diet for the past 8 weeks was to determine if her belly pustules were related to a food allergy. Based on this new eruption, probably not. So, her prednisone dosage has been increased, she's taking benadryl, and we'll try a medicated soap.Dr. E thinks maybe it's an airborne allergy. Like people get. Pine trees, dust mites, hair and skin dander, grass...

I don't know if they test dogs for allergies the way humans are tested. And I don't know if dogs get allergy shots like people do. I'm sure I will be finding out. Ca ching$$

Well, since we were there for her ears and skin irritation, we'd go ahead and get her annual check-up for heartworm, get her distemper shot and bordatella vaccine. At least this year she wasn't so sick that we had to delay getting her shots and annual routine examination.

Our appointment was for 4:45. We are always there for at least an hour. I'm not complaining. Dr. E always gives us her undivided attention. We sit on the floor and discuss Sonny, options, indicators, plans, ideas. Anything that helps begin to define today's Sonny issue as well as tomorrow's.

The vet's office recently expanded to add additional examination rooms. I think they should name one of the rooms after Sonny. Or maybe 2. Instead of Exam Room 5, maybe it should say "Room Sonny" or "Sonny's Room" or "In honor of Sonny's owner's contribution to our expansion wing". All kidding aside, I guess it's better than "in memorium".