When I got my first “big girl” job after college a co-worker and I were talking about how Mondays get a bad rap. Sure, it’s a little depressing waking up early again on Monday morning and hauling your still recovering from the weekend butt off to work. But, at least in my real job experience so far, Mondays usually go by fast because it’s the busiest day of the week. And then there’s Tuesday. It’s still early in the week but not as busy so the day doesn’t go by as fast. And unless you have a favorite TV show that airs on Tuesday nights (where are my PLL fans?!) or something else equally awesome to look forward to, Tuesdays are kind of the most terrible day of the week. Terrible Tuesdays is really what we called them in my old position. So on this Terrible Tuesday I figured it would be fitting to update you all on a kind of terrible situation we’ve been dealing with.
If you’ve been following us for a while now you know about our battle with Chaos’s allergies. We first discovered he had them when he was just 4 months old. After going to see a doggie dermatologist we learned that dogs are the opposite of humans in terms of the progression of allergies. While humans can often have them at a young age and then later grow out of them, dogs tend to grow into their allergies. And that was bad news for us.
We were told Chaos was one of the worst cases the vet had ever seen, although pitties in general and, especially lighter colored ones like Chaos, are prone to skin conditions and allergies. After steroids, wiening off steroids and trying prescription medication we opted to having a full allergy panel done to see everything Chaos was allergic to and at what level the allergy was. The tests came back showing that he was positive for most of the household allergies (mainly dust mites and cat dander) and so many environmental allergies I lost count. Luckily he wasn’t a category 4 (the highest) for any of the allergens tested but he was at least a 2 for all the ones he was positive for. And with so many of them, it didn’t look good.
We began allergy shots last year and at the beginning it was just increasing the dosage each week to see at what level his reactions would not appear. It seemed to be going well at first until one week he started itching like crazy again. And it got so bad so fast we landed back in the derm’s office where she confirmed he had a staph infection from all the scratching and licking he was doing in attempt to get relief. We had to stop allergy shots for a few weeks while we gave Chaos antibiotics to clear his infection. But when we started back up his reactions were worse than ever and no dosage of the injections lessened them. So we had to called it quits.
Chaos went back on the prescription medicines he had been on before we did the testing but he was still mild to moderately irritated all the time. We had learned about a new medication called Apoquel that was much less expensive than the Atopica he was on and often worked better for many dogs like Chaos. Sign us up. But the problem was that as soon as it came out the demand surpassed the supply by leaps and bounds. So on the wait list we went.
Over the summer we got a break when our regular vet’s office happened to get in a shipment of the coveted Apoquel and knowing us well and how much Chaos needed it, we received our first bottle. And it was magical. Within a week Chaos was essentially itch free and his skin cleared up quickly. We were so happy we finally had an answer. But then a few weeks ago when it was time for a refill we got the bad news that although the vet’s office had ordered Apoquel, it did not come in with their weekly shipment. The manufacturer just didn’t have enough. And so we’ve been trying to patiently wait for it to come back in ever since.
As of tonight we have a pittie with a broken out chest, belly and legs and it is spreading to his sides. He is so uncomfortable and itchy that I feel horrible telling him not to scratch but I know it will only lead to infection if he does. Underneath his legs is raw and angry looking and I just want to make it go away. We’ve been doing what we can to keep the dust mites and cat hair at bay but there is only so much vacuuming, dusting and laundering we can do. He also has been getting baths with dermatologic shampoo and conditioner every other day but the relief is only temporary for him.
Hopefully today won’t end up being another Terrible Tuesday and the vet’s shipment today came in with Apoquel. Do you any of you struggle with this problem? What do you do to help relieve your pet’s severe allergies?
Here’s to your Tuesday being Terrific instead of Terrible.
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