Summer allergies, staph again :(

September 5, 2011 at 5:28 pm Leave a comment

It’s that time of the year – skin allergies, relentless itchiness, infections, bleh. Last week, we came home from the vet with another stash of medications.

Triamcinolone Acetonide
Cephalexin
Gentocin Otic

Once again, Boogie has been diagnosed with a staph infection 😦 Bald crusty patches on his skin and red pimples on his belly. Dr. R. doesn’t know why unlike most dogs, Boogie is so predisposed to this staph – which seems to always develop in the summer season along with the skin allergies. I am not sure what to do. One option is to have Boogie allergy-tested… an expensive process which doesn’t necessarily solve the problem. I also happen to know that all the dogs on my street are experiencing similar problems. The allergens are in the grass and the air.

As Dr. R said with a shrug – Even if I spend a small fortune on allergy testing, Boogie will most probably end up taking the same treatment anyway.

The Triamcinolone (which is a steroid medication) makes Boogie so hungry. Which is great for Clicker Training games but not so good for every other time of the day. Poor ravenous little dog. Day and night, I see him restlessly scrounging around for food, licking and re-licking my floors where treats were dropped hours ago. On our walks, he inhales crap off the sidewalk. He wants to go for walks ALL THE TIME… also because he is drinking more water and needs to pee a gallon every 2 hours. I really really hate steroid meds!

The good part is that the itching has stopped. His skin is healing up and thank goodness, we’re moving into Fall.