[Dailydrool] Red & Scratchy

[Elizabeth Lindsey]

Our late, great Jane Basset had environmental allergies like Basil.  
We had her tested by the veterinary dermatologist at Purdue  
University's vet school, and he developed serum for her. We gave her  
allergy shots twice a week ourselves in the comfort of our own  
kitchen. This was almost ten years ago, so the pricing surely has  
changed, but if I'm remembering it correctly, we paid $70 for a vial  
of serum. She got four vials--weeds, trees, pollens, and molds. We  
emptied the vials at different rates, so we rarely had to reorder all  
four at once.

Every month I'd look at Jane's shot schedule and transfer different  
amounts from each of the four vials into a separate vial from which  
we drew the allergy shots for that month. So in February, her allergy  
shots contained more serum from the Trees vial than from the Pollens  
vial. In the fall, we added molds than we did trees and weeds.

Of course, every vet does it differently, and it sounds as if your  
vet, Melissa, has his own system worked out and it's different from  
Purdue's. I don't understand why he feels he needs to retest Basil.  
Surely your vet should be able to work out a monthly formulation for  
serum based on the allergy test he already did, especially if the  
test was done fairly recently. And as it stands now, it sounds as if  
the quarterly shot routine isn't providing protection that lasts long  
enough. Is it possible for your vet to try giving them to Basil on an  
every-other-month basis and see if that makes a difference?

As expensive as allergy shots are, we discovered with our Jane that  
not controlling the allergies is even more expensive. When a dog  
itches, it scratches itself with its toenails and/or tongue. The  
scratching transfers bacteria from the toenails or tongue into the  
tiny openings the scratching makes in the skin and can lead to  
infections. In Jane's case, she scratched her ears and wound up with  
ugly ear infections several times a year. One of those infections  
settled in her middle ear, a location the regular vet's otiscope  
can't reach.

After treating the symptoms for six months without success we finally  
wised up and asked for a referral to Purdue's vet school. There the  
dermatologist used an endoscope, a diagnostic tool our regular vet  
didn't have, to find the infection deep in Jane's ear. It looked like  
green cottage cheese and was eating its way through Jane's skull.  
Jane hurt so much she couldn't chew hard foods anymore and drooled  
all the time on that side of her mouth. The only way to handle the  
infection at that point was to remove the insides of the ear, a total  
ear canal acclusion (TECA) surgery, which is very painful and  
requires about a week of hospitalization.

Ultimately, the untreated allergies that led to that infection cost  
us almost $1,000 for surgery and hospitalization (in 1998) and  
probably almost as much for all the antibiotics, smears on slides,  
and cultures we paid for before taking Jane to see a specialist. The  
untreated allergies cost Jane a functioning ear. After we got Jane on  
regular allergy shots, her ear infections stopped completely. We  
figured the money we spent on the allergy testing and shots was less  
than we were spending on clearing up the constant ear infections. And  
it allowed Jane to keep her remaining ear intact.

While deciding how to handle Basil's allergies, try giving him baths  
with oatmeal shampoo, which should help calm down his itchy skin for  
a little bit. I didn't put much stock in the whole oatmeal bath thing  
until I came down with the chicken pox (after having had the  
vaccinations--some good those things are!) when I was in my early  
30s. I was desperate enough to give an oatmeal bath a try, and by  
golly it really helped. After that, I gave Jane oatmeal baths with  
great confidence in their soothing abilities, and she never gave me  
any reason to think otherwise.

Elizabeth