Vera’s tough night
Vera has allergies that manifest mostly as “ear trouble”. There was a whole lot of dog misery in the middle of the night last night. Sharpei’s have very narrow ear canals anyhow, and the allergy is like having ”congestion”, with lots of head shaking and pawing. Hercules had his troubles too, but his was more itching skin and hair loss. A trip to the Vet and a prednisone shot always relieves it for several weeks. Prednisone is tricky stuff and can damage their kidneys. But as a really trusted Vet once said to me, “Do you want them to have a long life, or a good life?” So I’ll use pred tablets, or make the desperate trip to the vet, but as little as possible.
Meanwhile Vera takes more Bendryl than I do! (it helps a bit) From other dog moms I learned about a topical treatment called Zymox. It’s good stuff! It has cortisone for the itching and enzymes to help clean and drain the ear. But nobody likes stuff in their ears, especially dogs! Last night past two a.m., she made darn sure we’d know she was uncomfortable by shaking her head very hard and LOUD right next to the bed! But if I came near her, she’d run outside- I am the inflicter of the hated medicine! Finally she went back to sleep, exhausted- it was about 3:30. We ended up oversleeping because somebody deprived us of our beauty sleep.
She’s having some needed downtime this morning. Since she was so tired I was able to corner her and get the Zymox in her ears. If do this consistently for 5-6 days, she’ll get several weeks of relief. But she is young and fleet of foot and I’m not!
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