Well, we are just back from our visit to the vet.
I would love to say Pepper behaved like a dream but she didn’t – it involved a cat in a box and words were said. I was ashamed of her and had to apologise to the owners.
I thought Pepper liked cats. I was wrong. I saw a side of Pepper I haven’t seen before. It wasn’t pretty. She was high on adrenaline and wouldn’t listen as I forced her to sit on my lap.
Anyway, the upshot of our visit (apart from a certain 7.5kg Patterdale terrier possibly being banned due to bad ‘haviour), is that Pepper’s chronically itchy ears (no better despite regular drops) and her troubled guts could be related to each other – ie digestive allergies. So she is now on a special (read £££) magical diet, new ear drops and we are going back on Monday for a review. Blood was taken and she was a very good girl about that. Thinking about it, “terrier gut allergies often stem from food sensitivities, leading to chronic inflammation, itching (ears) and recurrent ear infections”. Now that I can believe and that’s Pepper. As for the limping, that’s for another day but she has different painkillers that won’t aggravate her tummy.
Meanwhile, in other worlds, this morning found me getting my old Etsy account a bit more up to date and I put a few things on to sell. I am going to try and keep going with selling stuff I no longer want or need. Money is much nicer than other people’s clutter in a box.
I had company.
I might even put the sheep on Etsy if they are not selling many in town. It is early days as the cruise ships are not here yet.
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Our Labrador had food allergies that led to ear and gut symptoms. He wasn’t keen on his “special expensive diet” and the vet eventually suggested trying home cooked chicken and rice, which went down a treat . And the symptoms improved. Hope Pepper feels better soon.
Thank you – that is good to know.
I adopted my first dog who was living wild in the woods behind my house when I first moved in. She had either been mistreated or suffered an accident which left her with injuries resulting in poor digestive issues. After a stretch of experimentation, the vet suggested boiled ground beef and rice. That was the answer and became her main meal for the ensuing 8 years.
Basically best bet is to limit the diet to bland, unseasoned and “pure” ingredients. It will be tough though to keep her from imbibing in the temptations that exist in the natural world around you. Good luck.
Ah well, I knew Pepper and I must have things in common – after all you and I and Pepper are all descended from Terriers! My five times great-grandmother was Rebecca Terrier. From my many years’ experience with allergies (and mostly managing to keep well) I would suggest the following course of action: vary the foods from day to day so that she doesn’t acquire more allergies. I have a “four day rotation diet” as much as possible. The worst thing to do is repeating the same foods every day because it’s very easy to acquire allargies to them as well. Avoid artificial additives as much as possible. It is possible to build up an allergy to anything, rice, wheat or anything else so NOT sticking to any single food is best.
Funny, I get itchy ears too and I think it may be because of coffee – but maybe Pepper doesn’t drink that! I have cut down to only having coffee twice a week over Lent, which I’ve mostly kept to. and my ears haven’t been as bad. I often have excema inside my ears. Too much information?