Allergy Boy

Last year, Mulder appeared to come down with allergies.  He was losing hair at an alarming rate, and was very itchy.  His fur felt dry and brittle.  He has an undercoat, which is what he was losing, so you couldn’t really TELL that he was losing hair, except that the evidence was all over our house, we could see tufts of hair fly behind him when he walked, our clothes were covered with it, etc.  His armpits went bald.  It was worrisome, and when he was at the vet, she said it was not uncommon for dogs to develop allergies at about age 3.

So, we tried giving him Benadryl, changing his food, and omega 3 supplements.  His coat improved, and he stopped shedding so much.  Coincidentally, the weather changed, so the question was, was he improving because of the new food, the Benadryl, and the omega 3 supplements, or was it the change in weather, meaning likely allergies to something external.  Only time would tell.

Well, it’s late May, and the weather is warming up here.  Things are blooming, everyone’s allergies are out of control.  How’s his fur?  It’s falling out in clumps.  His groomer suggested that we bathe him more often, perhaps every 3 weeks, to help his skin and keep him from suffering so much.  Yesterday I took him to Pet Food Express and gave him a bath, and last night I gave him a good brushing.  I got enough fur (his under coat only, which you can tell because it is white, as opposed to his outer coat, which is sable) to make a winter coat for a small child.  More shedding this morning.  Sigh.  Hopefully with all we are doing for him, he won’t suffer QUITE as much as last year, but clearly our efforts were not enough to totally save him from suffering.  The picture above is this morning…He usually gets a carrot as his reward for getting brushed, but I gave him a stalk of celery instead.  He is not interested.  Here’s Mulder and our neighbor dog, Willie.  He doesn’t look like he’s suffering too much, does he?