For Those of You Who Have Dogs With Skin Allergies

Apache Junction, AZ  High 87  Low 54

Having a nice talk with Dad

I am always amazed at what I don’t know about everything. But at least that gives me a chance to constantly learn something new.

We had to take Skittlez to the vet this morning. Juniper and Ash are joyously spreading their pollen everywhere and it really is worse than it has been in the past. We have had two really warm winters and the trees and plants love it.

But – Skittlez has terrible skin allergies which are driving all of us crazy. She is scratching and licking continuously and has sores from all that scratching. Her little body is so hot and red. In the past we’ve been able to control the problem quite easily with Benadryl and anti-itch shampoo. But not this year.

She is also keeping us up at night with all the scratching and licking which is not a good thing cause I get grumpy without enough sleep. So to the vet we go.

The vet informed us that Benadryl is definitely not the answer! Now, I have done a lot of research on line about trying to ease her problems and almost everywhere I looked it said to use Benadryl. The vet said that Benadryl was good for humans for head symptoms from allergies but almost all dogs have the itchy skin problem and Benadryl doesn’t work on that problem. All it does it make the dog so dopey all they want to do is sleep which means that they scratch a little bit less but does nothing to help the dog.

So she told us to give Skitz Zyrtec. The dosage is 1 mg for each pound that they weigh. Skitz weighed in at 11.9 lbs so we will be giving her 12 mgs. You only give it once every 24 hours. Zyrtec also does not dope up the dog which is wonderful.

CAUTION! Do not give them Zyrtec-D. The D is toxic to dogs.

Just thought we would pass this info on in case some fur kid out there is having the same problem.