Our poor Sush

I know I have mentioned this in the past on FaceBook, but our dog Sushi has horrible allergies. When I say horrible allergies, I mean HORRIBLE. She is a scratching machine all year round. Over the past three years (and it probably goes back farther than that) we have taken Sushi to the vet more than a dozen times trying to figure out how we can help alleviate her itchiness. We've tried benedryl, allergy pills, allergy shots, medicated shampoos, medicated lotions - we've tried it all. Nothing has seemed to work for her. We even completely changed her diet, giving her a (much more expensive) dog food that has no corn-fillers. After months of her new food, we saw no change. At times, I think she is just obsessive-compulsive and scratches more out of habit versus actually having the need to scratch.

When Rob was out of town the other week, I ran into a problem with our little Sushi. She had been a scratching herself so bad, that she took a chunk off of her face. It was bleeding and puffy and she was continuing to scratch it. (Ouch - I am sure it was painful....it was an open wound). When I got home from work, I knew I had to take her to the vet. I packed up Leah and Sushi in my car and we made our way to the vet. The doctor cleaned out the "owie" as Leah called it, trimmed her nails and gave us an antibiotic. She also gave us a new allergy medication and leave-in lotion to try. $125 later and we were on our way. Before we left, the doctor told me about these new heavy duty allergy pills we could try that have had great success. She caught my attention until she told me that they cost $400 a month. Ummm - we'll pass for now. She also thought Sushi might have an anxiety problem and that may be a reason she scratches so often. She gave me a referral to a doggie "psychiatrist" and said sometimes they can prescribe doggie Prozac and that will help subside their nervousness/anxiety. I love my little Sush, but I am not sure we will be going to these extremes. For now, we will try the new allergy medicine.

So now it is almost 2 weeks since we were at the vet and our crazy dog is still scratching. While the antibiotic has helped, her wound on her face still has not healed because she won't stop scratching long enough for it to get better.  To help with this, we had to resort to a plastic cone so she can't reach her face with her little paws. Leah feels so bad for her and always says...Awe - poor Sush. I am hoping after keeping this on for a few days, her face will heal.