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My 5 1/2 year old lab mix, Sydney, started getting sick about a month ago. She's always been...a bit delicate. She suffers badly from Cold Tail Syndrome after having baths and often has to have antibiotics to clear it up. She suffers from chronic ear infections. She had the femoral head of one hind leg removed. She's a mess.
I was petting her ears in early October when she suddenly screamed out of the blue. Upon closer inspection (after calming my startled heart down) I noticed a tiny bump under the skin of her ear. ...And on the other ear. In the exact same spot. It was as if someone had measured her ears and pinched tough blisters into them, but they weren't open.
Within a few days the bumps split wide open, making large crusty scabs that hurt her pretty bad. She also stopped eating and started moping around a lot, so off to the vet she went.
They did a scrape of her ears and looked at them under the microscope. (By this point the vet barely touching them made them bleed) She said that there was no parasite, but they were infected. She gave us some antibiotics and steroid cream and sent us home.
Neither of those things helped at all. Poor Sydney got worse and worse, becoming hot with fever, eating none of her food...and growing scabs over her eyes and paws as well. She would lie in bed all day, virtually unresponsive.
My in laws decided on their own that 'it must be the kitten's fault'. To be honest, I've never even seen Reese and Sydney give each other so much as a second glance. They don't even cuddle. They most certainly don't play, and they will pass one another at touching distance without acknowledgement. Still, the parents insisted that Reese was doing it. I took a good close look at the scabs and determined that they do not look like bites or scratches. They're large, bubbling, lumpy scabs. Nothing like a slim claw mark or a puncture from a tooth. It's as if they're bubbling up from inside of her.
They've grown more and more pushy with this idea, even saying that I should clip Reese's claws or have her declawed if she doesn't stop hurting the dog behind everyone's back. I said absolutely not.
We started feeding Sydney chicken and rice in the hopes that she would eat again. (By this point she was down from 70 to 60 lbs and you could see her spine a bit) There was zero hesitation. She snarfed it down as though it were the best thing in the world. Wait, what? I thought you weren't eating!
I quickly realized that she's eating everything except for her dog food! It kind of hit me...maybe the food is what's making her sick and she knew it. She has eaten Pedigree dry all of her life without issue and she was a quarter of the way through the bag but...I decided to toss it and get her a new food. Grain, corn, and soy free flavored lamb food from Nature's Recipe.
She was hilarious when I put a bowl down for her. She sniffed it, then reared back and BARKED at the food, a gentle, whispered 'boof...' as though she was shocked to find something different in her bowl. It took a while to coax her to eat it because she was for some reason skittish of going near it, but the change has been tremendous.
The sores on her ears disappeared almost overnight. The ones on her face are drying up and almost gone, and her feet are blister free. She's eating again and acting like a normal, active dog and her fever has broken. Before she wouldn't even get up from her bed to greet you when you came home, now she runs to say hi.
I don't know if it was just that specific bag or some sort of developed intolerance, but I believe that Sydney wasn't taking her food very well. I don't think it was the kitten at all. If she continues to improve, she will stay on this brand of food. Pedigree is in the past.
I was petting her ears in early October when she suddenly screamed out of the blue. Upon closer inspection (after calming my startled heart down) I noticed a tiny bump under the skin of her ear. ...And on the other ear. In the exact same spot. It was as if someone had measured her ears and pinched tough blisters into them, but they weren't open.
Within a few days the bumps split wide open, making large crusty scabs that hurt her pretty bad. She also stopped eating and started moping around a lot, so off to the vet she went.
They did a scrape of her ears and looked at them under the microscope. (By this point the vet barely touching them made them bleed) She said that there was no parasite, but they were infected. She gave us some antibiotics and steroid cream and sent us home.
Neither of those things helped at all. Poor Sydney got worse and worse, becoming hot with fever, eating none of her food...and growing scabs over her eyes and paws as well. She would lie in bed all day, virtually unresponsive.
My in laws decided on their own that 'it must be the kitten's fault'. To be honest, I've never even seen Reese and Sydney give each other so much as a second glance. They don't even cuddle. They most certainly don't play, and they will pass one another at touching distance without acknowledgement. Still, the parents insisted that Reese was doing it. I took a good close look at the scabs and determined that they do not look like bites or scratches. They're large, bubbling, lumpy scabs. Nothing like a slim claw mark or a puncture from a tooth. It's as if they're bubbling up from inside of her.
They've grown more and more pushy with this idea, even saying that I should clip Reese's claws or have her declawed if she doesn't stop hurting the dog behind everyone's back. I said absolutely not.
We started feeding Sydney chicken and rice in the hopes that she would eat again. (By this point she was down from 70 to 60 lbs and you could see her spine a bit) There was zero hesitation. She snarfed it down as though it were the best thing in the world. Wait, what? I thought you weren't eating!
I quickly realized that she's eating everything except for her dog food! It kind of hit me...maybe the food is what's making her sick and she knew it. She has eaten Pedigree dry all of her life without issue and she was a quarter of the way through the bag but...I decided to toss it and get her a new food. Grain, corn, and soy free flavored lamb food from Nature's Recipe.
She was hilarious when I put a bowl down for her. She sniffed it, then reared back and BARKED at the food, a gentle, whispered 'boof...' as though she was shocked to find something different in her bowl. It took a while to coax her to eat it because she was for some reason skittish of going near it, but the change has been tremendous.
The sores on her ears disappeared almost overnight. The ones on her face are drying up and almost gone, and her feet are blister free. She's eating again and acting like a normal, active dog and her fever has broken. Before she wouldn't even get up from her bed to greet you when you came home, now she runs to say hi.
I don't know if it was just that specific bag or some sort of developed intolerance, but I believe that Sydney wasn't taking her food very well. I don't think it was the kitten at all. If she continues to improve, she will stay on this brand of food. Pedigree is in the past.