Treating the tummy two-fer 2

Yesterday we had to take Hestia to the vet AGAIN… The now two months of needing to go to the vet all the time and having everything around the house break continues.

Hestia has some allergies that normally cause her to get about one staph infection on her tummy per month. We treat it with neosporin and it goes away in 2–3 days, no big deal.

Well for the last few weeks, she’s had a staph infection every single day. Poor Hestia, it must be so uncomfortable. So I called the vet yesterday morning and they had an appointment available same day for the new vet at the practice.

I decided to bring Felix along with me to get one more positive vet experience before his neuter on Monday. Our favorite tech Patty was the receptionist. She will be watching the pups when we go to Disney. We didn’t get to chat very long before we were called back to the room.

They used some tape on a glass slide to pick up pieces of skin and stuff from her infections. Hestia submitted to this indignity quite well, just giving us reproachful looks. When they came back, it turns out she has both staph and yeast infections on her tummy!

I talked with the vet about allergy testing, because if it is allergies causing this, we need to get those sorted out. Hestia already doesn’t eat chicken as we think she may be allergic. Unfortunately just testing for environmental allergens is $400, and if we want to add food allergens on top of that, it’s a total of $590!!!!!!! I asked about the testing that’s available commercially, which is a lot cheaper. Unfortunately the testing that uses a dog’s hair doesn’t work at all, she said. And while the saliva testing might work, those companies don’t offer allergy shots (or nowadays they can do drops instead) to help your dog get not so allergic to the things. So if we want to be able to get treatment for her allergies in the form of shots or drops, we have to do the expensive blood test. At least it’s not the old school way of shaving the dog’s entire side down and doing pin pricks for each allergen!!!!

I explained to the vet our current spate of disasters and that with Felix’s neuter coming up on Monday (which will be $700–760 since he has an undescended testicle and a hernia that needs to be repaired), we just couldn’t afford that. She said that was OK, and we can make a plan for now, and I can get allergy testing done at any time.

She said that most likely it’s some sort of weed allergy like ragweed since that pollen is really bad right now. Also, the fact that it’s on Hestia’ tummy which is the only part of her not covered in hair, and it regularly brushes along the grass etc since she’s so short makes her think it’s likely an allergy to some sort of pollen or something that’s fallen on the grass.

Hestia got some antibiotics to cure the staph infection, and an ointment to kill the yeasties. She also got an herbal allergy support medicine which can take up to three months to kick in fully. Hopefully that all helps the current outbreak and helps prevent future ones. Also, every time she comes in from outside, I’m supposed to wipe her tummy down. For now I’m using a vinegar and water solution to help combat the yeast. But once that infection is gone I can use baby wipes with just water.

Her tummy is already looking a lot better just one day later, so I think she’s feeling relief. Unfortunately the yeast ointment makes her hair all greasy, so it looks like she’ll be getting a bath in 1–2 weeks when her treatment is all done.

I just hope that she’s feeling better soon. And that someday soon we’ll stop having expensive vet visits and things to repair or replace around the house!

By the way, Felix was a very good boy for the visit (as was Princess Hestia). He really liked putting his paws up on the table from the bench where he was sitting, and getting treats from the tech whenever Hestia got them. Hestia just accepted everything while acting like she was too good for all of this stuff.

I didn’t get any pictures as my hands were full with two doggies.