The Signs Were There... Where Was I??

I always thought we fed Milo pretty good… he gets a “dog muffin” and 1 cup of dry food every morning.  I make the dog muffins which are basically a meatloaf made from extra lean ground beef, brown rice, potato and other veggies.  I cook them in muffin tins and he gets one a day and he LOVES them, he gets so excited when I’m cutting it up for him in the morning.  And of course he gets treats but we try to be smart about it.

When we moved into our new place about 10 months ago, we noticed that Milo started licking/chewing his paws like crazy and we could not figure out what the problem was.  We couldn’t find anything in his paws but knew we needed to do something so I a) bought him booties (any excuse to go shopping right??) and he hated them, then b) started soaking his paws in a diluted iodine mixture that was recommended to us.  His licking decreased and he seemed to be a lot happier.

[caption id="attachment_214" align="alignnone" width="293"] The (clearance) booties we tried. They failed.[/caption]

In the middle of the summer, his dry food was recalled so we had to switch brands.  We talked to someone at the store about the different kinds and what we were looking for and found something that we thought would be a good substitute.  Milo is pretty indifferent about his kibble; his dog muffin is what is important to him.

About two months ago, Milo’s ears started bothering him and he was scratching them and all over constantly so we took him in for his grooming as they always clean out his ears and check everything, and even asked them to check for fleas.  Our poor dog was practically one big itch ball and he looked so sad :(

Milo came home from the groomers so happy (so were we – no fleas!), his ears were cleaned and he got a special oatmeal bath and for a couple weeks he was pretty good.  We bought a special oatmeal shampoo to give him baths at home thinking he just had sensitive skin.  We thought we had a handle on the itch.

Then slowly he started scratching again… so I took him to the vet.  (I was convinced he had fleas…)

Result: Milo has allergies.  Bad allergies.

The vet looked in his ears, through the fur above his tail and asked me if he licked his paws.  For some reason, I hadn’t ever thought to connect the paws and the ears.  I feel a bit like a bad mom.

The treatment is antibiotics and an antihistamine for 10 days and prescription hypoallergenic kibble.  And that’s it.  No dog muffin, no treats and no human food.  Kibble, medicine and water.  Hubby is devastated and firmly believes that no one – including animals – should have to eat the same thing day after day because that would be so boring.  He really wants me to give Milo his dog muffin still but I refuse and am staying strong.   If he gets better in the next couple weeks we can slowly add things back in and his muffins will be the first thing, but until then all I want is for him to feel better and be happy.

[caption id="attachment_215" align="alignnone" width="145"] The only way Milo will eat his new kibble - by hand![/caption]

Does anyone else ever feel like a bad furbie-mom?

S xxo.