Ladyblog

Sophie, my pride and joy, has been very itchy for several months.  The last two months seem to have been particularly bad for her, and she spends most of her time like this.

Her itchy parts seem to be her rear, haunches, legs, tail, and the side of her stomach.  Her skin can be really sensitive if you pet her in those areas too.  Upon returning from our honeymoon, we took her to our vet for a checkup and annual dental.  There, we ruled out impacted anal glands (yet another problem pugs are prone to).  Then we started trying to rule out fleas.  This was kind of a long shot because Nikki wasn’t itchy at all, and Angus was only mildy.  So we Frontlined the crew.  Waited a few weeks.  No change.  Sophie was still itchy.  Then we tried benadryl.  Sophie was on a 25mg/day dose of benadryl for 2 weeks, which didn’t seem to make a whole lot of difference aside from making her tired so her motivation to itch was calmed.  Nothing.  Still itchy.

Our next phase, which we’re in now, is changing her diet.  It’s possible she has developed a food allergy, so Miss Soph is now on a no-grain, high protein diet.  We’re starting with this food, sold at our favorite local pet store:

It makes me laugh because the packaging is telling you that this food is supposed to be closest to a canine’s diet in the wild.  Obviously pugs have never experienced such a thing, but I’ll go with it.

Just in case she’s allergic to some sort of protein source, she’s only getting lamb-based proteins right now.  So that means no fun treats.  Instead I bought her a big bag of expensive lamb treats from New Zealand.  Only the best for the Sophster.

But then… I know, this is a really long post about what my dog eats… what about dental chews?  Pugs are also very prone to dental issues, so Sophie has always been a lucky girl to have an ever changing supply of dental chews.  But most of those have grains too.  Now, she’ll get only bones and a special dental product called PlaqueOff.

I’m using this with all of the dogs and call me crazy, but I’m pretty sure it’s making a difference (in their breath, at least).

The Sophinator has been on her special diet for a few days now.  She’s still uncomfortable, and Matt’s still enraged by the noises Soph makes when she’s trying to scratch herself.  Here’s hoping this will do the trick and we’ll be back to being a quiet, comfortable, fresh-breathed family soon.