Our Dog

Never thought that my first meaningful post would be about our dog, Koby, but here it is! We are going through SUCH a frustrating situation with him right now...makes me want to scream. Actually, it's to the point now where it's almost hilarious.

So...we learned when Koby was very little that he had some bad allergies. Skin allergy type stuff that couldn't really be identified precisely or cured. (Koby is a pure bred Golden Retriever) After some food trials and switching to sensitive dog shampoo, we resolved to put him on a low dose of Prednisone daily to help keep his itching away. He is now 5 years old and he's probably been on some dose of Prednisone daily for the past 3 or more years. This made him gain a lot of weight and be HUGE. He has probably also been over 100 pounds for 3 years or so. He still loved to run and play, but he was just big. I always thought the extra pounds and heavy fur came in handy for living in Colorado winters!

Fast forward to our move to Georgia last year....

We started out...ok. It was a lot for this huge, furry beast to acclimate to Georgia in August! Then, sometime before Christmas we started noticing something smelly along with blood spots. This went on for a little while because we had no idea what could be going on. We don't lift his tail and peek around very often, but when I did- OH MY GOODNESS! Our dog had an anal gland infection! Super gross. Anyway, to keep it PG-13, this anal gland infection has been "cured" and come back at least 3-4 times now. There is a threat that he might have to have his anal glands removed, which is major surgery. (super!) Amongst all of this, he's had to go back at least 4-5 times this spring for completely unrelated incidents. Severe face/ear itching and swelling (infection), more anal gland drama, mouth/gum infection, and most recently some sort of severe infection in his elbow that made his entire arm swell twice the size of the other. He's actually at the vet right now where he stayed overnight last night after minor sedation and surgery to "drain" some of the nastiness. UGH! Poor Koby.

Anyway, he's still on the Prednisone daily, which I think bothers most vets that we see initially. It's not great for them to be on every day, but the minute we try to take him off a little, he itches himself an infected "hot spot" because he can't control himself! Then...we're back to the vet. It becomes a question of his quality of life vs. not being so "medicated" all the time, which will eventually not be good for his insides. We have chosen to keep his quality of life decent and itch-free while he's around!

Koby's new vet has been great. Her name is Dr. Martin. She and her husband run a little veterinary clinic down the road, after she had twin girls a few months ago. (shew!) Anyway, when we first took Koby there, they ran LOTS of blood tests and whatnot to try to analyze what was going on with our dog. She discovered he also had Hypothyroidism (contributing to his heaviness) and has had to be on prescription medication for that for the past few months, too! Along with a pretty strict diet and exercise, this medicine has helped Koby lose at least 25 pounds! He's also gotten himself a "summer cut" and looks ridiculously skinny and svelt. We can see his ribs!

Not sure what happened to our dog's health when we moved to GA, but he doesn't seem to be dealing well. I feel so bad because he really doesn't have a super quality of life being SO hot outside and kennelled inside and so stinkin' sick all the time. I just PRAY that this little phase will be over and he will be healthy for at least a month straight! We see our veterinarian WAY too much!