Summer’s Here

…and Tierce is scratching.  It’s not as bad as it was that first year, but we’ve been controlling it with Atopica.  Unfortunately, it appears that Tierce is going to need a full-time, pill-a-day regime from May to September.  March and April, we can get away with cutting it back and I’m thinking in the winter we can cut down to two or even one.

We’ve got to keep on top of this because he’s starting to show worn eyebrows and the tips of his ears are a testament to increased scratching.  He has been nibbling at his front legs, but not as bad as other years.  He is showing a preference for rubbing his face in the grass, something that is somewhat counterproductive, since I suspect that he’s allergic to grass pollen.

I know that there was little way to know that the rabies shot he got would affect him so badly, but I’m still kind of mad about that.  Not at the vet, not at myself, but just at the fates.

Here’s another picture of him (we went on an epic 4-hour geocaching trip yesterday).  He still seems to be having fun with life so, again, he’s not as bad off as he was the first and second year.

8 Comments

  1. damn. so cute, like my little brat, niko. (damn mischievous s

  2. Poor Tierce! And poor you! When our shiba had allergies last year (we’re pretty sure it was from our change in laundry detergents) we discovered an inflatable e-collar at PetSmart that helped control the scratching. We had to get a large, he looked ridiculous in it, and he got limber enough to get around it after a few months, but his fur grew back! We also found a 100% duck soft food (Evanger’s super premium) to wrap his Atopica in. If you keep it in the fridge it’s pretty easy to scoop out a piece to wrap the pill in, and he never once found the pill and spit it out.

  3. ahh yes love Atopica. we tried everything with our shiba and the moment our vet gave us Atopica we got our happy non itchy do

  4. I always think that my Shibas are the best looking but Tierce has such a great face, he seems such a happy handsome dog.

  5. ahh yes love Atopica. we tried everything with our shiba and the moment our vet gave us Atopica we got our happy non itchy dog back

  6. tsuki started scratching about 2 weeks ago… i’ve been trying to boost her immune system with colostrum but I haven’t seen a difference yet. between that and benadryl she continues to itch.

    i think i’m just going to have to pursue atopica this year. I don’t know how either of us will make it to fall at this rate!

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