Lenny at the Dog Park

RUNNING





ROLLING






PUTTING ON THE BRAKES




Lenny had to go to the vet yesterday because his allergies have flared up really badly. This is despite our best efforts to keep his itching under control by:

1) Giving him immunotherapy shots every ten days.
2) Giving him children's Benadryl.
3) Bathing him twice a week with medicated shampoo.
4) Changing his bedding twice a week.
5) Vacuuming the house every day.
6) Leaving his "cone-head" on him when we have to leave the house so he won't chew on his paws.
7) Constantly chaperoning him when we are at home - he is not allowed to go in a room without one of us there. (He's sneaky about scratching!)



This is supposed to be a particularly bad allergy season in Indiana. (My allergies have been non-existent, though!)

Wednesday night we came home to find him very cut-up because he had clawed open his front legs with his back paws, on his ankles, paws, and elbows. So Thursday he went to the vet.

This vet (not our usual Dr. Koch) for some reason was convinced that Lenny had cancer, and kept telling Chuck about how Lenny's medications would have to change if he had chemotherapy, etc. His lymph nodes in his legs were swollen, but his other lymph nodes were not, so she did a biopsy. Chuck asked if perhaps the lymph nodes were swollen due to his allergic condition, but she insisted on doing the biopsy. While she was looking at the slides, Chuck could hear her out in the hallway talking to Dr. Koch, our normal vet. She was telling him that she didn't see anything on the slides, and Dr. Koch said something along the lines of "Lenny has allergies, not cancer!" But at least now we can put our minds at ease...

Anyway, Lenny came home with a cocktail of pills - steroids, anti-histamines, and antibiotics. Hopefully he'll get through the next few weeks a little better. We took him to the dog park after his appointment.