Being allergic to yourself…

Our rambunctious dog Chester, has experienced multiple ear infections, hot spots, clumps of fur ripped out on his paws and other maladies during the last couple of years.

Our very competent veterinarian advised us several times that we should probably test Chester for allergies as the probable cause of these things.

When my wife and grew up, dog ailments were treated much differently than they are today. If Fido got sick, broke a bone or just got old, he probably didn’t get taken to the vet and eventually died. We just accepted it as part of the cycle of life. That’s not to say we didn’t love them and enjoy their companionship, but pets are treated much differently today. I don’t recall ever taking one of our dogs to a vet when I was young. For my wife, who grew up on a farm, pets mostly lived outside and a vet’s visit was probably limited to income producing livestock.

Believing ourselves to have evolved into more responsible pet owners, we finally agreed to have Chester tested to see what things were triggering his allergies.

I gulped when we got the $450 bill for the testing, but we figured it was worth it because Chester is really special to us.

So here’s what we learned from the tests The top things he is allergic to are:

1. Rye grass. We don’t have any in our yard, but someone down the street plants it in the winter — we’ll just steer clear of it in the future.
2. Fleas. He doesn’t have any that we know of and he gets expensive pills once a month to keep them away. He spends most of his life in the house, and I’m pretty sure neither Margo nor I have fleas.
3. Mesquite. It’s out there on the mesa, but there’s hardly any near where we live.
4. Johnson grass. Well, this is a big one because it grows everywhere here in the valley, especially along the irrigation ditches where Chester likes to run. His favorite place to sniff for interesting things is in clumps of Johnson grass. We will have to keep him on a shorter leash when we walk him in the along the ditches.
5. And finally — topping the list of allergens — HOUSE DUST. Well, duh, Chester, you’re likely the source for most of that. Our solution to that would be just to keep him outside most of the time, but being as spoiled as he is, he wouldn’t like it. And honestly, we wouldn’t either.

We have the option of spending even more money for regular allergy shots for him, some of which are also fairly expensive. We’re evaluating that in addition to limiting his access to things which are avoidable.

But I’ve come up with a plan. When Chester was being tested for allergies, the vet had to shave off an 11 x 14 inch swath of the fur on his right side to inject him with allergens to see which produced a reaction. We’re told the fur will grow back in a few weeks, but of course it’s quite noticeable in the meantime, eliciting sympathy from people who see him during our daily walks.

We that much noticeable space, I’ve decided we could rent it out for advertising to help us recover some of the costs of vet visits.

In the photo below, you can see the area that would be available for advertising. Please get in touch with me if you want to send an impactful message.