Ginger's Illness

We left Ginger with a friend while we went up to GA & AL to see Ken & my family. When we got back, we discovered that she had scratched off a considerable amount of fur on her chin/neck area. It was swollen quite a bit. Neither the dog sitters nor I could figure out the cause. We picked her up on Thursday mid-morning and couldn't get her into the vet until Friday afternoon. Her appetite was virtually non-existent. I was afraid they were going to have to treat her for dehydration. Into the vet we go, with all 3 kids plus the dog (that was interesting). Blake & Cathryn were SO good to wait in the waiting room while I took James in his sling/carrier into the exam room with Ginger. She had a rash all over her legs, belly, and chest by the time we got to the vet. The culprit for all this missing fur, skin, appetite, and energy: Flea allergies. MAJOR flea allergies. It looks like all 3 dogs (Ginger plus the 2 that lived there) found a nest of fleas in the backyard. The fleas themselves causing itching and Ginger's past history and suseptibility to skin irritations and conditions was apparently too much for her to handle. She has had cortizone shots in the past for minor rashes/irritations. And while Ginger's monthly Sentinel tablet has a flea disabler (keeps them from reproducing) it doesn't keep the fleas from biting and aggravating her. The vet wanted to stick a needle in the swollen part to make sure it had not abscessed. Ginger flinched too much though and he said that we would just go ahead and treat it with antibiotics, prednisone, CapStar (to kill the flea eggs and keep them from possibly inhabiting the house), and ear drops. Ginger is a VERY smart dog when it comes to taking medicine. She knows she does NOT like it and can worm whatever pill out of most anything we hide it in if she suspects anything. It took me a half hour to get her to take all 4 pills Friday night, as it was time for her monthly worming pill anyway. She didn't like me much after that.

Ginger is doing MUCH better now. The swelling has gone down considerably, almost gone now. She is drinking more due to the prednisone making her thirsty. She is also eating more today than in the past few days. She is still sleeping the day away, which she used to do anyway. She just included brief spurts of energy her and there to chase a bird or some imaginary thing around the yard. Here are some pictures we took Saturday, from both sides of her. It's gross, so beware.