Day 10: Pets that look like their owners...

I know what your thinking and no I don't look like Butters!!  My husband always says that Butters and I are just alike with our allergies.  My three year old Shar pei has food and environmental allergies.  She has even had skin testing done.  Her top three allergies are: cats, human dander, and dust!  Seriously she has to be just as complicated me.  As for her food allergies she is allergic to chicken, turkey, beef, and duck.  Other items we also avoid are corn, soy, and wheat.

This dog has gone through a lot in her short life several vets, had a facelift, and one vet even insisted we have her inner ear removed when she was six months old!!  In August of 2010 we took her to a dermatologist that was able to help us determine the cause for her constant ear infections and her recent out break of hives.  He put her on a food trial which was super expensive!!  We had to buy a special prescription, rabbit and sweet potato blend that was $60 for a 16 lb bag.  That only cleared up her ears which indicated a food allergy but we still had issues with her red, swollen feet.  They ordered an allergy test of 70 different environmental allergies.  Butters was scored high on almost everything tested.  After that we started her on allergy shots which we would administer once a week and work up to once a month.  This went on for a little over a year and she has been a trooper through all of this.

She knows when Antonio grabs the cotton balls its time for her ears to be cleaned.  Its really funny actually, she will just sit there and wag her tail while waiting for him.  And if she feels really dirty she will go stand by the bath tub until you bathe her.  Given the countless vet visits, late night ER runs, and tons of medication she still likes the vet.  It's so weird but she really seems thankful for everything.

Just like me she has food allergies!!  It's funny how most people don't directly deal with food allergies and might know someone, who knows someone with a food allergy.  But in my house when my husband has to go grocery shopping he not only has to check labels for me, but also Butters.  We make her homemade treats and she is CRAZY about bananas!!  After we corrected the food allergies she has been steroid free until recently.  The company that made the white fish and sweet potato blend we had been feeding her began to add chicken fat, and her ears have been so swollen lately.  We have switched to five different types of food in the last three months and one was $85 for 33 lbs!!  So we just switched again and hopefully this one will get her back on track. 

I had never really dealt much with food allergies in my life until we discovered Butters had issues with some ingredients.  When I had to deal with mine, checking the labels wasn't something completely new to me.  I just had to learn to stay away from packaging with ingredients I couldn't pronounce. If you have pets that have issues take a look at their diet because the answer could be right in front of you.  Everyone says that's what you get when you buy a Shar Pei! And its not true at all she hasn't been to the vet in almost two years besides her regular vaccinations.  And more recently she has been off of her allergy shot for almost three months because we started feeding her coconut oil.  Before that she could barley make it three weeks before she was showing signs of allergies. 

Below are some photos of my little bundle of allergies!!