Sick puppy…what a scare!

I have just experienced what it is like, or what I think it might be like to have a health emergency with your own child. Brian’s 10 month old puppy, Gus, (ok he’s as big as most full grown dogs) started having these puss spots on his shoulder blades towards the end of our weekend in Katy a couple days ago. We didn’t think much about it…just thought maybe he and my dog at home, Molly, wrestled a lot (that’s what they do) combined with him rolling around in the dirt post-swimming in my pond/lake with God only knows what kinds of bacteria. I started reading online about his “wounds” and began to get really worried and quasi freaked out. I came across what sounded like a staph infection. I convinced Brian to take Gus to the 24 hr emergency vet so he could at least get some antibiotics in him….etc… well of course they shaved his back, pumped him with antibiotics and steroids, diagnosed him with a severe staph infection, and took some money. So after a appetiteless and sleepless night, Brian took Gus to the REAL vet this morning. He spent the day there and got looked over pretty well. Turns out the vet doesn’t think he has a staph infection, just very irritated skin due to a combination of things, and a few other small things on the side.

Of course the first thing I did was begin to blame myself on where I went wrong, or what we could have done to prevent this from happening…but turns out it’s not really anyone’s fault. Whew! *wipes forehead* According to the vet, Gus did this to himself by scratching, rolling around in the dirt like a maniac, and then swimming probably doesn’t help the sensitive/scratched skin. It’s weird to think that such a well taken care of dog can have a skin irritation- but maybe because he’s so well taken care of that when he’s exposed to the great outdoors his immunity isn’t as strong as say, my country dog, Molly, who probably swims in the pond water 7 times daily since she was 6 months old- on top of rolling around in the dirt.

Hopefully it is just a topical skin irritation that a few antibiotics will take care of.

Gus & hot spots1

Gus & hot spots2

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  1. Mom says:

    Poor thing! Can you put doggy band aids on him so he will not scratch his bo0-boos?
    Give Gus a kiss for me. Molly sends him a big lick!

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