Seven Years and Counting

Yesterday Seth and I celebrated our seventh wedding anniversary. Well, maybe celebrated isn't the right word. Marked? Acknowledged? Remembered?

At about 8 last night we sat down at the table to eat our Burgerville hamburgers that Seth ran out to get at the last minute. We did down a beer with our burgers -- don't judge, we'd had a hard day.

I was busy with a physical therapy appointment in the morning for my foot with is healing nicely but still not quite 100 percent. Then in the afternoon I had a work-related meeting I'm hoping to tell you more about at a later date. And yet later in the afternoon I had to take Wiley to the doggy dermatologist for his ongoing skin problem. Four hours later we returned home with new food, shampoo and meds.

The short version is this: We think Wiley may have a food allergy that is causing itching. The constant itching has led to scratching and chewing. This has caused him to get sores on his body which has led to multiple infections and more itching and scratching. The poor guy is in an E collar again until the itching stops. The current plan is meds to get rid of the infection. Shampoo to help ease the irritation. New diet to try to curb what we think could be a food allergy. He also has just become disinterested in his old food, and we need him to eat well to get better. The bummer is that he is under strict orders to eat nothing but the food and treats given to us by the vet. That means stray Cheerios and his favorite cheese treats are out. It will be a three ring circus around here to get everyone fed until we get a new groove down, but we're willing to try just about anything to get Wiley well.


There is still a possibility that the initial irritation was caused by something other than an allergy. The vet we saw, who was great, I might add, is sure it was not a stress problem caused by Jasper's arrival. If it is not an allergy she thinks it could be something metabolic. The reason we're not chasing that down right now is that he has shown no major symptoms of something such as diabetes or a thyroid disorder (no major weight gain/loss, excessive thirst, and so on).

While we were busy, Seth and Jasper did have some fun together. Check out pics here.

Here's to hoping we can figure it out, so Wiley can feel well again. And perhaps, if only for a short time, we can have a healthy household.