Last weekend we made a family trip to take Rocky to visit his new dermatologist. He was friendly with her assistant who took his detailed skin history (complete with iPhone photos of his rashes I'd captured over the years). In fact it took her about 30 minutes to complete the entire history and Rocky scratched the entire time! I told DLG that I had coached him to be sure he showed the Dr. just how itchy he is! David was laughing. While he waited for the vet to come in he relaxed on the rug they had in the room.
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| At his new vet |
Once she came in, however, he was terrified and hid under David's chair. I had to pull him out and flip him over so that she could see the rash. She was really friendly and said that doggie's are smart and recognize the white coat and are afraid of it. She suggested that the allergy shots that he is on are really the best course of action to pursue and that he should continue to take them. She said that he should should take smaller doses more frequently and mixed it with a new prescription she gave him that will teach his body to adjust to the staph infections he's getting rather than to act allergic to the staph. She also gave him some medicated shampoo to wash with which will help improve his skin barrier and a final prescription of antibiotic to kick his current infection. She said that he could go back to eating any food that he wanted and recommended one with lots of Omega 3's to help improve his skin quality. She recommended Science Diet for sensitive skin so he is trying that one out now. It's been one week and he's still be pretty itchy! DLG gave him a bath this morning with his special shampoo - hopefully that will help!
After a morning of terror at the vet, Rocky was in for an afternoon of fright as well as one of the largest storms in a while rolled through town. In fact some parts of H town got more rain than they had since 2010! It thundered for about 4 hours and Rocky was shaking for at least 4 hours. At dinner time it was still thundering and Rocky was too scared to stay home alone. DLG wanted to try Bombay pizza - it's Indian and Italian food fusion and he also wanted to show Rocky his new parking spot downtown! So Rocky hopped in and I drove so that DLG could hop out at the stops. Rocky and I waited in his new parking garage while he got the pizza.
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| Rocky hangs out in DLGs new parking spot |
Then on his way home Rocky had a quintessential Houston experience - getting stuck in high water. Every time it rains here the roads flood because the Bayous can only contain so much and the ground is so flat there isn't really anywhere for the water to go fast enough to clear the roads. Sadly, many people have gotten stuck and at least once or twice a year you read about people driving into water too deep and losing their lives. We merged onto the freeway and cars were stopped on the on ramp. We stopped behind them and sat - there was no where else to go - while cars behind us beeped and beeped. After about 20 minutes of sitting, Rocky and I worked up the courage to flip open the lid and taste Indian meets Italian food. Actually the pizza wasn't bad! Rocky liked the little tiny taste he got! Finally a car moved out of the way, another one drove through the water and we could see that it only came halfway up the tires (still pretty high though) so I pressed on the gas and got Rocky through the big puddle and back home. I think he actually liked it in the car a lot better though, the rain hitting the roof masked the thunder sound!
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| waiting it out at the high water mark |
