More energy ... sometimes

Dave and I were gone for the Labor Day weekend, but Erin said that she and TJ played a lot. He chased his toys, played a kind of hide & seek in the house, etc. They also took a really long walk. This morning I took him out for a walk, and we basically jogged around the entire neighborhood, with only short stops. This is definitely NOT the typical behavior for him lately, and I take it as a good sign. He still has a lot of discharge on his neck, which comes and goes. He also still spends a lot of time sleeping. Yesterday I could hardly get him to come out of his room. His legs are really raw from scratching and chewing. Erin bought him some new socks (boots?), and she's been keeping those on most of the time so that he can't scratch himself raw.

Thursday is his last day on antibiotics, so it will be very interesting to see what happens with his skin and itching once that's over with. Yesterday and today his ears seem to be really itchy again, so I hope the infection is completely gone.

The saga continues

TJ has been on the antibiotics for over 2 weeks now, and to me it seems as if he is nearly back to where he started before we began the treatment. He's itching constantly, his front and rear legs are raw from scratching and biting, and he seems pretty miserable. He does appear to have a little bit more energy than he had for a while, but I'm not sure why that is. He hardly has any discharge except for on his chest, and when Erin took him to the vet she said that the discharge was bacteria, not yeast.

I have my suspicions that he has a mild allergy to the antibiotics. When I brought this up to Erin she dismissed it, saying that this is the same antibiotic he always gets, and that the itching was due to allergies. However, he wasn't itching before he took the antibiotics. I have a hard time believing the antibiotics "caused" an allergy to his food or environment that he didn't have before. I'm really curious how they would treat him if he did have an allergy to the antibiotics. But that's just my assessment. If he always ends up taking steroids after the antibiotics to stop the itching ... hmmm, just seems to make sense to me.

He definitely hasn't been nearly as stinky as he was before, but his fur gets sticky after a few days. Some days his chest has a lot of discharge; some days none at all. I think he might be growing some of the fur back on his chin, and the bare patch he had on his back from his ACL surgery has completely grown back. He still has a bare patch on his tail where he chewed on it. The inside of his lips was really pink yesterday, and he still isn't eating normally, although he's getting better. He's also still really picky about drinking water from his regular bowl, which we can't figure out. And yes, that is duct tape on his nails, which helps a little to keep him from tearing himself up.