Hi, hi.  We broke a couple snow records yesterday --  Tulsa has received 26.1 inches of snow during the entire season. This breaks the record set in 1923-24, 25.6 inches.

Read more from this Tulsa World article at http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=490&articleid=20110210_100_A11_CUTLIN582385

I know it is nothing compared to most of y'all, but keep in mind, we really don't ever get but a couple snow storms a season and our winters for the most part are quite mild -- 40ish.  Some places received over 20" yesterday.  Glad it wasn't our place.  My car is still parked and I'm coming to work BEFORE the crack of dawn with Mr. DS.

60's by the weekend!  Yay!


I'm sorry you're feeling down, Mz. 
Mr. DS and I are quite introverted.  We don't have a mutual couple we do things with --  he has his friends and I have my friend, but even then, we are really eachother's only company.  It's not really as pathetic as it sounds; it works for us. 

I'm ready for t-shirts and sandals and SUN!

Our poor dog is a mess.

We're still fighting this skin issue with her. Our vet has done more research and they think the problem is the cortisone meds she's on makes her unable to fight the bacteria on her skin which leads to an infection. She's on the cortisone because of her severe allergies which was causing her to vomit her food.

I just talked to the vet now and the next plan is to get her on antibiotics again to help with the skin infection, and also start trying to reduce the cortisone meds. I know that will eventually mean that she'll be back to vomiting her food every few days again because of the allergies.

WebGuy wrote:

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Our poor dog is a mess.

We're still fighting this skin issue with her. Our vet has done more research and they think the problem is the cortisone meds she's on makes her unable to fight the bacteria on her skin which leads to an infection. She's on the cortisone because of her severe allergies which was causing her to vomit her food.

I just talked to the vet now and the next plan is to get her on antibiotics again to help with the skin infection, and also start trying to reduce the cortisone meds. I know that will eventually mean that she'll be back to vomiting her food every few days again because of the allergies.

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Aw, poor puppy!  I'm surprised that the only allergy medicine they have for dogs is cortisone.  I can't remember, do you know what she's allergic to?

 

Poor baby

Our dog sometimes gets skin irritations; we give him a benadryl capsule and it helps with the scratching.

Ear infections are his big problem.  We were taking him to the vet every three months for a while and he kept having to take antibiotics and their high-dollar earwash.  We finally quit the vet and Mr. DS concocted his own earwash. 

Ask the vet about the benadryl for the scratching...

Afternoon all.

Mz - we're your friends. However, we also fit into that more than an hour's drive to see you category. I do understand your feeling though. I have friends, but most of the ones I'd like to be with more are over an hour's drive too. After I graduated from college, I drifted away from many friends. Then I moved. I'm not good with making new friends. It takes me a while. It is sad really. Some of the friends now I really only see when we are all out. Most of them are married and we don't really hang out.

MzHartz wrote:

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Is there an allergy test for dogs like there is for humans? It's probably pretty expensive, but theoretically, it would only be a one time charge and might be cheaper in the long run.

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I don't know, It's never been asked or talked about with our vet.

Since she vomited almost every kind of food we tried, I guess we kind of figured that knowing exactly what the allergies are wouldn't really matter. We tried beef based, cereal based, chicken based, and she seems to do best on the "lamb and rice".

 

Oh, how annoying and unprofessional! The vet should be prepared when you take your pet in! I would feel discouraged before even getting there.

Has she recommended trying giving your dog fish oil for her coat? It could also possibly help with the skin irritation. 

Mr. DS says vets are "educated guessers"...

I suppose we could do just as well, but not have to fork over the cash for observation  

No, Mz . . . we've never tried making our own food. We didn't even think about it as an option.

I got the antibiotics so the first thing is to kill the active stuff.

The first year of her life, she had no problems. We had her on IAMS puppy food. After she turned a year old, I got a bag of adult food. I opened the bag of adult food, and then poured what was left of the puppy food on top of that so as we got through the puppy food, she'd start getting a mix of the two for a few days. You might remember, (but I don't expect you to) . . . a LONG time ago, I posted pics of her with that horrible rash. We woke up one morning to find her covered in huge welts. These welts were about the size of 1/2 a golf ball all over her body. She was fine when we went to bed. The ONLY thing that had changed when she broke out in those welts was that we had gotten down the bag to the new adult dog food.

At at that point, we just figured there was an issue with the IAMS adult food. We switched to Science Diet brand and she got a long fine for a while. Then, she gradually started vomiting more and more. When she'd vomit, she'd leave what was basically just a fairly solid pile of undigested food. It was like she just couldn't digest it. Over time, we tried different kinds of Science Diet brand foods with the same results. That is when our vet did some research and came up with the allergic to foods diagnosis and we started the Prednisolone (cortisone) meds.

The cortisone really did solve the vomiting problem. Over time, we had to gradually giver her a little more med, but it seemed to work good with the only side effect of the hair loss. Our vet told us that we should continue to try to give as low a dose as possible, but there should not be a long-term problem with the cortisone. Now, she is saying that her research is indicating that the long-term use of the cortisone can effect the immune system which usually comes out in infections in the hair follicles. This is exactly where I think we are.


Thinking through all this got the troubleshooter in me stirred up. I can't help but think back to that first year and how she was fine then on the IAMS puppy food. Granted, she was just a puppy, still young, full of energy, and generally more healthy . . . but I can't help but wonder what would happen if we went back to the last known working condition and started over again.

I talked the vet about this when I picked up the antibiotics. I told her I want to try going back to that place . . . IAMS puppy food, and work her back off the cortisone and see what happens. I don't expect her to be fine there again, but who knows? The vet said that would be fine to try with the only issue being if it works and we do that long term, she'll probably get fat from the extra energy in the puppy food. I said I'd rather deal with her being over weight, then what we have going on now.

Sooooooooooo, I picked up a small bag of IAMS puppy and over the next week or two, I'll slowly back her off the cortisone. If she starts vomiting this food, then we'll know it didn't work. We'll know pretty soon too because there have been several times where I missed one dose of the cortisone during the day, and she vomited up food later that night.

Ugh.

That's about right, JR. Our average annual snowfall around Tulsa is only about 8 inches, and that usually comes in a few storms and then the temps warm up quickly and melts the snow. Not to mention it's usually at least a few weeks between big snow storms (4-6") We don't have many snow plows and the salt & sand trucks couldn't be used until the snow is removed. We're not used to this 5#!T -- Within 8 days we get a blizzard then sucker punched with another round of snow.

But now, the sun is out and it will be in the 60's by the weekend.

Kind of late in the day to be checking in, but better late than never.

I am tuned into Freeze frame right now and was just surprised by a cool song from the Blow Monkeys...Diggin' Your Scene.  Nice Song.

Mz...sorry your are feeling blue.  30 seems to be one of those milestones that are just a natural time to assess.  I am guessing you have more friends than you think you do.  I kind of subscribe to the quality v quantity theory JR raised.  The interesting thing is that  distance and time arent the obstacles to friendship I used to think they were either.  On top of that you have your best friend tight there with you.

Web...sorry the pooch is having the ongoing health issues.  Also, I am enjoying the photos you are posting.  You have taken some nice shots.

Fuzzy...by now you should be getting the spring training itch.  You guys should have quite a year, until you run into the juggernaut otherwise known as the Milwaukee Brewers.

DS, sorry you are getting pounded by the snow...but if it cheers you up, Wisconsin wont get 60 temps until August.

JR...in the grand scheme of Owen's or Carrusso's...You know I would have your back.

Doubt if you will my friend. 

Happy to oblige...the Brewer Mantra is "I think I can, I think I can...."  Dont squash the dream before spring training even starts.

It may be anti-climatic...the Phillies pitching is the goldstandard the rest of the NL and MLB is chasing for that matter.