Izzie has had some issues as of late. Most notably, she’s been in an Elizabethan collar since last Tuesday. Why, you might ask? Because Frontline sucks. It sucks bad. Our poor baby had fleas, and lot of them. The drama (and trauma) started a little over a month ago when we were still in Columbia. We noticed that she had been chewing at the base of her tail a lot, and that she was missing hair. So, we took her to the vet, and the vet in Columbia theorized that it was a food allergy, and we had to switch her food. So we did. She’s now on Natural Balance Limited Ingredient Diet Duck and Potato. (And yes, it’s just as fancy and expensive as it sounds.) So we saw some improvement. Or so we thought. But then we flew out to Denver to find a place to live, and Izzie stayed with Caroline for a few days. I’m not sure what happened, I guess a whole bunch of flea eggs hatched or something, but when we got back, the small spot on her tail had turned into the entire lower half of it. At first we thought she was just stressed about being away from us, and all of the chaos that had been going on, but as we drove across the country, and Izzie kept chewing, despite regular doses of Benadryl, we realized that something was really wrong. So we took her to the vet here. Turns out our baby had fleas the whole time. She was just eaten up with them. What really surprised us is that she was on Frontline the entire time. And in fact, when we took her to the vet in Columbia, one of the vet techs said not to use Frontline anymore because it wasn’t working for a lot of animals. Concerned, we asked our vet about it. She said it was fine to continue with Frontline, and so we bought another 3 pack. Obviously, it wasn’t working. Now we’re on a new treatment plan. She’s gotten a flea bath, she’s on Advantage, and we’re giving her medicine so that her tail will heal. She has to wear the funny collar so she won’t chew at her tail. Jess calls her “Shakespeare” because of the Elizabethan collar. We take it off of her when we can watch her, and she’s not nearly as itchy as she was, so I take comfort in the fact that she seems to finally be better. Thank goodness! I hate seeing my baby girl all sickly. -Addison
