Five years ago we picked out a beautiful black lab puppy from a local breeder. We picked him out a group of several puppies and he was the fattest and naughtiest little guy the breeder had. Between pulling the pillows off the couch and jumping on the counter within the half hour we were at her home, we knew he was the one. He had a fuzzy black puppy fur coat, long black whiskers, giant paws, and big beady eyes; we couldn’t help but to choose him even with his impeccable performance. A few short weeks after we brought our little guy Rowdie home we began to notice his habit of scratching frequently. We truly didn’t think much of it in the beginning because most dogs do on occasion scratch themselves and love to be rubbed. We first thought …show more content…
We loved our little puppy just 6 months old at the time but he was financially draining us. He said simply Rowdie had seasonal and environmental allergies. He gave us a good quote on the reasons of why this was such a long process after questioning why this had occurred. “Food allergies compromise approximately 10% of all dog allergies and, because of this low percentage, they may have historically been dismissed or only mentioned in passing by many vets.” Schaible. The specialist gave us two options, we can go through the process and figure out what is going on and know the exact reason, but that may take months and thousands of dollars to do so, with no guarantees. Or to treat him with a lifelong pill of Prednisone. It sounded like and easy decision, of course the more affordable route, but there were many things that went along with the Prednisone treatment. He informed us Rowdie would be extremely thirsty; probably have frequent accidents because of the lack of control of his bladder from this medication. He would develop a “pot-belly” and look heavy set because of this. The last thing he told us was that Rowdie would have a short life, and maybe live to be 8 or 9 because of the effects on his liver and kidneys. We had to make a decision for our puppy. Labs can live up to 15 years and we were unsure if what choice was