We are now going on month 4 of all of this and let me just say it has been a wild ride so far. Harlea went back to the vet yesterday for a follow up and we have made some good progress as it looks like all of the MRSA is gone but she did have a few yeast blooms remaining which is still progress considering where we were just a few short weeks ago. The affected area is now localized to between her hips near her girly parts instead of bouncing between that and her entire belly so she is back on another round of antibiotics to try and finish this off once and for all.
We have once again learned a couple of new things between vet visits.
1. Harlea is allergic to something in our tap water. We had the water tested and I believe that it is the high concentration of fluoride but cannot confirm. We discovered this as I had been filling her crate dish with tap water at night while all her other sources of water are filtered. Within 2 days of removing tap water from the equation Harlea stopped licking her paws and within a week half of her belly was cleared up.
2. Harlea is allergic to the material her bed is made out of. Part of this irritation Harlea has were little pustules that would always make her feel wet and sticky. Grasping as straws we covered her bed with a cotton t-shirt one night and OMG the results in the morning were amazing. She still had the irritation from the Staph but the pustules and stickiness were gone over night and have not returned.
3. Our vet finally agreed with us that this is not a food specific allergy, but asked us to start freezing her kibble to rule out a storage mite allergy. Which I am totally up for trying.
All in all this has been a nerve racking experience. Especially since I know that some of the problems she has faced were caused by things that I did or items that I gave her. We live and learn and I can't beat myself up over it as I didn't know at the time but I do know that I will never make those two mistakes again. So we will continue giving her the meds and twice weekly baths and be keeping our fingers crossed that the end is in sight.
For those of you that don't know what has been going on the past few months with Harlea you can catch up at the links below if you wish.
http://www.englishbulldognews.com/forums/showthread.php?36038-Nasal-discharge
http://www.englishbulldognews.com/forums/showthread.php?36690-Harlea-Update
http://www.englishbulldognews.com/f...7-Got-Harlea-s-Test-Results-In-a-Bit-of-Shock
We have once again learned a couple of new things between vet visits.
1. Harlea is allergic to something in our tap water. We had the water tested and I believe that it is the high concentration of fluoride but cannot confirm. We discovered this as I had been filling her crate dish with tap water at night while all her other sources of water are filtered. Within 2 days of removing tap water from the equation Harlea stopped licking her paws and within a week half of her belly was cleared up.
2. Harlea is allergic to the material her bed is made out of. Part of this irritation Harlea has were little pustules that would always make her feel wet and sticky. Grasping as straws we covered her bed with a cotton t-shirt one night and OMG the results in the morning were amazing. She still had the irritation from the Staph but the pustules and stickiness were gone over night and have not returned.
3. Our vet finally agreed with us that this is not a food specific allergy, but asked us to start freezing her kibble to rule out a storage mite allergy. Which I am totally up for trying.
All in all this has been a nerve racking experience. Especially since I know that some of the problems she has faced were caused by things that I did or items that I gave her. We live and learn and I can't beat myself up over it as I didn't know at the time but I do know that I will never make those two mistakes again. So we will continue giving her the meds and twice weekly baths and be keeping our fingers crossed that the end is in sight.
For those of you that don't know what has been going on the past few months with Harlea you can catch up at the links below if you wish.
http://www.englishbulldognews.com/forums/showthread.php?36038-Nasal-discharge
http://www.englishbulldognews.com/forums/showthread.php?36690-Harlea-Update
http://www.englishbulldognews.com/f...7-Got-Harlea-s-Test-Results-In-a-Bit-of-Shock