Allergies

Annabelle has allergies.  We first figured it out because she was always licking her paws.  The Vet in Florida had us try benadryl, but that didn't work.  We were told if the licking got worse, we might have to have her tested to see specifically what her allergies were.  Once we moved here, we started working with the Vet to figure out what she was allergic to.  I suggested the allergy tests, but I was told it was "very expensive".  The Vet wanted to try switching her food to a special blend for allergies.  The bag was only 12 pounds and we were going through it in two weeks, and it was $50 a bag!  We were also supposed to not feed her ANY treats, only the dog food.  After 3 months, the licking didn't stop.  We put her back on her old food.  Next we tried allergy pills (not benadryl) at $60 a refill.  That didn't work either.  Then a couple of weeks ago, I came home to this:

I don't know if you can tell, but Annabelle had licked her feet so much, that the fur was missing.  We had it!  I didn't care how much the allergy test cost, I just wanted to find out what was wrong with her!  I knew that she was uncomfortable and I wanted her to have some relief.  We made the appointment.  And it wasn't as expensive as we were led to believe.  We've spent more on food and allergy pills than we did on the test.

We got the results back a few weeks ago.   Annabelle is allergic to dust mites!  They suggested allergy shots for our baby.  And we have to give them to her!  Ahhh!!!  Right now, she's going to have to have the shots every 4 days.  Eventually, we can give her a shot once a month.

We are trying to eliminate the dust mites (yeah, good luck to us) as best we can.  We are in the process of replacing all her toys and we have ordered a new micro-fiber bed for her.  I'm just so happy that we finally know what is wrong with her.  And hopefully she will start having some sort of relief within the next few months.

If I had to do it all over again, I would've just gotten her tested for allergies.  I'm not sure if the Vet was really trying to save us money, or get as much money as she could from us.  We definitely ended up spending more, trying to go at this blindly.