Loratadine for dog allergies

Hiii! I'd like to start off by saying that it's tragic that there are others that share my suffering of having unwanted dogs pushed on them but I'm glad I'm not alone in that. None of you deserve it and I really hope that your situations get better someday because living with shitty dogs you never wanted fucking sucks! I myself am currently coping with a situation surrounding my dad and two dogs that belong to our neighbours. Allegedly at least. In reality? Hmm... bit more complex than that - I don't know if I'm just being overdramatic, it is kind of jumbled and really long, but I'm just so tired of dealing with this and I want someone to hear it
For some context behind the living situation, I am unfortunately at a few months into 27 still living with my parents who rent a townhouse 🙁 It's my own fault really and I have a feeling the situation I'm in now may be fate's rendering of judgement on me for growing up into a failure. It's a really long story but the summary is that I was in a deep depression spiral for a bunch of reasons leading me to make sooo many poor financial and educational decisions starting around late elementary school to last year. About 2 years ago I finally started taking steps towards fixing my problems which included some soul searching within, but I think I've got another year or two yet before I'd consider myself comfortable enough financially to finally get out of here and away from this demented doggy day care more or less for good. For what it might be worth, while I don't pay rent I do help out with chores and pay for various things in general - I've fronted pet supplies and vet bills, gas, groceries, purchased furniture, kitchen tools, paid my mom's car insurance when she's been late on it because of my dad's drinking, paid for maintenance stuff such as some supplies to fix holes or damage that my dad puts in walls and doors, among other things like you know, random stuff that needs fixing haha. I want to think I'm not a *complete* parasite, but I totally understand if you still see me as one. Really, I get it. I promise you I'm trying and I will be useful one day. Until then though, 😔
My parents currently own 3 dogs and 2 cats so it's already pretty crowded here and to top it off I have a mild allergy to pet hair so the only time I ever have a clear nose is when I'm out of the house: a 10yr old schipperke named Kallie, a 4yr old golden retriever named Sundance, and some kind of mix that reminds me of a GSD mixed with a pitbull I guess that's like idk 2-3yrs old - her name is Suzuki and she's a rescue that my parents brought back after selling something to a Kijiji buyer. Dunno her breed exactly though. The cats are a black cat named Ninja that we've had since 2014 and a tabby stray named Loki that followed us home from a dumpster a few years ago so we decided to keep her. I love them both so much and Loki is especially dear to me and is actually closer to being my cat than my parents' cat - I am 100% taking her when I leave. They are relevant to this further down trust me.
For the record I don't have issues with Kallie and Sundance and actually do love them a lot despite the fact that I'm not actually the biggest fan of dogs - they're an exception, and I warmed up to Suzuki about a year ago though she has an issue which is relevant for the problem animals.
Several other dogs that weren't ours have been through this house in the past as my dad is well, soft-hearted and naive when it comes to specifically animals. Some of them have been problems. Some of them represent Problems. All of the extra dogs have been unilaterally his decision and any voice of disapproval ignites a conflict. Right now there are 2 other dogs on top of the family 3 and these two are the Big Problems™️ rn: the first one is a shitzuo (emphasis on the SHIT) named Keno or Kino or who fucking cares I'll just call him Keno. The other one is a mix of something that looks a little like Suzuki, but is white and might have a little chihuahua in him. His name is Benji. I'll start with Benji since I actually have sympathy for his owner and as much as I find him annoying he has some potential to be a decent dog one day if given the proper support, but that's not my problem as it's not my dog.
Benji is a younger doggo, about a year old. His owner is a single mom currently going through a bad divorce from what I hear which honestly is really unfortunate and I do hope her situation improves someday. He's kinda friendly most of the time, but his owner has still not gotten him fixed, which is an issue particularly because of how much time he spends in the same house as Suzuki, who my mom has not gotten fixed either despite my offers to pay for it and attempts to schedule it for her. I regularly stop Benji's attempts to mount her, but I know I won't be able to stop it forever and I'm terrified of the outcome. Every time I bring it up to my parents, I am either blown off with a half-thought response or (in the case of my dad) straight up yelled at and threatened as this dog is apparently just "playing" or "fighting for dominance." 🫠 I just don't want to have to exist next to a bunch of puppies that my parents are completely incapable of taking care of but there's nothing I can do about it. God, imagining the noise level and smell of the house makes me shiver. Aaaaaa. Benji is also an extremely pushy and jealous dog as he's still very young and isn't being trained adequately by either his owner or my dad - I cannot pet the family dogs without this little annoyance trying to worm his way in and interrupt. One positive I can think of is that he at least defers to me and folds over in submission the moment I express any kind of disapproval. Well, that and he isn't Keno.
Keno is.... a fucking NIGHTMARE that is driving me to insanity and I am devoting basically the rest of this rant to this untrained monstrosity and its neglectfully absent handlers. I have never, in my entire life, EVER, hated a dog more than this shaggy, aggressive, shrieking rat. It all started about six months ago when some neighbours who I've never met in my life got this stupid idiot dumbshit animal as a rescue. My mom let it come over once and I had one of those really bad gut feelings. My dad then suggested to them that he could keep an eye on it, as both of the owners work all day and don't get home until later while my dad is at home usually as he's on disability. From then on this curly-haired terror has been at our house almost 7 days a week, for at LEAST 12 hours a day. Let's see if I can describe just much I hate this animal without hitting a character limit.
The dog wasn't (and still isn't) yard trained or outside-trained in general. This dog is like 2 years old or something and every time I've brought it up my dad freaks out and says "that's not going to happen, that's just how he is! Get used to it!" My dad's solution is to cover our ENTIRE front entrance into the building hallway in piss pads. Yea, training pads. These are filled up multiple times a day - sometimes multiple times an HOUR ... you can imagine the amount of garbage this creates which my dad then complains about having to deal with (he's the ONLY reason this dog still comes here) - and yes, he throws the used piss pads in the KITCHEN TRASH, YOU KNOW, THE ONES WITH FECES AND URINE ON THEM 🙃The dog regularly misses too and wastes all over the floor and wall! I rented a carpet cleaner for when I moved rooms and my mom decided to use it after to clean up the entrance way, hahaha, it was pissed up less than 2 hours later! The doors and walls around there are starting to be stained by dog piss and it gets worse when the pads get moved around for whatever reason. If you were to look closely, you may see tiny streaks from where the dog rushed to its mandatory shitting sessions. We used to have a bench beside the door for putting on shoes and stuff, and the closet was actually used for coats, hats, and things. Now the whole area has been devoted to this walking feces factory and on top of that the perpetually soiled pads sit in front of our downstairs bathroom as well. Suffice to say that I have not used that washroom in nearly six months and only make use of the upstairs one now. Petty? Maybe. Legend has it that some of my makeup is still in there.
As mentioned earlier, from what I've been told this dog is a rescue. It has behaviour problems. Crazy, I know. You'd be shocked to know that its owners are not experienced with handling rescues. It barks at many, oh many things. There is not a single multicellular organism in this city that this thing has not barked at. When it gets let outside, the very first thing it does is run to the end of the yard and shriek at the sky! And this thing is one of those dogs that has the projection of a large dog, but the bark of a small one. Yea, it's actually piercing, and if I'm in the same room as it my ears physically hurt when it barks and leaves my ears ringing. Definitely an effective deterrent, as I don't really leave my room anymore while it's here, so I guess I basically don't leave my room anymore except to go to work or cook... Of course this dog does more than bark though! It's actually fairly aggressive, too, because of course it is. You cannot discipline this dog, both because of the coddling my father does for it and the dog's own reaction to various techniques. Very growly and bares its teeth. I went to close the living room curtain once and the dog snapped at my hand, biting me. It has bitten me again one other time when I shooed it out of my new room that I was cleaning out (note: my dad yelled at me later because it's "Keno's relaxing spot" and I'm cruel to take that away from it, don't worry it hasn't been back in since) I'm not allowed to teach this dog in any way, as any genuine attempt from me (mainly out of desperation to make what time I have left in this house livable I don't actually want to teach this mutt, I want it gone) is swiftly shut down by my dad who says once again that the dog will never learn and that's just how it is. GREAT. GET RID OF THE FUCKING THING THEN IF ITS UNFIXABLE. Oh, it's your "duty" to ensure the dog doesn't get put down apparently, because that's what will 100% happen if the dog gets given up according to him. He's not a "killer" 🙄 mf hearing that is unbelievably infuriating this dog will have no fucking chance in the future if it doesn't get given up at least now it could potentially be taken care of by someone halfway decent at it. I've told him multiple times that him ENABLING these dipshit owners is just causing more problems for this awful animal further down the road. I hate the shit out of this thing and I'm still trying to think of its well-being. UGH.
God tho, words cannot describe how much of a trigger this dog's bark is. I hate it. I cannot stand it. It's an audible plague. It worms through earplugs, headphones, walls. I cannot get it out of my fucking mind. Even on the few days this dog isn't here, I can still hear it shrieking away a few doors down. It's barking as I type this part someone save me this dog allegedly was supposed to go home an hour ago. The latest this thing has stayed was until 11:30 PM. What the fuck.
Apparently the dog is fixed. However for some reason it repeatedly tries to mount Suzuki. It does not do that with the other dogs who are all fixed. Huh. Oh, it also likes to rub up against the only part of our couch with an arm rest and has claimed it as its territory - actually briefly fought with Benji over it two weeks ago. Mom said it was a serious incident but nothing came of it, as usual haha. Whatever, point is this dog is a problem in yet another way. I love being told off about not wanting this dog to rub its fucking ass up against my thigh while I'm trying to just sit on the couch for whatever reason at the time.
What makes my blood boil the most about the behaviour though is how this dog treats our cats and even the other neighbour's dog. It's a fucking menace, an actual danger. It chases and harasses our cats in some attempt to police them or something. If Loki jumps onto a high point that she regularly lounges at, he dashes at her and barks at her. If Ninja meows at the door to be put on a leash in the yard, he barks and chases him. This dog has lunged at our cats more than once. I'm scared that something is going to happen to them because those things happen way faster than one can stop them. I don't know if I could handle seeing that image in reality. I really don't think I could. I hope I don't have to and even writing about the possibility gives me anxiety and the fact that my dad jokes about how Keno "definitely came from a family where he was supposed to keep an eye on a cat" just brings me to my fucking limit as it is. I nearly had that sort of scare a couple months ago when Benji and Keno were scrapping in my dad's room. I saw that they were getting too aggressive, but my dad has made it umm, very clear that I am not allowed to police them on it. So yea, it happened super quick - Keno clamped down on Benji's throat and hurt him. While the little guy lived, he now has a semi-persistent cough and at the time I genuinely thought the dog was gonna cross the forever bridge as he was struggling to breathe for like 10min. What changed from this incident? Well, nothing! My dad blamed Benji. I feel really bad about the incident as there was a brief window where I could have stopped it, but my fear of causing an argument with my dad led to an animal getting hurt, even if it's one I'm not a huge fan of.
Where are the owners? Haha. At work apparently. As mentioned, the dog is here nearly 7 days a week, at least 12 hours a day, usually longer than that (7am to 7pm, but this dog has fucking arrived at like 6:10am before.) Weekends are supposed to be a reprieve from this demon, but every couple weekends it'll come over on those days too and sometimes for completely fucking random reasons! Aren't owners usually comfy leaving their dog at their house for two hours? Why the fuck are these people unable to do that? Why do my parents get no notice apparently? Why do my parents take this shit? I am not allowed to voice disapproval towards this dog or the situation of any kind - my dad immediately launches into a tirade more colourful than a pastel palette if I even slightly remind him that I hate this fucking thing. My mom shuts me down - "That's enough.", "Don't", "I don't want your dad to get angry" the last time this happened my dad insisted that either I "love all of them or abuse all of them, no pick and choosing" he then drank himself silly and forgot about it. Why did that happen? I came in the door and pet our dogs plus Benji because he was actually behaving pretty well for once!
Yea the owners are so shitty. Benji's owner has told my mom (who then relayed it to me) about how they find it funny and cute that their awful dog pisses all over our walls and barks teehee 😊 at least Benji's owner tries and walks our schipperke at night sometimes. Keno's diabolical yet incompetent owners very clearly know they have a golden goose in the form of my father who is only spineless when it comes to dogs. He has sadly attached himself to this stupid mutt, and I'm worried that I'm going to have to deal with it for as long as I associate with my parents, at least until it passes. In fact, my dad has straight up said that he considers this dog his own, and part of the family. Many times he has mentioned that poor Keno's "REAL FAMILY" is here in our house. Keno's owners apparently pay my dad $100 a month sometimes for the privilege of letting it ruin this house for a minimum of 60 hours a week. Damn they got a good deal. The owners have other issues too, but basically I just can't believe that this is the hill my dad (and by extension my mom as she's been stockholm'd by my dad) is willing to die on. I can't believe this fucking dog has so much sway in things here. I can't believe my dad constantly praises and gives it love while in the same breath detailling very specifically how much joy I suck away from his life and how much of a regret of his I am. How do I stop being worth less to him than this dog? Before this thing, it was a neighbour's chihuahua named Oreo that also pissed all over the place and yapped. Despite the fact that I'd sometimes exit the shower and have to step over dog shit, I'd much rather have that yappy dog back then keep dealing with this hellspawn. At least back then my father pretended to care about me. I wish this thing would just fucking leave. I wish my mom would actually put her foot down like she says she is. I'm so tired of this. I'm tired of being told about how I'm supposed to just LIKE this shitty dog and how my open dislike of it is animal abuse or some shit that's like actually untrue (what the fuck.) I do my best to just ignore it as much as I can but this dog has driven me to crying fits more than once because it Just. Doesn't. Stop. The reminders are everywhere. It's sunken its teeth into every fucking aspect of life here and I am so miserable. If I could afford it I would move out yesterday. I want out so badly but can only bide my time while bitching like some drama queen because I was an idiot
Wow, this has ballooned way beyond how long I thought it'd be. Oops. Hey, even if you don't read it, it felt pretty good to type.
tldr: THESE 2 DOGS ARE SHIT BUT ONE IS SHITTIER AND THE WORST

TLDR; landlord in Seattle denied me housing based on “roommates thoughts” on having an ESA pet in the home.
I’m in the process of looking at places to move as my lease is up at the end of June.
It’s been very difficult due to my ESA pet and wanting roommates. Today I looked at a place that I absolutely loved - had its own private bedroom on the bottom floor with my own bathroom. However, when I brought up my 7 pound ESA pet, I could tell she was immediately against me even though she loved me as a potential tenant before I brought up the pet.
I brought it up out of respect for the other two roommates that are on the top floor. I said I could contain her in my room and they would not have to experience pet hair etc. She told me she would “check” with the roommates if they were ok with that and she messaged me two hours later saying no to a pet and she would need to find another tenant.. I’m devastated as my dog is very quiet and well behaved and I feel as this is illegal even if the roommates truly aren’t ok with a pet. (Not like they have allergies).
Is this illegal that she denied me housing based on “roommates” preferences? If so, is it worth pressing charges for this? It has been extremely hard finding a place due to my dog even though she is ESA. And each time I do disclose her. Should I start applying to places with roommates and not mention my dog? TIA!

Well, my son turned 16, and every year the last five years all he ever asked was for a cat. So he got two cats for his birthday 🥳. Brother and sister. They turn seven months old and Both are getting fixed in two weeks. Wish it was sooner but the vet where I live always is so full it takes months to get pets in if not an emergency.
Anyway, how do we make it not stink?
He paid $300 for a self cleaning litter box because they were so picky that if their box was not clean, they were peeing in my tortoise enclosure. They love their box, and use it well. But boy does that room stink.
It gets raked after each use and poo goes into a compartment. It is completely cleaned out and changed weekly!
We use pretty kitty litter or the kind that came with the Pet Safe litter box. He sprinkles, baking soda in it daily. And there’s airflow to his room. He washes bedding weekly. He does a full sweep and mop weekly.
They eat dry food only. They do steal dry dog food. 🤣🙄
What are we doing wrong? Is it because our male is still intact, or the female? Will this stop once they are fixed. Is the stink always there?
I don’t want my son to turn into one of those people who smell like cat litter when they go out shopping or leave the house. I don’t want people to walk up to my son’s window and smell cat. 🐱
My aunt has two cats and it’s not like this at her house.
-help-
I’m allergic to cats, not to the point that I can’t be around them, but they make me itchy, they make my eyes itch. If I take allergy pills it doesn’t trigger my asthma. So I’ve always been a dog owner. I have no idea how cats work.

Hello, I had a question which is probably obvious but thought i’d ask for advice/opinions! My dog has recently been shaking his head and itching at his ear for the past two/three days. We scheduled him an appointment for the vet tomorrow but he’s suddenly stopped the itching and shaking. I’ve been keeping an eye on inside his ear and there’s no gunk, redness, or nor is it swollen anymore (It was a bit swollen on the first two days). He does has seasonal allergies and does flair up at times and we recently went to another state for a few days before this happened. We traveled to California from Arizona. Is it possible it could have been a flair up or could it be an ear infection?? Just wondering before i have to spend $1K on the vet visit! Thank you in advance 😊

We've been dating for a little over a year and a half, and despite a lot of the things he does that really get on my nerves, I still love him more than anything and I want to get married to him someday. Please take everything I'm about to say with a grain of salt and don't come at my throat, there's just a lot of things that unnecessarily piss me off and my boyfriend does a lot of them.
We're both on the autism spectrum, but on vastly different sides of it. I'm more quiet and reclusive and I tend to keep my interests to myself unless someone else likes it mutually. I'll only really ramble about something if someone's curious and wants me to talk about it, but otherwise I understand that most people don't want to just be bombarded with information. My boyfriend, on the other hand, will literally spam my DMs at times with tangents about the Fortnite lore or some technological stuff that I don't understand. I'm fine with him rambling about his interests, but it's really overwhelming when it's just a massive wall of text and I'm not involved with the conversation whatsoever, just trying to awkwardly take in this information. He'll also do this thing where he'll poke me multiple times and ask if I've read through it. He'll do the same thing with songs, where he'll send me the link to a song, and then ask me if I've listened to it a few minutes later. It feels really demanding of my attention, especially if he sees that I'm currently doing something; like playing a game or drawing.
Recently, we've both been watching through MLP:FiM because he's never gotten into it while it was really popular back in the 2010s. He'll just repeat "I love [insert character]" several times even though I'm already well aware that it's his favorite character. I don't know why, but hearing someone repeating the same thing over and over again really, really irritates me. I know it's probably just an instance where he gets really attached and doesn't know what else to say, but he says it for a lot of things. Also, sometimes he says something like "wow, this episode is really great" and if I don't say something in the next few seconds, he'll follow it up with "isn't it?" and force me to respond even if I'm just trying to watch and focus on the show or I'm nonverbal. I don't understand why he wants me to acknowledge him stating that what we're currently watching is great if we're clearly both interested it, and demands my constant attention. It's like this for everything we're watching together, and I just wish he'd be quiet and watch the damn video a lot of the time instead of just saying baseless shit that's obvious.
I visited him during Christmas of 2023 and he got this Breaking Bad lego set from his dad. We wanted to build it together, but I ended up building nearly the entire thing, because he'd get frustrated so easily and give up after a few minutes. He just slept for an entire evening while I worked on it, and he kept falling asleep every time I woke him up and asked him if he could help me with it because I just wanted to do something fun with him. That was literally our entire vacation, just sitting around and doing nothing. He doesn't have a car, nor a license, and his mom was working most of the time. She drove us around to some places, like a dispensary and took us out to dinner, but I didn't want her to feel like I was taking advantage of her and asking her to take us places, and buying an uber is expensive, so we were just stuck holed up at his house. He slept for most of the day on new year's eve and I at least wanted to sit outside with him and watch some fireworks, watch the ball drop, anything. I had to wake him up 10 minutes before midnight and he literally just didn't care at all. He fell back asleep after midnight and I just felt so empty and unfulfilled after that. He doesn't like going out into public, and he hardly ever has before in his whole life, so he just sits around doing nothing all day and never wants to go out and do anything fun. Ever. Not even a walk or anything.
He has a couple of food allergies, peanuts being the most major one. I understand that a lot of food products can potentially be contaminated due to them being processed in plants that handle nuts, but he uses that as the worst possible crutch. Don't get me wrong, I want him to be safe just as much as he does, but it's getting to the point where I feel like I'm dating a toddler. He gets ultra paranoid that literally everything is contaminated with peanuts. I don't have any food allergies so I know I'll never understand how that is for him or the fear he has, but it really feels like he's using that as an excuse most of the time. He literally just eats the same 5 things. Pizza, grilled cheese, fries, dry cereal, chicken nuggets. He doesn't even bother trying new things, even if I think he'll like them, and we've quadruple checked to see if it's safe for him to eat. Now, I understand a lot of people on the autism spectrum have same/safe foods, as do I, but I got so tired of eating pizza for 3 days in a row after seeing him. If I wanted something else, I had to get it door dashed and spend extra money that I really didn't want to be spending. I really don't want to be forced to accommodate to eating those same 5 things, or to spend extra money on groceries getting stuff only he likes. I told him that I'm going to get him to try new things once we start living together, and he said that's understandable, but I already know it's going to be a fucking hassle.
A lot of his friends are assholes, especially one of his best friends who I absolutely despise. He's incredibly active in the Fortnite community and is friends with someone on twitter that has a huge following due to the fact that he posts a lot of information regarding the game and it's events. I've tried being cordial with this friend of his several times, reaching out and trying to say hi to him, just to be met with silence. He openly called me weird to my boyfriend due to the fact that I'm interested in horror related things, and he just nonchalantly told me that as if it wouldn't seriously hurt my feelings. Eventually I just gave up even trying to befriend him and told my boyfriend that I don't like him, but he'll continue to bring him up to me and it really gets on my nerves when he does, because who likes hearing about someone they don't like due to the fact that you were treated unfairly by them? He's also had multiple falling outs with this friend, where he's said and done a lot of hurtful shit, but my boyfriend keeps crawling back to him instead of just finding a better person to call his best friend.
He's extremely clingy and overly anxious. Like, dog with separation anxiety clingy. One day I left to take out the trash around my house for 15 minutes and I got back to see several messages on Discord, missed calls and texts asking me if I'm okay and if something happened to me. He literally had a full blown panic attack over the fact that I didn't get back at the exact time he would've liked. He's done this so many fucking times, I've lost count. Calling me and freaking out while I'm at work because I stayed for an extra hour. Blowing up our messages because I stopped responding to him for a little while. He gets so worked up over nothing and jumps to the worst possible conclusion, as if I died a horrific death just for being unresponsive for a little while. There was this one time his mom went out to an antique mall with his grandma, and I had to comfort him while he went into hysterics because she wasn't answering her phone after being gone for 2 hours. I kept trying to tell him that she's very likely fine and lost track of time, but he kept going on these tangents about how he doesn't know what to do without her and she's probably dead from a car accident. He gets a call from her about 30 minutes into his episode and she says that there was just no reception in the mall, and he was so embarrassed about the whole fiasco afterward. Like, yeah babe, maybe if you didn't get it into your head that your mom is dead just because she was gone longer than she said, you wouldn't have freaked out. I get it to an extent because I also have really bad anxiety, but he creates these false scenarios in his head and then immediately believes it's true. He's on meds but they don't seem to curve his anxiety at all. I've suggested he should probably find a better prescription, but never does. Every time he freaks out like this, he apologizes over and over again for it, and I forgive him every time, but he never wants to work on trying to find self soothing methods or talking himself down from something.
On the same topic of him being clingy, it's really hard for me to get any sort of alone time a lot. He messages me so much, even when I've asked him to please give me some space, he will leave me alone for a little while and then just continue to message me. He gets extremely needy if I've played a game or have been drawing for longer than he would like me to. He got mad at me once for not responding to him when he said he was going to bed while I was playing a game I was unable to pause, 2 weeks after I saw him during Christmas and he was all over me during that time. Now, every time I play a game, I get anxious about playing it for too long, otherwise he's going to be up my ass.
Before any of you ask, yes, I have talked to him about all of these things. We have a very healthy relationship and rely on communication, so our relationship isn't strained or anything. He'll just say he'll "try to be more aware" and will continue to do it the next day, so a lot of these habits are hardwired in his brain. I'm probably just going to have to continue reminding him about these things, because I feel bad about a lot of this stuff irritating me. He's really sweet and the best partner I've ever had, but god he really acts like a needy puppy at times. I'm sure there's things I do that he doesn't like either, a lot of relationships are like that. I'll either learn to live with these habits, despite my discretion, or he'll learn to break them. Either way, I just needed to get all of that off my chest.

In 2020 I started suffering from acne. I believed it to be from wearing masks. Then it became a full blown case of adult hormonal cystic acne… Seeing an aesthetician regularly and an intense skincare regimen wasn’t enough. I went to a dermatologist finally this January who prescribed doxycycline + winlevi + .05% tretinoin. Some results! I changed to spironolactone in March along with moving to .1% retin-a tretinoin. More results but again plateauing… I forgot a few days of oral medication when I had a cold and have not taken spironolactone in 3 weeks. My skin looks great! Super clear. No break outs (except from some tiny blister like bumps from the sun + retinol) since!!!
Here’s the kicker… I think this also lines up with the dates I changed my dogs brand of food too coincidentally to not be considered!
For reference: I have celiac and a severe wheat allergy. My dog, Jabronie (his friends call him Bro!), has been on Acana singles (grain free) for 6 years. I have switched him to Open Farm grain free.
*I have switched to open farm as my pet food store told me that Acana was bought out again and could result in quality changes. I was already considering a change/upgrade in food.
Has anyone else experienced anything similar to this? Bro loves his new food and my skin is clear! 🥰😎
Happy regardless!

-- out here making it work somehow, unable to remember the first two weeks because they're just a blur of sleep deprivation and anxiety, clinging to every milestone white-knuckled as evidence that things are improving and time isn't standing still. For those of us who have clothes full of holes; clothes that smell like dog pee because for some reason the PUPPY smells like dog pee -- dreaming big dreams of taking a shower and washing your hair, or doing a whole load of (human!) laundry somehow, if only you can find the time, because you don't have any help and your puppy screams when you do anything other than focus your attention wholly on him.
Shout-out to all the solo puppy parents with older dogs that are getting bullied by your puppy, trying to split your affection between them and uphold boundaries while reassuring your older dog that you love and adore them, and things will get better, trying not to feel too guilty when they look at you with those sad 'but why have you done this, mother?' eyes. To the puppy parents who bring the puppy inside from a 3am potty trip and get back into bed, and are juuuust falling asleep again a half an hour later when the elder dog starts to whine about wanting to go out, too. To the puppy parents with robes that live on the foot of the bed now, next to a leash clipped into a collar, ready to go.
To all the solo puppy parents for whom the last three to four hours of the day feel infinitely long, when you've run out of gas and want to think or do anything other than puppy stuff for just half an hour...but you have no backup, there is no break for you, and you know you just have to wait until some time ostensibly late enough to put the puppy up for the night before you can collapse into bed and do that half-hour of browsing or whatever decompressing you need to, aware all the while that the clock is ticking and every moment you spend doing normal adult human things is a moment you won't spend getting actual sleep. (8pm. It's 8pm for me right now and I'm not even kidding.) And you know that tomorrow will be more of the same, and the day after that, and however many days are between this day and the day your dog is fully vaccinated, finally, at long last -- a magical day after which you will have options for entertaining and exhausting your puppy that you don't have to invent in the fishbowl of your home, but which will certainly present their own challenges.
And most especially for those of us who have chronic pain, allergies, colds, cramps, migraines, ADHD and depression and autism or any other difficulty multiplier, who are still figuring out ways to get through every puppy day without losing every last one of our marbles.
Eventually, we'll have a wonderful new furry friend and all of these things will be a distant dream. We're all going to look back on this stretch of time and barely be able to remember what it was like. (Probably because of the sleep deprivation, if I'm being completely honest, but...whatever works.)

I’m not sure what to do. 3 months ago I took my indoor cat to the vet for you annual where she was completely fine and healthy. 3-4 days later she started getting these dots on her nose and the sniffles/runny nose. A couple weeks later the runny eyes. So bad that she has hair loss where her eyes run. She has to breath out of her mouth because her nose is so stuff up. Also she started developing lumps on her ears with hairless there as well. She’s not really coughing or wheezing but she frequently sneezes.
About 3 weeks later I took her into the vet and told me it was feline herpes and prescribed her lysine. The lysine didn’t change anything and once I finished that I started her on oral nose relief drops for cats, also allergy immune boost oral oil. I told my vet that she wasn’t getting any better but I didn’t want to take her in because of how much that stresses her out and it’s not going to help her recovery. Not to mention, it’s expensive as fuck for them not to do anything that will actually help. Anyways the vet told me to give her a low dose of Zyrtec. I tried that for a while and she seemed to be doing better for a week or two but now I see it getting worse again.
I don’t know what to do or how to help her. She’s miserable and I can feel her fever is back! There is no change in her food except now she doesn’t want to eat so I started giving her wet food, same formula. We moved but that was back in October, to my moms. I thought my mom’s dogs may have triggered it so I moved in with my bf. She was doing better at first but now it’s all back. She’s been in a nice big peaceful house with us so I’m not sure what is causing this, there are also no other animals or plants in the house. I’ve had her for 3 years now and she is 4. She has never had ANY of these symptoms before march. Is this even feline herpes? Do flare ups last 3 months?? Please any advice would be great. My poor baby is miserable.

I’m not sure what to do. 3 months ago I took my indoor cat to the vet for you annual where she was completely fine and healthy. 3-4 days later she started getting these dots on her nose and the sniffles/runny nose. A couple weeks later the runny eyes. So bad that she has hair loss where her eyes run. She has to breath out of her mouth because her nose is so stuff up. Also she started developing lumps on her ears with hairless there as well. She’s not really coughing or wheezing but she frequently sneezes.
About 3 weeks later I took her into the vet and told me it was feline herpes and prescribed her lysine. The lysine didn’t change anything and once I finished that I started her on oral nose relief drops for cats, also allergy immune boost oral oil. I told my vet that she wasn’t getting any better but I didn’t want to take her in because of how much that stresses her out and it’s not going to help her recovery. Not to mention, it’s expensive as fuck for them not to do anything that will actually help. Anyways the vet told me to give her a low dose of Zyrtec. I tried that for a while and she seemed to be doing better for a week or two but now I see it getting worse again.
I don’t know what to do or how to help her. She’s miserable and I can feel her fever is back! There is no change in her food except now she doesn’t want to eat so I started giving her wet food, same formula. We moved but that was back in October, to my moms. I thought my mom’s dogs may have triggered it so I moved in with my bf. She was doing better at first but now it’s all back. She’s been in a nice big peaceful house with us so I’m not sure what is causing this, there are also no other animals or plants in the house. I’ve had her for 3 years now and she is 4. She has never had ANY of these symptoms before march. Is this even feline herpes? Do flare ups last 3 months?? Please any advice would be great. My poor baby is miserable.

So this friend of mine for many years has multiple pets. About 10 years ago I took care of them for a while when I was jobless. However since then she has slacked off on house-cleaning, and increased the number of pets. She currently has 5 cats and a dog.
She doesn't have many friends so if she has to go out of town on a weekend, she will ask if I will pet-sit.
Unfortunately for the last several years, and worse since I had Covid, I've had allergic reactions every time I pet-sit at her house. Originally I felt it was just changing the litter so I told her I could pet-sit but wouldn't clean litter boxes.
I would get flu-like symptoms every time I stayed at her place overnight. Often congestion, but also headache, fever, etc. A couple of times last year it was so bad I was convinced I had caught Covid again, though I tested negative.
So this past weekend she had to leave town suddenly due to a death in her family, and I agreed to pet-sit Friday & Saturday night. No litterboxes to be cleaned, she has automated litterboxes now, that can go for longer between cleanings...
So ... Saturday morning, I wake up with a pounding headache.... It seemed to get slightly better so I went about my day, but it was nagging me the whole day. I had to leave for a few hours as well. I had noticed my heartrate was up higher than normal, but just noted that to the side. I wasn't having any congestion so hadn't realized it was the allergies again. Thought I lucked out.
By late evening I had to cancel my plans, I had a fever, much higher than normal heartrate, etc. My plans involved a lot of activity and the extra activity pushed my heartrate out of a safe range and I was starting to get lightheaded and feel faint, so I immediately cancelled the plans and went to a family member's house for a few hours. Heartrate went down but was still elevated. I do take a single medication, which lowers my blood pressure and heartrate normally, so having it up is something I watch closely. I connected it to the allergies at this point.
I was feeling a little better, but still lousy, and went back to my friend's house for the second night of pet-sitting. Ended up having chills when I went outside even though the temps were only in the upper 60s. Slept terribly, and basically had no energy all day Sunday. Heartrate was down but still higher than my normal base heart rate. Ended up sleeping most of Sunday. Managed the drive home. Back at my own place, I slept great and felt perfectly normal this morning.
The reaction this time was so strong, that I'm afraid I'm going to have to tell my friend I can't ever stay at her place again. I know part of the issue is she does not keep a clean house, so it smells strongly of her pets. That's never going to change.
Would it be worth trying an allergy medication? I know most of the allergy meds on the market are basically placebos. At this point though it has moved beyond simply congestion to something that actually is a health risk.
Opinions?

Can anyone tell me what’s going on??
I started the process for allergy shots last week to try to combat my dog allergies. They did a skin patch test and it was all normal the first day. Very irritated arm, but nothing crazy. Not even that itchy.
Next day, I wake up, and my forearm is COVERED in tiny red dots (hives?). Every day they got worse, crawling higher up on my arm. It’s been 5 days and the itching continues to worsen, I’ve developed more and more of these hives (around and up my arm), and nothing is helping.
I’ve taken Claritin, Benadryl, Flonase; I’ve put calamine lotion on it, anti-itch cream. The only thing that seemed to help was cleaning my arm with Hibiclens, but then by the end of the day today I noticed new red welts on my elbow crease that weren’t there this morning.
I don’t know what happening 😭 should I even continue the process??? This makes me worry about the actual shots themselves.

More context. I have chihuahuas and love the breed. Her dog is around 8 years old. Reactive to people but that’s not a concern for me. Dog has allergies as well. I guess not my dream dog but she’s cute and if the owner fell ill, I would want to help rather than the dog be surrendered to a shelter. I live in a good area for shelters but I worry due to her age, medical condition, and nervousness.
My neighbor is mid 70s I believe. I have chatted with her only a couple of times. I know her husband passed a couple years ago. I don’t know if she has family around here that would take the dog. We have not exchanged numbers.
Thanks in advance :)

(My profile is tagged N-S-F-W because I also post these in dirtyr4r since some have actually had luck finding something serious there. Figured it's worth a shot, haha.)
I'm searching for the kind of wonderful woman who shares most of my interests below in addition to her hobbies and interests, who's also goofy, likes to playfully insult each other, and also believes in open and honest communication. I believe with that, we can work out any problems when they arise. 💛
• I'm a gamer, car guy, and maybe one day, a musician too. I enjoy anime, nature, going on little adventures, swimming, traveling... I wanna see the world with you before all the beautiful sights are gone. - Current games I've focused on lately is Helldivers 2 and Deep Rock Galactic. If you wanna play those together, that would be awesome! I would also eventually like to play other things together like Stardew Valley, Minecraft, Terraria, etc. - My taste is music is nearly everything except country and today's rap. To name a few bands/musicians I really love: Led Zeppelin, Arctic Monkeys, Tame Impala, The White Stripes, The Raconteurs, Queens of the Stone Age, Mac Demarco, Them Crooked Vultures, and Metronomy.
• I want to dance with you. In the living room, bedroom, back yard, in the park, almost anywhere. I enjoy doing romantic things and expressing my love. I love deep conversations that distract us from the passing of time.
• I'm a dog person because my allergies chose to target cats for whatever reason, so there's that. 😅
• I'm monogamous and don't have children currently, but they're in my future plans, probably within the next 6 years. I want to spend plenty of time with, well it might be you, and enjoy the best of life as a couple, and then as spouses, traveling and whatnot, before we start a family. 🤗
• I'm really hoping to find someone who's also into dirty humor (amongst other forms of humor) and has mutual...interests 😏 so we have even better compatibility in the bedroom (and sometimes away from home too). I usually have a high labido, but I only want to get intimate when we're both comfortable and ready. 👉👈
• Specs for those who would like them: - 6 feet tall (about 183 cm). - 219 lbs and dropping (about 99 kg). ~ My figure is very dad-bod at the moment, but apparently it comes with a nice ass (so I'm told). ~ This is close to the most I've ever weighed, and I'm not happy with it. I'm targeting somewhere around 170 lbs (about 77 kg). - Brunette/dirty blonde, kept relatively short. - Blue eyes. - Caucasian.
• I have learned the hard way that I do have a type. I used to date outside that type, and it only led to hurt feelings, so I don't want to repeat that. That being said, my type is Caucasian or East Asian ranging from petite to average body type. I don't love going to the gym, but if you have or want a membership I would be open to going together. 😁 I apologize if my preferences differ from who you are. You're all beautiful people, regardless! Please love yourself and enjoy the time you're given in life! 💛
Chat with ya soon! 😁

I'm sure this will get lost, but Charlotte, I need help... Context: My (24f) fiance (26m) used to have a huge drinking problem as well as a gambling addiction about a year and a half/ two years ago. I didn't know it at the time, he only told me after he broke things off. After he got clean, he and I started talking again. I told him I wasn't going back to (state) where we met (Some other things happened in that state and his breaking up with me was the straw that broke the camels back). He actually ended up moving states to be with me, wanting us to start fresh and have a healthy relationship. And things have been pretty good. We've been together a year, he proposed a few months ago and we got an apartment together.
The problem? He's drinking again. He came home tonight a stumbling, mumbling mess. He's not a violent drunk by any means, but it's still not fun. I had to find his phone and figure out who to call to let them know he was too sick. He's been saying how stressful his work is, but I can't understand it because my job isn't like his job (I work with kids part time, he's a shift leader at a chain store). Fine. But he DROVE drunk home today, stumbled around muttering to himself, talking nonsense. All I could get out of him was "it's 6. Doesn't matter if it's 6 or 9, it's inventory. Gotta be done." like... On a loop.
I know he's super stressed out, but he won't let me help. And now he's so stressed that I'm scared this is going to be a regular thing. He's working so hard to build a life for us, and I keep reminding him that we're building it together, but he thinks it's all falling on him.
I love him so much. He's been at my side through seizures and ER visits. He moved states for me. He's allergic to my dog, but we keep her because he knows I need her (I tried to give her up for his allergies but he wouldn't let me). He even took the time to ask my family for forgiveness and permission to date me again before we went out again (totally unnecessary, but it was a really sweet moment).
I just need to know what else I can do to help him. He won't let me help. I don't know where to go from here. I can't just sit and watch him destroy himself.

I've purchased a new 4 story, 2200sqft townhome that will be done construction later this year. I have 2 dogs who both shed, and both myself and one of the dogs have dust allergies.
Previously, I'd use portable air cleaners in the main living area and bedroom, but I don't really think it makes sense to continue doing this. Is there any specific brand better than another? Are they worth it over portables in general? What kind of cost would I be looking at for a system like this? And is it DIY-able for someone with an IT background who dabbles in auto repair?
I should mention that this is a 2-zone HVAC system. I believe the whole HVAC is natural gas but will need to confirm.
Appreciate any advice!

I'll try to be as brief as possible, but so sorry that this is gonna be long. Please also, if you're only going to say "NO CONTACT" that is not helpful. My post is just gonna show how drugs and alcohol can affect everyone in the family. If you are struggling, get help because you are not only ruining your lives but the lives and relationships of everyone around you.
Background: My MIL has been addicted to alcohol, pills and marijuana since my husband was a child. Lots of trauma from that, that deserves a post on its own. For the 12 years I've been with my husband, it's been a never-ending cycle of using/drinking, going to rehab, getting sober, slipping up but hiding it, rinse and repeat.
Ever since having kids, she wants the privilege being a grandma but obviously chooses the alcohol and drugs over them every time since she has never stayed sober. Because of that and the fact that DH's family members (mostly FIL) also hide/lie about her sobriety, we've decided that since we can't ever fully trust her, she cannot see the kids without either me or DH being around. Previously (and more than once), we had celebrated a whole year (or so we thought) of her being sober and given her unrestricted access to the kids (sleepovers, her taking them out) when we let our guards down and feel like we can trust her again, only to find out later that she wasn't sober. Because all of the back and forth, no contact, awkward family gatherings because we didn't want her around, we decided that we are just going to assume she is not 100% sober and we can't trust her to be alone with our kids (even if FIL is around too because he hides her drug use from us).
Me & DH agreed that... - She can see the kids, as long as one of us is around - She is not drinking and/or high (we can 100% tell and she will avoid us if she is, cancel plans, not show up, etc) - No babysitting, sleepovers, she can't take our kids anywhere
This allowed her to still be in the kids' lives and not make family gatherings awkward and cause more drama.
Despite these rules, that we have told over and over again, she continues to ask to babysit and for sleepovers. We (DH) tell her no, she says ok and acts all sad and throws herself a pity party and then waits a period of time (couple of weeks, months) and then asks again like we forgot. Sometimes she even says "I've been sober" or "I'm going to therapy" or the worst one "I did rehab, isn't that enough for you?" We think she still asks because 1. She's not very smart. 2. She thinks if she keeps asking we'll give in. 3. SIL still allows her son to sleepover, so why not us? (SIL complains about MIL all of the time and how she doesn't trust her but she still allows this...don't know why, but not our kid, not our problem). DH has a huge problem with this because SIL talks about how much she hates her mom yet still loves the free babysitter, again, it's shitty but that's her life/decision.
Recently, she asked DH again for a sleepover because nephew (SIL's son) was sleeping over. DH hadn't responded to her yet, but did bring it up to me. Of course I was like uhhhh, did she forget...again? Both of us had a deep convo about it, mostly because how triggered I get when she asks because during my postpartum with my 1st son, she treated me horribly...would act so supportive and loving one moment and then say cruel things to me while I was in the darkest depths of my postpartum depression, broke my trust with the drugs/drinking and DH at the time looked the other way (he didn't side with her, he just told me this is how she is and we just have to deal with it, she means well but I have to look past the drinking/drugs). Well, I put up a fight because NO I was not dealing with it and allowing an active drug addict to be around my kids and that he's fucked up because of her when he was growing up. He saw the light and promised to always have my back and stick up for our marriage and kids.
More of the convo revolved around my guilt to allow her in the kids life, she seems to truly want to be involved, but has her demons and chooses drugs/alcohol/lies instead. And obviously, I am always the one to be blamed for any limited contact with the kids although, DH says he agrees with our choices and shuts his mom down every time.
We also discuss the really weird sleeping arrangements for sleepovers they have at FIL & MIL's from what I hear. They have no spare bedrooms, tons of animals dogs/cats. Nephew, who is 6, has never slept in his own bed at home (he sleeps with his mom and always has). No hate towards co-sleeping parents, you do you...but when he sleeps at MIL & FIL's, he sleeps in bed WITH him. That's a big no for me if this were my kids. No bed, how about the couch? No, my son has severe animal allergies, especially cats, and the animals hang out on the couch, it's full of hair and dander. My parents also have cats and they make sure he has an animal free room to sleep in if he sleeps over. He needs to sleep in an animal free room, in-laws don't have that. At our house we have 2 dogs and 1 cat, and manage his allergies well by not allowing them in his room. (The animal allergy thing is important, don't forget that!) So even if she was sober and trustworthy, he couldn't still sleepover because they can't accommodate the sleeping arrangement he needs. After chatting about this stuff, DH says he will call his mom and remind her once again and that the answer is NO.
A couple of days go by and we see MIL & FIL at a family get-together. Everything seems normal, MIL is not acting out of the ordinary. FIL randomly tells me, "MIL is getting rid of all of her cats." which is odd, she's had them for years, she loves them. Taken aback, when I ask why, he says, I don't know and doesn't bring it up again. We get home and SIL comes over and we are chatting , she says, did you know MIL is getting rid of all of her cats so DS can sleepover? And I start to laugh. Yeah, that's the reason...and SIL laughs too and agrees (she knows our rule). But she says, yeah FIL said you (as in me, not DH) said DS can't sleepover because they have cats. And I'm like, I'm pretty sure DH told her it was because the drugs/alcohol, she's probably making that excuse but now I'm worried that she is really gonna get rid of those poor cats! I flag DH into the room to verify to SIL that he told her what we talked about days before and he's like no I didn't remind her that she can't have alone time with the kids because of the drugs/alcohol, I just blamed that cats and sleeping arrangement so I didn't have her hear her crying and whining.
I'm shocked and pissed. I ask DH why he gave that excuse and instead of what we talked about and he just got upset and blamed his mom for everything; how he hates talking to her, she's a POS, etc, etc. It's a tough subject for him to talk about because of all of the trauma he's experienced growing up, to what she put me through, the drama involving the kids, etc. Working through it with him in the past has been tough because he just wants to block it all out. SIL apologizes for bringing it up (not her fault) and leaves.
That night, I tell DH I am disappointed that he didn't tell his mom the real reason why our kids are not, and will not, sleepover. I told him by blaming the cats, makes (me) look like an asshole because I am blamed by default and gives her false hope for the future. She is batshit crazy and for some reason hellbent on having the kids (without us, seriously WTF is that about?!) He says he agrees that that is the real reason but is tired of being a broken record and saying the same thing over and over again. I tell him I felt like I did back in postpartum where he didn't have my back again. He felt really bad and didn't really talk to me much even the next day. He said he feels so ashamed of his family, his mom in particular, embarrassed and feels as though he let me down. He tells me time and time again that we can cut his parents off completely, but of course it will come with a cost and collateral damage, that's not worth doing IMO.
We are working through it, I feel bad that I got mad at him, I just am tired of all of this bullshit as well, although that is nothing new. It sucks that her shitty behavior, time and time again, causes so much turmoil. From what I hear, she doesn't see it that way. I don't know if she is that delusional or really just doesn't care about anyone else but herself. ALL of her kids dislike her, if not hate her, and I truly believe that is the reason why she clings onto the grandkids so much, they don't know the true person she is...yet.

My husband (26M) and I (28F) live in a 2x2 apartment and are expecting our first baby this Fall. We both work from home about half the time, so we each need separate spaces at home to work from. He currently works in our second bedroom, and I work in the living room. We will each only have 4 weeks of maternity/paternity leave, but after that, I can continue to work from home through the end of the year. My parents live out of state and they have already assured us that they will stay in a hotel when they come to visit us to meet the baby, which can be anytime I choose.
My in-laws live about 3 hours away and we drive to visit them every couple of months for a long weekend. This will be their first grandchild. I like to keep our house pretty clean and organized and we have no pets. My in-laws have a massive dog that sheds all over their house, and they do not keep a clean/organized house at all. I dread going to stay with them, but they are perfectly nice and I want to have a good relationship with them so I suck it up for a few days even though I am totally grossed out and have allergy issues when we stay there. My in-laws have never come to stay with us since we have lived in the same state, we always go to them.
Okay so here's my issue. My husband has made the assumption that my MIL will stay with us for several days to weeks after the baby comes to "help out". I told him that I don't think we need any help with just one baby, especially since I have extensive childcare experience and am a medical professional. I don't want anyone to come and stay as a guest, who I have to clean up after, on top of having a new baby for the first time. His argument is that she will be there to help watch the baby and to cook and clean for us. I don't want her to do any of that, partially because I find it unnecessary and partially because I'm certain it will just create more work for me.
My in-laws are welcome to come and visit for a few days at a time and see the baby for a few hours at a time, but I don't want anyone staying in our apartment with us. We have just enough space for us to both work from home comfortably and can convert our second bedroom into a nursery when the time comes. I want to eliminate the guest bed and ask his parents to stay in a hotel when they come to visit. I'm willing to compromise and offer an inflatable mattress or our large couch in the living room if they want to stay for a few days maximum, but even that makes me cringe. Am I being crazy or is this a reasonable request?

Hey Reddit,
So I’ve always had seasonal allergies (I’m in New England - that’s probably important). Usually around this time of year, it’s like someone dumped tear-gas on me, where I’m all congested, my eyes are goopy in the morning (prone to conjunctivitis), and the inside of my ears itch. This year, it’s been a new thing, and I don’t know if it’s because of the crazy weather and late spring where it’s all been coming out at once, or what’s going on.
For the past two weeks, my skin has been getting hot, then red, then these small little pimple bumps everywhere. I’m not allergic to anything else that I know of other than having seasonal allergies. At first, I thought it was maybe my dog (Alaskan Malamute) bringing something in + shed season. But I’ve been vacuuming like crazy.
It started on the top of my ears (which is weird) and then my ears get super hot with raised bumps. Then it went down to the back of my neck, then my nose, and then on my arms, knees, and legs. It’s so itchy that I wasn’t able to sleep and kept my wife up. I never go to the doctor, and I couldn’t stand it so much that I actually made an appointment. The doctor prescribed a hydroxizine med (can take 4 times a day, but it makes me crash, so I’ve only been taking it at night). Prior to this, I’ve taken Zyertec, Allegra, Benadryl, Claritin, and every other over the counter thing I can think of. The only thing that’s been different this year is that, a couple weeks ago, we ordered 5 yards of quarried stone for the patio and I’ve been in the yard doing that.
Is there something in patio stone that someone can be allergic to? It just seems really odd and out of nowhere. I got a referral for an allergy specialist, but it’s quite a wait I guess.

If you've tried Apoquel for your dog's allergies, how long were they on it before you saw a reduction in itching and licking? and how long did you give it to them? A month? long term?

Hi folks,
I had a visit with an oncologist in Central TX today for a lipoma / liposarcoma on my dog’s left thigh. My dog is:
-10 years old -52lbs -border collie/corgie mix -No serious medical history besides chronic allergies -No medications
I first noticed the lump about 5 days ago when bathing him, one of his thighs was swollen considerably compared to his other. I suspected cancer and took him to my primary vet who tried sampling the mass but it came back as just fat. I took him to a specialist today and they reiterated what the primary vet told me, stating they’d need to surgically remove it after performing a CT scan to check for possible spread to organs, brain, etc. They said it appeared to be attached to the muscle or growing between the fascia.
They recommended a 3 site scan.
The invoice “low end” is 3500 dollars, 4300 is the “high end”.
There is also a smaller, much more typical “skin” bump on his left thigh. Not growing between muscle.
My question is, is $4000 for just a CT scan normal for central TX?
Any general advice is really appreciated.
Thanks a lot in advance.