Duncan's Medical Report

Yesterday we had Cardinal's medical report. Today it's Duncan's turn. How's he doing with his allergy shots?

We've finished the induction phase, where we were increasing doses and serum concentrations, and are starting weekly injections of the maintenance serum. And we have just 3 more doses of his Little Pink Pills (aka Vanectyl-P) left. Duncan will be sorry when they're done; he loves his pills (and their accompanying meatballs) – to the point where I use them as temptations for him to resist while practicing Stay! He picked up this drug habit as a tiny puppy with a broken leg, when we used Pill Pockets stuffed with Tramadol as training treats.

It's still too early to tell how he's going to respond to the shots – they say it takes at least 6 weeks, and often 4-6 months, to see the full response – but early indications seem promising. We have to track his drugs and scratching on a calendar, and it's been interesting to see the trends.

His itchiness went down dramatically when he started the Vanectyl-P – from 7 to 2 out of 10. Then it went way up again when he first started the shots, back to 7-8. His dermatologist said this is a good sign, because he's reacting to the allergens in the serum. Since then, he's gradually been getting slightly less itchy; we're down to 4 or 5 most days. And the itchiness seems less intense. He hasn't scratched until he bled since we started, and he no longer scratches for 10-15 minutes straight in the morning. So we're quite hopeful that the shots will have good results, and he'll continue to feel better.