Guess which idiot went out yesterday with disastrous consequences!!???!!
Yep me !
Alfie Whittam has been having problems with his ears . I have tried things from Amazon to clean them, everything I buy him is all natural with excellent reviews . He needed to have a check up and get his worming/ flea treatment medication, so I had made an appointment but cancelled twice, knowing he really needed vet prescription ear drops Rebecca Whittam and I took him along.
Due to the pandemic our vet is still observing every COVID protocol, so only the dog goes into the vet and the owner waits outside. After each family is finished the team clean up everything it is only then that you can go inside to sit.
All was fine until a large dog came for his appointment and barked a lot at all the dogs waiting outside straight away I was on edge. Of course this was when they brought Alfie out from the vet .
I have never really feared dogs but after being attacked in our own home this fear must have been staying pushed down , just waiting to pop up !!! With everything panicked we wanted to quickly get Alfie and Rebecca safely into our car, so I put Alfies lead around my hand. What with all the barking going on as well as sensing my anxiety rise, poor Alfie did what I wanted which was to get us out of this situation and pulled me which crushed my hand hard 🤬.I knew I was falling if the car door wasn’t right in front of me I would have fell.
I know it is psychological but just knowing that I have no way to protect myself makes me so worried, it isn’t just with dogs as I also fear being alone that whole thing of just feeling vulnerable is really hard for me to deal with .
All this left me with a exhausted, bruised and this morning it hurts even worse 😢
The vet told us that poor Alfie still has a bacterial infection in his ear. This has been going on for a while now. On his last visit they gave him Auriotic ear drops, these drops do always help him. The drops help stop the scratching as well as his need to shake his head or rub up against you just so you rub them for him. Earlier in the year she prescribed Prednisolone Tablets which are steroids , he was supposed to take 3 tablets twice a day for 2 weeks. The first night it was like he was spaced, he was so out of it, when he stood up the next morning he just peed everywhere he just had no control of his bladder.
After the first day I refused to give him those tablets , he just wasn’t Alfie.
So I started doing research and found a great uk company called Cooper & Grace as we didn’t no the cause of the itching at this stage so I ordered the ear cleaner, the shampoo and the paw / nose balm as it was recommended for dry cracked skin . As Alfie was flaky and dry I thought it was worth a try , the last thing I wanted was an infection in a cut to have to deal with too.
It arrived the next day so Becks bathed him while I watched , if it was from pollen I thought a bath would help him. I sat down that night to write to our vet to tell her what had happened to him.
Over a few weeks the ears got a lot worse and as the vet was unable to just prescribe more ear drops and I was unable to take him we did everything we could to help him. He itched his ears so badly that he lost a lot of the hair inside and on the edge of his ear .
We know that it must be really hard for him and we do all we can to make his life better. Sometimes you hear or read stories of medicines and steroids not being the right thing for your dog and that treating with natural products can save a lot of money as well as the health of your dog later in life.
Luckily he is just such a happy dog that his love and playful nature didn’t change
After another sleepless night I made the decision to try the steroids on a really low dose and I gave him half a tablet. Over the next few weeks his hair grew back and his head shaking almost stopped completely. While he was a lot better I knew he had to see Molly Our Vet again as soon as I was ok ish which is why yesterday happened .
I know people will say that I should have let someone else take him. Unfortunately Graham is just far too busy with work. Yes Rebecca in theory should be able to take him but she is tiny and the walk up to the vet could put her in a very scary situation, I just couldn’t do that to her.
The area we live in is beautiful , most days I wake up to birds singing and almost all of our neighbours are lovely with one exception who makes my hellish life somehow even worse. Most places in the UK have a few people who ruin it for everyone else, for us those people are the ones who do not keep their dogs on a lead, closely followed by young men who have dogs that they train to fight.
Unfortunately if that type of dog was on a lead and wanted to run at another dog , the young man in charge of the dog would be completely unable to do anything to stop it. I worry about that a lot as if another dog ran at me I have absolutely no chance of defending myself Rebecca or Alfie. I do know that I would do anything to stop an attack including putting my whole self between Alfie or Rebecca.
When I was attacked by our old dog I was walking up the stairs and he came up behind me taking my hand in his mouth.
Our old dog is a whole other story but I will say that the noise he made that day was guttural and if still gives me nightmares. Hearing that noise yesterday put genuine fear in me so much so that I felt that I had to put a chair between us .
I did apologise and explain to the female owner of the dog while the dog and her partner was in with the vet as it wasn’t normal behaviour.
I could never allow Rebecca to take that walk alone with Alfie , I could also never take that risk in my wheelchair as these people train their dogs to be territorial.
So with the ear drops and a plan to change Alfies diet we are keeping everything crossed that this will be the end of it. Did you know that chicken and Beef should be kept out of the diet of a sensitive dog?
Dog Food
We have tried several food over the past few years which are high quality. The food we do normally feed him is Lilys Kitchen – half a tin followed by a scoop of Skinners dry dog food. We stuck with Skinners as he is from a line of field trial winners and his beautiful Mummy is a farm dog.
We have also tried new products when they are launched like Skinners only had dry food but they have now launched wet food. Pooch and Mutt only had treats when Alfie was born but they now do all sorts of amazing products. Lilys Kitchen now sell treats , dog chews as well as dental chews. We do always try to keep his food as his quality as we can without going completely over the top . It is a joke in our house that Alfie eats better than we do, this is not a joke or an exaggeration just look at the ingredients on the side of the tin.
Amazon Links
Any links to Amazon will include an affiliate link. This does not cost you any money , however if you do purchase an item using my link I do receive a small amount of money. While this won’t pay the bills or allow me to book a fortnight holiday, any money goes towards my site running costs. Any and all help is greatly appreciated.
Subscribe & Save
Buying Dog Food can be very expensive which is why we use Subscribe & Save to give you an example The Skinners dry food above is currently £25.14 , however I get it for £21.28. This is because I have more than 5 items on my monthly subscribe and save order, which is £46.32 roughly across a year. Just imagine what you could save over a year.
We always get asked about the lead we use and really long lasting dog treats so I have also tagged them above.
Sending you all love 🥰
Alisha 🥰🥰🥰
Our brand new Reddit page for people who have a Disability.
r/DisabledandProud
It doesn’t matter if you have lots of confidence or the lowest self esteem. This group has been set up to help us join togther to help each other become Disabled & Proud
Our new Reddit page for people with ME r/MyalgicEncephalomyel
Unfortunately I couldn’t fit the whole name on 🤣
I truly hope that one day in the near future we will all go to bed one night and wake up the next morning knowing that we have real friends who understand the life you live.
Of course please do not forget about Alisha Whittam Apparel . Go and have a look we know you will love our current range . If we have something in a colour or you want some different writing please get in touch , we are more than happy to help.
We have big plans for this site 🥳🥳🥳
We do also have an Etsy Store for you to check out. I told you we are going big this year 😘