Eva has been visiting her vet lately.
A month ago, I found her skin was a bit rough when I ran my fingers through her fur. There were some flakes here and there, some parts of her skin were reddish pink and I spotted some tiny scabs. My heart dropped when I saw them and I immediately thought of her mama, Hana. The next thing I did was to take her to the vet and the soft-spoken vet confirmed my fear. Eva has her mama's skin problem, YEAST and it's due to the humidity here.
The vet gave Eva some antibiotics, a bottle of medical shampoo and said she needed a bath every three days with a good 20 minutes' scrub and massage. He repeated this advice at least THREE times as if he was worried that I didn't hear it.
The ordeal started since that visit.
When we were home, Eva had a good bath which took me at least one and a half hours to two hours and we have been doing it since then. TWO BATHS IN A WEEK!
Imagine you have to keep on rubbing her body in a gentle way, making sure the medical shampoo has gone deep to the affected area and the whole body for 20 minutes; I find time doesn't fly by anymore. When I think ten minutes has passed, the clock tells me it's just five minutes. Time crawls like a snail.
Twenty minutes later, it is the rinse off. This isn't tough and I only have to make sure the water doesn't go into her ears and eyes. Right after rinsing off, I follow some advice from some forums and I also find the beauty of internet, you get advice from people that you don't know and they are so willing to share their experience and knowledge. I dilute some apple cider vinegar with water and sponge
the water onto her affected area and then leave it there. This actually makes Eva smell like some sort of salad but I can't be bothered as long as it helps. I still don't know whether it helps or not, but it seems there is no harm at all and it keeps ticks and fleas away from her.
Thirty minutes has passesd and I'm already exhausted but I remember it's a PREMIUM spa!
Towel dry is what Eva loves it. She will play with the towel and there is some wrestling between us in the beginning. It's fun in a way. Eventually, she usually rests her chin on my lap and let me rub her and in the mean time, she closes her eyes and enjoys it. The blow dry session is the worst one. It isn't easy because I'm using a big blower and it's loud. Eva doesn't like it at all. I think shelties have very sensitive ears and they really don't like loud noise so I have to keep her in a topless cage so she can't run away from me and I stay in it to blow dry her. I didn't know that it actually took me thirty to forty minutes to get her really dry until I timed it that day.
Last but not the least, a spa won't be completed without a decent BRUSH and a princess definitely needs it to keep her fur in order.
Finally, our Eva is clean, fresh and fluffy but my back hurts like hell.
We went back to the vet two weeks later. The vet wasn't happy with Eva because there were still some flaky skin and some parts of it were a bit reddish. So he gave her another type of antibiotics and a bottle of fatty acid, the medical bath had to be kept - he said.
This morning, we went to the vet again. Eva loves him because he always gives her some yummy treats.
This time, the vet was happy with Eva and said her skin looks good. No more antibiotics needed and we only have to keep the medical spa for two more weeks. Hooray!!! However, we have to keep our eagle eyes on her all the time. Two more weeks later, we can use some soothing type of shampoo, like oatmeal shampoo which sounds like breakfast to me! LOL!
We are so glad that the yeast is under control and she is okay now.
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By the way, our sweetheart Laura was 12 years old today.
Hope you're having lots of fun with your friends over the Rainbow Bridge, Laura.
We miss you a lot, sweetie pie!!!
