PU! A Very Stinky Rookie Update

Poor Mr. Rookie :(. He doesn't seem to care about his demodex but it sure does look painful to me.

Ouch!!

He went to see Dr. Farr last week to see if we could find a more natural way to deal with the mites this time around. Last time he was dipped 10 times AND was on Ivermectin for several months. It was an aggressive approach but full of chemicals :(. Sometimes you have to use that, but this time I'm hoping we can try to build up his immune system instead of just fighting the mites so we can get at the root of the problem.

Dr. Farr put him on an herb called Cool the Blood (Qing Ying Tang). He's been on it for a little over a week now and he is less red and radiating less heat (this little guy has been such a furnace!). But the demodex has still been progressing. So while it has offered some relief, it's definitely not a cure :). Just a tool in our tool box!

Yummy :)

Also, on Monday I took him up to our vet clinic for a lime-sulfur dip. These dips help relieve itchiness and scratching by drying out moist skin irritations. Well, Rookie is one big moist skin irritation :). It did help relieve his itchiness for a few days. Sadly, it makes him stink like rotten eggs and turns him highlighter yellow. Icky.

Sorry for the crappy phone picture! Doesn't he look miserable? :(

He is now a gray and yellow dog!

At least I am still cute!!

Oops...someone forgot they were still wearing a ring!
Sulfur oxidizes silver jewelry so off I went to get it
cleaned after Rookie's dip :). Bad Erin.

While we were at the vet we also did a cold laser therapy treatment on his feet. Laser therapy can help with inflammation, edema, and skin legions or abrasions. Which pretty much describes Rookie's feet. Poor bugger. We have a lot of laser treatments ahead of us!!

It's very painless :).

Let's just say it's been an 'experience' having Mr. Stinkyface in the house this week!