Healthy Kennel

“Keeping it Brief” so here goes:
The pollen is coming down. I took a picture of my parking lot. It's practically yellow.
This pollen, among other allergens, irritates the sinuses and airways of dogs and even cats. You may see “funny breathing” or snorting. And nose clearing 'snicks'. And “gacking” to produce 'nothing but a patch of foam' on your floor especially in the morning.
If the dog isn't sick, I mean, like it's acting normally you can try antihistamines. My favorite is fexofenedine. (That's Allegra)
The best thing to do is take your pet to your vet, of course. There's a fexofenedine dosing chart here:
https://drjohnson.com/formulary/fexofenedine-allegra/
A thorough “wipe down” with a damp washcloth removes a considerable amount of pollen from a dog or cat without the inconvenience of a “full on” bath. Moving to Colorado where pollen seems to be minimal, or to Gnome Alaska also works.
If there's just a little sneezing, maybe you should let them. They have to clear their sinuses same as you and me.
If there's a lot of sneezing, it's disruptive, the Vet should check 'em out and rule out sinus infection or worse.
Just a side note, “FYI” – my next-favorite medicine for seasonal allergies in dogs is “Temaril P” (which has side-effects and should be used sparingly) but in dogs that need it? It's magical. All vets have access to that medicine. Not all vets want to use it and I'm in no position to tell anybody what to do.
Foot licking is another 'allergy' beast entirely and relates MORE to carbon from I-75 than it does to pollens. I'll save that until the next pet bedtime story.

Histiocytoma is a common skin tumor in dogs, especially boxers, and their mixes. But they can happen in any dog. They are some of the least threatening lumps, but they do have the potential to be very serious. They come up rather quickly, and they are itchy, and they gain the attention of the dog. They have a tendency to look quite a bit like a strawberry on the skin, and the dog eventually licks the top of it off.

The lump in the picture, is a classic example of histiocytoma. I took a picture, because nothing looks more like a histiocytoma than this.

 You can limit access and stop them from licking these lesions and apply a Cortizone cream like 1% Cortizone 10, once or twice a day for a week before surgery. Just in case it decides to remit and go away with that. Less than one out of 10 will go away on their own, in my clinical experience, but it is worth a try.

 If left alone, they can consume too much space for easy removal, additionally, it has been shown that sometimes they spread to other organs, if left alone too long.  

“Hey Doc, ever heard of this stuff?”

“Yes, why do you need that?”

“My wife bought it thinking it will stimulate my dog’s appetite.”

“There’s nothing wrong with her appetite. She stopped growing, so she eats only 25% of the calories that she needed three months ago.
We can do an experiment. Check out this link.

https://drjohnson.net/bcs

You will find that her body condition score is a four
Or even a BCS4 plus
I have not seen her recently, but I know this to be true, because if she was at all underweight, she would eat very very well.
In other words she’s as heavy as she needs to get. And their appetite falls off dramatically.
They will only eat for taste and NOT need at that point, and get fat. If the food isn’t dressed with gravy, they won’t eat much of it because they don’t need it.

The following will never happen with you, but it has happened before:

Eventually, they get so fat, their body goes into Leptin-emergency mode, and then they’ll only eat if you put whip cream, syrup, skittles, and bacon on their food.

She’s a body condition score 4, maybe even a 4+. I haven’t even seen her, and I *know* this because if she was even one pound underweight, she would inhale plain dry food.”

====Text #2====

This dog, literally will not eat anything unless it tastes amazing. I’m talking, stroganoff or ice cream. And the owner defends its weight by saying “it hardly eats anything“

And of course it doesn’t. How many calories does that thing NEED? Zero… Zero cal for probably the next two weeks. And if it got beef stroganoff, and garlic bread for dinner today, why on earth would it eat a dry dog food tomorrow?
Nope. That ^ dog is doomed.

He asked: “How can I get his weight down if it won’t a diet food?”

Answer: “By feeding the diet food. And watch as he doesn’t eat again until it actually NEEDS to. Which could be a week.”

“No doc, you got it wrong. He is *starving* to death. Not for DRY food, no, that’ll sit for days….but yes for potato chips and bacon. He won’t leave me alone if I have those things. He’s surely starving to death.”

“He’s not. He’s literally addicted to salt, fat, and sugar. There were studies they were done in a darker time of human history (1945) where they found out that the dog could live for 30 to 45 days without eating a bite. It’s actually unharmed going without food for 30 days. But between day 30, and day 45 it consumes organs, smooth muscle, cardiac muscle, and brain fat.”

“She has been getting 2/3 cup am and pm and 1/3 cup at noon. Change that?”

If you feed her 2/3 of a cup in the morning and 1/3 of a cup in the afternoon, that’s a cup a day.
That’s enough for a 30 pound dog unless she’s getting a shi_ ton of treats.
I am guessing that she gets kind of a lot of treats, and that her weight is actually very good. And that the one cup of food total per day is plenty, leaving her appetite for the dry-food-served-dry, just about right.
You may have hit the golden note of weight maintenance!
Don’t jack it up by “getting her to eat.”
It sounds like she’s doing well. Do you wanna send me a picture of her waist line as she standing. I’ll bet it tapers nicely.

And you can see in one of the pictures. It was already chewing on the free end of the cable tie. If another animal came up and grabbed the end of the cable tie, it could cinch that down on the cats neck, fatally.

Get it? Collieflower? 

Attempts show what a knucklebone looks like when you get it, and then what it looks like after a day or three of gnawing by a 60 pound dog. 

LOts of life left in the chewed on bone. I won’t take that away from Ajax probably for another few days.

I have published other more thorough articles on knucklebones, including some downloads, posted at Drjohnson.com, as well as drjohnson.net.