Our poor poor little Murphy

As some of you know, Murphy is allergic to nearly EVERYTHING.  And unfortunately, this year's allergies are apparently the worst they've ever been.  I don't think Murphy needs to be told this:

And these were taken 2 days ago, and this is only his face.  He's been on steroids now for 3 days...let's hope they start kicking in soon, because our little guy is just miserable.

An very very allergic dog....

Here is our very, very, very allergic dog. Murphy had an appointment with the doggie dermatologist today to get to the bottom of his incessant itching, and the news isn't so super. He's allergic to LOTS of things...some of these include: cattle (???), horses, wool, grass, corn pollen...to name just a few.

So, what can we do about it? Well, for the next 8 weeks, Murphy will be on a very restricted diet, consisting of (luckily) the food he's already eating and likes, special hypo-allergenic treats (that he also likes) and some marshmallows (yeah, I know...this one threw me too but apparently it's OK). He'll be taking 8 different anti-histamines over the next 8 weeks to see if there's one that suits him better. He needs a bath 2-3 times a week with special shampoo and conditioner, but this is a bit negotiable, and he's not allowed to play with any of his existing toys. Joacim was nice enough to get him a hypo-allergenic toy tonight so he's got SOMETHING..but it's not exactly the news we had hoped for. On the positive side, we at least have something to go on, rather than guessing on everything. I'll keep you posted on our itchy little Murphy.