Rootin has been scratching like crazy since we brought him home from Oroville and we've taken him to the vet several times over the past three months and we still don't know what's wrong. Over the past several days he's had a funny discoloration under his right eye and on the top of his head in addition to a hot spot on his front right paw. Sunday night we took his cone off his head for a couple of minutes and he immediately proceeded to rub his eye which then swelled up :(
So I stayed at home on Monday and took him to the vet. Now this is the second vet that we've been to. We stopped going to the first vet because he didn't seem to be on top of things and pushed meds each time we saw him. He didn't even tell us to apply Frontline or Advantage or any other flea & tick medicine after he found two ticks on Rootin - we then proceeded to remove another 20 ticks from him over the next three weeks.
The current vet has seen Rootin about 5 times now and for this last visit she took two scrapings of his skin - one from the top of his head, and one from under his eye. When she came back from examining it, she said that he might have demodex mites but that it wasn't a large sampling. She gave me some eye cream and didn't give me any diagnosis. I asked her about the spots in his ear - he had fly strike when we first rescued him and the spots seemed to be in both ears now, well after treatment was over - and she looked in his ear and said nothing was wrong. I asked more about his continued scratching and whether or not they do allergy testing. She said no but referred me to a dermatologist and gave me eye cream.
When I got home I called and asked which spot she thought she saw mites in - the top of his head or his eye and the answer was the top of his head! I assumed that since he wouldn't let her scrape his eye (which we were still charged for) and because she said that she couldn't get a good sample. I was surprised to hear that it was at the top of his head as she could have easily gotten another sample and tested that again to be sure.
To top it off, the dermatologist that she referred me to today confirmed the diagnosis of mites and also said that the stuff I saw in his ears is ear wax and that's what's causing him to scratch his ear. Basically she's out now and the hunt for a new vet begins again. It's disappointing how difficult it is to find a good vet.
The current vet has seen Rootin about 5 times now and for this last visit she took two scrapings of his skin - one from the top of his head, and one from under his eye. When she came back from examining it, she said that he might have demodex mites but that it wasn't a large sampling. She gave me some eye cream and didn't give me any diagnosis. I asked her about the spots in his ear - he had fly strike when we first rescued him and the spots seemed to be in both ears now, well after treatment was over - and she looked in his ear and said nothing was wrong. I asked more about his continued scratching and whether or not they do allergy testing. She said no but referred me to a dermatologist and gave me eye cream.
When I got home I called and asked which spot she thought she saw mites in - the top of his head or his eye and the answer was the top of his head! I assumed that since he wouldn't let her scrape his eye (which we were still charged for) and because she said that she couldn't get a good sample. I was surprised to hear that it was at the top of his head as she could have easily gotten another sample and tested that again to be sure.
To top it off, the dermatologist that she referred me to today confirmed the diagnosis of mites and also said that the stuff I saw in his ears is ear wax and that's what's causing him to scratch his ear. Basically she's out now and the hunt for a new vet begins again. It's disappointing how difficult it is to find a good vet.
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