Wow, was I ever blown away by & appreciative of all the fantastic ideas and suggestions you guys have offered thus far for addressing my big guy Leo’s escalating smell/itch/excessive shedding issues.

I’ve been reading every one, and here’s what I did today based on y’all’s recommendations.

First, although I bathe Leo very regularly, we did not shave him last spring as we have the last several years. We left his coat intact for the summer. So after reading about the possibility of needing to get more of his undercoat off, Jon and I headed out to the pet store and handed over a LOT of money for a giant breed size Furminator. (NOTE: they are WAAAAAAY cheaper at Amazon)

I then spent the two-plus hours after we got home bathing him, and then “furminating” him from stem to stern. I could not BELiEVE how much more undercoat that thing pulls off than the dog undercoat rake tool we already have. By the time I was done, Leo had half as much hair volume as before. I can’t figure out what it is in the design of the Furminator that makes it work so much better than other grooming tools that look very similar, but it definitely does. Anybody know?

Unfortunately, Leo often smells WORSE in the 24 hours following a bath, and today was no exception. So he’s looking good and smelling pretty bad this evening.

We decided to go with the Natural Balance Venison and Sweet Potato food for him. Unfortunately, he turned his nose up at supper time and only ate a few bites. Our pug mix, Mabel, happily ate his leftovers along with her own supper of the same kibble. She will eat anything, while Leo tends to be a picky, low volume eater.

Also this week, I am going to try spraying him with the vinegar mix some have suggested, in case there’s some yeasty something going on that I’m not seeing. I did find the beginnings of a hot spot on his rump when I was able to get all that undercoat out yesterday. I clipped the hair around it, and am hoping that will solve the problem.

I will update further as Operation Smelly Leo progresses!

Nearly-five year old Leo has always been smellier than any dog I’ve ever lived with. Even when he’s sparkling clean after a bath, he smells, well, very doggy. The smell clings to him like pigpen, and it means that our house also smells a lot more like dog than I’d like it to.

He also sheds more than I think is normal. I’ve lived with a Great Pyrenees before, and I think I have a realistic perspective on just how much hair they can drop day after day, but I really think Leo’s shedding is excessive, even for a Pyr.

 

And over the past year, both of these issues – smelliness and massive shedding – seem to have gotten worse, and I notice that he’s itchier than he used to be, too.

To me, all of this sounds like a possible food allergy, but last summer, I asked his vet whether an allergy to something in Leo’s dry dog food (he eats some kind of Purina brand – nothing fancy ) could be creating these problems, and the vet said he didn’t think so, and he said that Leo seems fine to him.

After that, I decided to test my theory by feeding him much higher quality dog food – California Natural – for about 8 weeks. Jon and I both agreed that this made no difference whatsoever, so we went back to the much-cheaper Purina.

But I really want to figure this out. I hate to see him so itchy, and the smell is something I’d really like to get a handle on. To be clear, I am aware that ALL dogs smell “doggy” to greater or lesser degree, and I can live with that. Trust me; this is far more than regular, old big hairy dog smell. It’s like if we had TEN Great Pyrs living with us instead of one.

I am thinking that I will try switching his dog food again to see if I can find one that helps, and I think I will research some supplements that could also help.

But I also thought I’d throw my problem out there to see whether any of y’all who have dogs have ever dealt with a similar itchy/smelly problem, and were able to successfully help your furry pal by switching to a certain dog food or adding a particular vitamin or whatever. The only thing I am not willing to try is the internet-popular “Bones and Raw Food” home prepared, fresh dog diet. I commend any of you who are able to do this home cookin’ for your dogs, but I freely admit that I’m just not up to that challenge. I am barely capable of cooking for the humans who depend on me for sustenance. So my dog definitely has to eat something I can buy ready to feed in a bag or a can at the store, or that can be ordered.

So if you have any suggestions for changes in his diet or other things I can try, bring em’ on, please! I’m really eager to try to get this addressed so he feels better and my rugs don’t routinely smell of Leo’s armpits any longer.

Thank you! (And Leo thanks you, too.)

My sister Betsy is an alumna of the University of Alabama, and a big ‘Bama fan. So Aunt Betsy is pleased that 17 year old J is visiting Tuscaloosa this weekend to check out the campus and consider whether she wants to put Alabama on her list of schools to which she will apply.

Meanwhile, I’m sitting here trying to come up with creative ideas to pay for college, and just look how my little sister and my eldest daughter dismiss my GREAT IDEA for how J can cover tuition and sorority fees. It’s clearly a brilliant plan I’ve come up with!

Text conversation this weekend between Me, J and Betsy while J is down in Tuscaloosa:

I’ve thought a lot in recent days about how to write all that I want to write about the potentially fatal alcohol overdose incident that happened at a fraternity house here in Knoxville on the University of Tennessee campus earlier this week – an incident where a teenage college student ended up in a local hospital’s critical care unit after allegedly doing something incredibly dangerous and salacious-sounding, all in an attempt to get messed up faster.

There are so many things I want to say about what happened, and the public reaction to it, but for some reason, I can’t seem to pull them all together as cohesively or articulately as I would like, and I think that’s mainly because the topic is so intensely painful for me.

But I’ll try to say at least a few things, because this matters.

The hospital to which the 19 year old kid was admitted earlier this week after doing something stupid and ill-advised that caused him to suffer both physical injuries and overdose was the same one to which my 18 year old son was admitted just over two years ago after doing something stupid and ill-advised which caused him to suffer both physical injuries and overdose.

It’s likely that at least one or two of the doctors and nurses who worked over this UT student in the ER a few days ago also worked to try to save my teenager’s life in that very same ER 28 months ago.

The parents of the teenager who overdosed at the UT frat house this week almost certainly got the same gut-wrenching, terrifying call that I did, letting them know that their son was in the critical care unit.

The UT student who overdosed on alcohol this week lived – thank God.

My son did not. He died in that same hospital 38 days after he was admitted.

And you know what? There’s nothing funny about what happened to my son, and there’s also NOTHING FUNNY about the potentially fatal alcohol overdose of another teenage boy.

NOTHING.

Even if it happened at a fraternity party.

Even if he ingested the substance that sent him to the ER in a particularly dangerous, weird, stupid way.

I have literally cringed this week as I have read and heard and watched the snarky, sarcastic, wisecracking news coverage and commentary and punditry and jokes about “butt chugging” and “beer enemas” and the like. At least once, I’ve had to flip off the car radio, pull over and cry. And I will bet you that I am not alone in my personal reaction to the media’s “ain’t this hilarious” reaction to this boy’s near death experience, given that thousands and thousands of American high school and college age kids die each year in the current epidemic or drug and/or alcohol overdoses, meaning that each of their mothers and fathers who remain behind in the wake of their children’s deaths understand just as I do that OVERDOSE ISN’T FUNNY, no matter where or how it happens.

It’s not funny if someone’s underage son overdoses inside a remote house trailer in a rural corner of Knox County.

And it’s not funny if someone else’s underage son boy overdoses in the same county, but instead is inside a fraternity house located on Greek Row on the University of Tennessee campus.

I am very proud of how my alma mater – the University of Tennessee – has acted swiftly and authoritatively in the wake of this nearly-tragic incident. UT officials have shut the fraternity house down for the next several years. Apparently, Knoxville Police are investigating the incident, and their investigation began that same night – as soon as hospital officials alerted them to the fact that a physically injured teenager suffering from overdose had been admitted to the ER.

And while I am sincerely pleased to hear how seriously various authorities seem to be taking what happened to this student who wasn’t old enough to consume alcohol legally, much less consume it via what amounted a type of “mainlining” more frequently seen with drug than alcohol abuse, I can’t help but wonder why the response by local authorities was – and continues to be so very different from the response to my one year-younger teenager’s overdose that landed him in the same ER. My son wasn’t old enough to drink either. And just as this UT student made an immature and dangerous error in judgment when he decided to take the advice of others and try “mainlining” alcohol, my son made a similarly immature and tragic error in judgment when he swallowed the methadone and sedatives that two adults whom he should not have trusted but did, urged on him.

Overdose by a teenager isn’t funny any more than a teenager’s suicide or drunk driving accident is funny. And that’s true even if the teenager in question is lucky enough to survive the suicide attempt, the drunken car wreck….or the alcohol poisoning at the frat house.

The specific details of every single fatal or near-fatal overdose by a young person will be different. But none of them – no matter how the kid ingested the substance, or why – should be fodder for our jokes.

I love this age. And this five year old.

Along with all the awesome new reading and counting and art
skills that five year old C has been bringing home to share with her parents and sibs since she started kindergarten a few weeks ago, she is also bringing home one other NOT so awesome thing from school, namely, GERMS…the kind that make people sick.

Even though I’ve already been thru the trial-by-germs kindergarten initiation rite back when my three oldest were C’s age, frankly I’d just plain forgotten how many more nasty little illnesses are likely to attack one’s household once you have a young child enrolled in elementary school. Even though teachers do their very best to keep little hands washed and sneezes appropriately contained, kindergarten classrooms in particular seem to be teeming cesspools of sore throats, chest congestion and projectile vomiting just waiting to happen.

Since C started kindergarten at the end of August, we’ve already had one tummy bug stowaway make it to Casa Hickju via her pink kitten backpack. And now, the Mother of All Colds seems to have hopped into her Disney princess lunchbox like some kind of hobo with a bad attitude, and the mean-tempered virus has arrogantly taken up residence at our house. The two teenagers in the fam are not here this week, so they’ve been spared (I hope), but the other four of us haven’t been so lucky.

The nasty cold started on Sunday when both of the little girls developed non-stop runny noses. Then it hit Jon with a cough, sore throat and congestion. As of late Tuesday, I became yet another unwilling host for the virus, and I currently have a remarkably unpleasant case of classic head cold. My eyes are swollen and runny, my throat is sore, I’m headachey, and worst of all, my nose and sinuses are stuffed up to such a degree that I only managed 2-3 hours of sleep Tuesday night. My ears hurt from all the sinus pressure too.

And then, starting in the afternoon earlier today when she was in Jon’s mom’s care while I was at work, two year old G’s runny nose has morphed into full-on sickly. It’s now 11;30 pm and she’s been vomiting all evening as the result of the constant coughing combined with all the icky drainage from her cold. She feels awful.

Back when my three oldest children were little, there were many OTC meds available to give young children and even babies to treat cold symptoms.My standby was benadryl, which both dried out their heads and chests, and also helped them sleep. But starting in about 2007, doctors and the FDA began advising parents that no over the counter product advertised to treat cold symptoms was actually effective in children under six, plus there were possible safety issues. My own beloved pediatrician (he’s cared for all five of my children since 1993) agrees with this assessment and no longer recommends any OTC meds to treat cold symptoms like cough, runny nose or chest congestion for his young patients, and instead advises steam showers and similarly simple home remedies for cold relief.

I get why we’re no longer supposed to dose our sniffly, coughing toddlers with benadryl or with that thick grape-flavored cough syrup that used to be a staple of parental medicine cabinets (was that Dimetapp?), but it’s tough knowing that your little one feels so awful and there isn’t much of anything that’s considered safe or effective to help her feel better.

But there is still one OTC product that’s considered totally safe for children C’s age (used properly), and I am here to tell you that it’s VERY effective. Sure, it’s old fashioned and has maybe fallen off of our parental radar in recent years, but this retro remedy deserves revisiting.

What is it?

It’s good old Vick’s Vapor Rub.

I used to use Vapor Rub all the time when one of the kids or I got a head or chest cold that was making it impossible for us to sleep, and it offered nighttime relief for even the worst stuffy noses and chests better than just about anything else. But at some point along the way – I’m not sure why – I kind of forgot how great the stuff is. However, after finding an old dried out jar of Vapor Rub in a box of stuff in my closet (don’t ask) a while back, my memory of its effectiveness was prodded, and the last few times I’ve had any sort of congestion or cough myself, or one of the kids has, I’ve whipped out my trusty (new, freshly acquired, not crusty or dried out!) jar o’ Vapor Rub.

Tonight, after her older sister C was already snoozing away for the evening, G was still coughing so much that she couldn’t sleep, so I dispatched Jon to the Diane Arbus Walgreen’s in our neighborhood for several items, including a fresh jar of Vick’s. While he was gone, and as I was rocking a restless, whimpering, coughing G in our darkened bedroom, I found myself wondering whether other parents are still using Vick’s, so I googled the product on my iPhone. And I am sure glad I did, because my quick search turned up a different way to use Vick’s Vapor Rub to treat cold symptoms and cough that I’d never heard before: rubbing it on your child’s feet (or your own), and then covering the freshly slathered tootsies with cotton socks.

Okay, this sounds nuts, right? TVapor Rub on FEET?! But according to many, many, many anecdotal reports from people all over the Web, applying Vapor Rub to the feet very reliably quells a cough, even in little kids. Because this implausible-sounding home remedy has in the past been the subject of one of those annoying, Snopes-worthy forwarded emails, some people apparently discount it. But it looks to me like that email was just a red herring, and that many people find that applying Vick’s to the soles of the feet is a very reliable cough suppressant, particularly overnight.

I generally apply Vick’s to my chest and just under my nose when I am stuffy and trying to sleep, and to my kids’ upper backs and lower chest when they have cold symptoms (important: never put Vick’s Vapor Rub right under the nose of a baby or young child like you might do for yourself. ), but after stumbling onto the Vick’s-on-feet cough suppressant claims, I decided to give it a try for my miserable little danger toddler.

So when Jon got home from the store earlier, I opened up the jar of Vapor Rub and told G that I was going to rub her feet with it (all my children loooooove having me rub their feet).  I slathered her little feet and toes up with Vick’s,  and then put her in fresh socks. At the time the Vapor Rub went on her feet, she was coughing and coughing, and vomiting every hour or so from the coughing. I hoped that this wacky thing would help, but wasn’t terribly hopeful because it sounds so unlikely. But I turned the light back off, settled my now minty-smelling babygirl back into my lap in the rocking chair, and began trying to rock her to sleep – something I’d been unable to do for hours due to the coughing.

Within 5 minutes, she stopped coughing and fell fast asleep. She then slept all night snuggled up with me in bed with NO coughing and thus, NO throwing up.

Yep. The Vapor Rub on the feet home remedy worked, even though I have no clue WHY it would work (kind of like how bars of soap under my sheets do indeed mysteriously make my restless legs problem disappear at night). I’ve always known that Vapor Rub is great for clearing stuffy heads and chests in both kids and adults, but I had no clue it could work as well as any liquid cough syrup I have ever tried.

So now I love Vick’s Vapor Rub even more than I already did. This stuff is magic in a little plastic tub. They also make a baby version of Vapor Rub, but I’ve never tried it (if you have, chime in and let me know whether it works as well as the regular variety)

Oh, and one other thing I use Vick’s for: softening up my dry, calloused feet after I’ve gone barefoot too much and haven’t made time to get a pedicure. I can rub it all over my feet at bedtime, cover up with cotton socks, and my feet are way less Shrek-like in the morning. So now, if I eer have a cough, I know that I can both quiet my hacking and pretty-up my feet at the same time.

To be clear, I am not claiming any definitive, scientific evidence that the Vicks-on-feet home cough remedy works. As far as I know, neither is Vick’s. All I can tell you is that it worked for us, and now I will rely on this useful little medicine cabinet staple even more than I already did.

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