By Odin.Liela 2014-04-06 13:46:01
Any dog people have advice for me? My corgi is allergic to tree/flower pollen, and the native vegetation is in full "Kill the Dog!" mode.
His eyes are all watery and runny, so much so that the fur all the way around them is wet. He keeps trying to scratch his nose and eyes by clawing at his face and scrubbing his face into the carpet. And he's sneezing more than normal.
I looked up on Google ways to try to help the poor guy out. They advised some medicines meant for people, which I really hesitate to give him. Unless a vet recommends a particular medicine, I won't go that route just because I never know if people online are really qualified to say what is or isn't safe for a dog to ingest.
They also advised making sure the air filters are clean, vacuuming every few days to get as much of the dander, fluff, and pollen out of the carpet as possible, washing all of his bedding, keeping the windows shut, and keeping him inside during the early morning and late evening when the pollen counts are highest.
So, we replaced the filters last night, I'm in the process of washing all the bedding right now (I wash it all every week anyways) and I'll be vacuuming today as well to make sure when he scrubs his face into the carpet he's not actually rubbing MORE pollen into his eyes, poor guy. Keeping him inside completely during high-pollen times will be rough because when he's gotta go, he's gotta go. But I'm keeping him inside as much as possible and making sure that he only goes out to go to the bathroom and then comes back inside instead of hanging out with the squirrels. We definitely keep the windows shut.
We also have several plants inside that have the reputation of cleaning the air, we're trying to keep the air quality inside as good as possible. I don't think any of those plants are causing the problem, since they've been here forever and he only has allergic reactions in the spring.
Anyone else out there have pups with pollen allergies? Are there any other tips that Google didn't tell me to make him more comfortable? The poor darling looks just miserable!