Poor Dax

We love our dog. Dax turned 12 years old during the summer, so he's been around a while. About once or twice a year, we have to battle little heat spots on his back. Well, when we arrived home from the beach, we found out that the small spots he had before we left had grown into pretty large spots. Between the irritation of the skin rashes and the stress of us being gone, he must have spent the whole time biting at them. There were huge patches of missing, red skin. Poor thing.


We began with lotion and spray to cool the spots and keep him from biting. Well, attempt to keep him from biting. It wasn't too successful. After being woken up many times one night by the sound of Dax's teeth biting at his back, it was enough. We were moving to the next level. The lampshade.

The next day, I headed to our local PetSmart to purchase one. However, there's a new movement in pet care, where the offer a "more comfortable" option, that is simply an inflated collar. More comfortable also means more expensive. Craig said, "I can make one. Just give me some posterboard." So, this is how our poor dog has look for the past week and a half.

The first few moments with his new accessory were slightly amusing (sadly). He obviously couldn't see around him, so he kept hitting it on any furniture he walked by. It was also a bit pathetic as we realized he couldn't fit out his dog door. He's managed to tear it off twice. We're up to simply using whatever resources we have around the house. Our latest poster we found was not simply a blank poster, but a large poster card that the youth had been given many years ago. We couldn't remember the people who had signed the card or from which trip it came. Therefore, has become our latest lampshade. So we present . . . Party Dog.

Doesn't he look amused? We simply hope that he'll stop biting and the spots will heal.

We just hate to see him so sad.