If you follow Itchy Frenchie on Instagram or Facebook, then you’ve probably already seen this picture of Norman from this past Thursday night. After dinner, we noticed that his right eye was swollen. We gave him a dose of Benadryl and the swelling subsided within the hour, but we have no idea what caused it. We already had an appointment to take him to the vet on Saturday for his other skin issues and itchiness, so it was just another reason to go.

Back at the Vet

We never found the culprit for the swollen eye, but the vet tested his skin and found quite a bit of bacteria. He has definitely had an issue with secondary skin infections while on his medications. This is usually where we give him antibiotics for 10-14 days but this time the vet gave us a full month’s worth of pills. It seems like a lot but he’s had lightly crusted spots on his back for months that just will not go away. So maybe this is best to try to get it under control and curtail some of that itching.

She also put him back on Apoquel. For the last several weeks we had been trying an all natural supplement instead but it just doesn’t do anything for him. Just last week he scratched himself to the point of bleeding three different times. I can’t tell you how much blood we’ve had to clean out of our carpets. Seriously, if you don’t have one of these spot cleaners, you might think about picking one up. It does a great job.

Also, since it’s only been 3 weeks since Norman’s last Cytopoint shot, we could not give him another one. I guess you are required to wait at least 4 weeks between shots. So until then, we will hope the pills can get us back on track. We also have a prescription shampoo to help with those crusty spots on his back. I’m going to try to give him a bath with it everyday this week and see if that helps.

I hope to have an update on it in a couple weeks. Hopefully he’s feeling better by then. And if you don’t follow Norman on social media, here’s the picture that I posted of his swollen eye.