Old Man Porter Rockwell

Porter, our almost 13 year old Golden, has been having the worse day.

I've been painting most of the day (bedroom re-modeling going on) and he's been on the floor, not moving, except to bite, pull out hair and basically scratch some all over his body itch.

He’s had this skin issue since we moved to the up here, first in Long Beach, which is when it started. The vets called it "The Long Beach Itch" as if that were supposed to make it all right. He would scratch night and day, yank out fur and basically chew himself raw. The easiest solution?

Steroids.

And wow! They did a great job. He finally felt better. But I never had much like for steroids. I'm not against them; they really do help shrink the swelling as well as stop the itching - which in turn stops the scratching.  But I hated putting our then five year old dog on steriods. They do carry some bad side effects. I remember Mom’s bones becoming so thin and porus from the overuse of steroids and I’m probably a bit paranoid about them now.

Fast forward to the present.

I really thought we had the problem under control with his diet. I found a wonderful food that contains no grains called Wild Bison or something like that. It’s pure protein. Grains are a dog's biggest problem when they have allergies; the primitive dog didn’t eat grains, only meat and sometimes veggies, but the cheaper brands of kibble put grains in as filler. This food is pricey but we had to try something. Within a few months, we found that his skin issues started to fade - slowly to be sure - and he started to feel better.

However, for the past few months, we have all noticed a decline in his behavior. Obviously, his age has something to do with his behavior; he IS  almost 13 in August (the 3rd is his birthday) which would make him 91 in dog years. The average age for a Golden is 9 - 11 years old.

He's also been swimming in our pond a bit too much now that the weather is warmer. That pond .... well, let's just say that it's great for the trout and the bullfrogs and the occasional duck that lands there once in a while but not so much for swimming. Felix, when we first moved here, tried swimming in it and came out with a rash exactly where the water line hit her skin. Several oatmeal baths and calamine lotion later taught her and I a valuable lesson: stay out of the pond.

So I'm sure it isn't much better for a sensitive-skinned, almost 91 year old dog.

I know that we will only have him for probably another full year, so I'd like him to have the best year possible.