Last summer Vera developed an allergy which made her skin very itchy. See “Vera gets a touch of the Itchies”. It was worse in bright sunshine and the vet thought it might be that Vera had become photo-sensitive due to perhaps eating an umbelliferous plant. The allergy affected the bare parts of her skin so the bottom part of her legs, under her arms, her ears and around her eyes. Her skin slightly swelled up too and felt hot to the touch. Vera would feel irritated by the itchiness and rub herself against things which of course made things worse as she’d create open sores. The open sores attracted flies and we spent a lot of time making sure nothing was becoming infected.
Fortunately, as the vet predicted would probably happen, when autumn came the allergy disappeared and we heaved a sigh of relief, Vera was much happier and went about her business with a spring in her step, and we were able to relax knowing she was no longer at risk of infection or feeling depressed due to the itchiness. We suspected however that it might come back this summer and so we were keeping an eye on her.
Sure enough in early June Vera started to show the same signs as last year; seeking shade and scratching herself. Last year the vet had suggested we use Sudocrem to sooth her sore skin so we immediately started doing this, we put it on her legs, ears and around her eyes, twice a day.
The twice daily sudocrem ritual has become something we all enjoy, particularly Vera we noticed who on seeing the pot of cream now trots up looking expectant. The cream is helping her a lot and she seems to absolutely love it, she goes into a bit of a trance and makes purring noises. Sometimes she lifts her legs up so that we can get the cream right into the creases.
What a good patient she is!
We will continue to keep a close eye on her and keep applying Sudocrem until summer is over.