I have to share this story because I think it is SO SO SO important.
My friend at work Shannon has one of my dogs, Scottie. Scottie was taken from one the the nasty kill shelters. We aren't really sure what Scottie is but he sure is CUTE! Shannon adopted Scottie a few months after starting at my work.
Long story short Scottie is the love of their life. Shannon is always coming into work telling me stories of how great Scottie is. Then Shannon got pregnant. Shannon was somewhat worried about the dogs reaction to kids but took it all in stride. They did what all the experts said to do to introduce the baby and the dog. Scottie did GREAT with the baby. Now 2 years later Shannon's son and the dog are BEST FRIENDS.
Her son kept was having some "allergy" issues. The doctor at the hospital told Shannon that is was the dog. 100% the dog. The dog has got to go.
Shannon refused to believe it was the dog but her son has to come first, right?! I mean Scottie is technically her first child but the health of her human son is very important to her.
Shannon did her best to clean the house of all dog hair, keep Scottie off furniture and try to keep Gavin from hugging Scottie as much as he normal did. BUT Shannon didn't really believe or want to believe that getting rid of the dog was the answer.
She took her son to see a specialist to find out really what was her son allergic to. The tests took a few weeks to come back and we were all on the edge of our seats waiting to hear the news. Praying and crossing our paws that it really wasn't the dog. The thought of #1 getting rid of their first child, the dog was so heartbreaking to Shannon and her husband. #2 Scottie was seriously her son's best friend. How can you just take a 2 year old's best friend away?
Scottie stayed in the house even though the allergy tests hadn't come back yet and the hospital doctor said they needed to get rid of him ASAP!
The allergy tests came back and guess what IT ISN'T THE DOG!
I told Shannon she needs to tell the doctor at the hospital to not jump to conclusions. I mean think about if Shannon would have believed the doctor and got rid of Scottie like so many other parents do. Poor Scottie would have been torn from a family that he loves, a little boy would be heartbroken from loosing his best friend and Shannon and her husband would have lost their first baby, the dog. And for what? For NOTHING more then a doctor just ASSuming something.
The lesson learned for anyone reading this until you can PROVE with an allergy test that it is the dog or the cat or the whatever animal DO NOT jump the gun and dump your pet! You could be doing it for nothing.
4 comments:
Amen to that, Amy! I'm so fed up with doctor's immediately making an assumption that it's the family pet as soon as a child sneezes.
-Beth
Great Post! And Kudos to Shannon for caring enough for her dog to find the root of the issue!!
I have a friendly deathly allergic to just one of her cats but she deals with it and takes meds; the thought of having to rehome her baby would kill her. She couldn't bear it.
Studies have actually shown children that are exposed to animals are less likely to be allergic to them. We just recently went through the same thing. After 3 years of dealing with asthma and repeated bouts of pneumonia we had our son tested and turns out he's not even allergic to dust...not a single allergy. Oddly enough, even though he doesn't have any allergies the new treatment of nasonex seems to be working. We're so relieve to finally have something that works and to know it's not the dog.
This is an excellent story and I hope so many people read it and take notice. Thank you for sharing.
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