Sorry about being away for a bit and neglecting Kobie's "fan club"!

Kobie had all kinds of tests run after we found out that her blood panel indicated either a parasite or allergy problem. Basically, the parasite angle has now been ruled out: no heartworm, fecal worms, lyme disease, giardia, etc. That was a relief--I hate the thought of a wormy, critter-infested dog....

That just leaves allergies of some sort, and those are really hard to pin down. The vet pretty much said that we could spend about $300 to run a blood allergen panel (which might not even pinpoint the exact allergy at all!), or just control occasional allergy outbreaks with low doses of prednisone. She's responded well to the pred so far and hasn't coughed for almost a week. I guess unless she starts really being sick from this "doggy asthma" or whatever she has, we'll just keep a bit of pred around and see if it helps.

I know any steriodal medications aren't safe for long-term use, though, so I hope we won't have to give her this stuff very frequently. She definitely eats and drinks a lot more when she's on it, and she had what we jokingly called a "steroid rage" tonight when she lit up on Eli for taking her rope toy. Eli thinks Kobie's meds are pretty cool, though, because when she takes her pill in a piece of cheese he gets some cheese too!

Thanks for all the concern, folks! I'll keep y'all updated on the saga of the Kobester...

-Amber