Since Luke was three years old he has suffered from allergies.  He started having problems after Bill moved him to New York. Last year after moving back to Olathe, Luke was at the vet almost every week during the summer due to his allergies. So this year Bill decided to have Luke tested.

Turns out poor Luke is allergic to a whole bunch of stuff including grasses, ragweed and clover. We decided to start him on shots. For those of you who don't know how allergy shots work here's the short and skinny of the process. You start out with a very small dose and every other day you gradually increase it until you're at full strength. At that point you go to once a week, every other week and hopefully build up to once a month.

After getting his fourteenth shot, Luke decided to have a reaction at 9:00 PM one evening. It was a little over one hour after his shot (outside the timeframe you're supposed to watch them for reactions) and he came running into the family room, threw himself on the floor and starting rubbing his entire head back and forth across the carpet. He jumped up ran across the room and repeat the process several more times. Bill gave him an antihistamine and called the emergency vet who strongly suggested that he bring Luke in for observation. By this time poor Luke is running full steam through the house, kicking with his legs like a bucking bronco, jumping and running circles.  Bill, who was ready for bed, gets dressed, wakes me up and tells me what's going on and takes Luke to the emergency room.

The Emergency Clinic is in the same complex as the allergist so they are familiar with allergen reactions in animals. They checked Luke over and gave him a shot of Benadryl as his temperature was high and his pulse was 180 — normal is 80 to 120. They checked his pulse and temperature thirty minutes later and his pulse was down to 80 and his temperature was normal so they let him come home. Luke then kept us up most of the night licking his paws and smacking his lips.

The next day Bill called the allergist, who had already been informed by the emergency clinic, what had happened. They advised downing the dose and starting over at the seventh shot level. We start over again but poor Luke's system is so out of whack that we have to take him to the vet for a shot of steroids to calm his allergies down.

The allergist, sensing our reservations about Luke having reactions to the shots said "drop him off in the morning and we'll give him his shot and watch him. You can pick him up at noon or leave him all day." So Bill drops him off on a Monday morning and goes back to get him at noon.  Imagine his surprise when the allergist said "no charge." So for the next few weeks they gave Luke his shots and got him up to full strength with no problems. They did notice that his allergies were starting to kick in again so they had us start him on antihistamines. After about a week they also added Prednisone for a week.

So now Luke doesn't have to go to the vet every other day. He's so sad. Every time I put my sunglasses on Luke thinks he's going for a ride in the car.

If you're in the Kansas City area and need a good allergist for your animal here is the person to call:

    Dr. Jean Greek, DVM

    (913) 381-3937

Dr. Greeks office is located in Overland Park. She and all of her staff are incredibly caring and concerned about what they do. We couldn't have expected better care for Luke and us as well.  Thanks ladies!