We Boarded Our Two Dogs And They Came Home With Heath Problems

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We had to board our two dogs at our vet's for about 5 days recently due to a family emergency so that we had to be out of town. We have used this kennel within the past couple of years with no real problems, but now I'm starting to wonder about them. For one thing, I have noticed that now whenever we take one of our two dogs to our vet just for their usual shots the price for any visit has almost doubled in the last 6 months. And when we picked them up from boarding this time I nearly fell over when presented the bill. The price had almost tripled for boarding, also within the last 6 months. They were never cheap, but their prices seemed in line with other kennels and vets. So now I'm wondering why they're suddenly going up on their fees so much. Still, I like the way our vet is with our dogs but all last summer the smaller dog had what he claimed was an allergy. It wasn't overly major, just seemed to cause a lot of scratching and sometimes it would get worse. Still, the meds the vet gave me for this seemed to help the dog and the vet kept saying he would get better with cooler weather. This time, though, when we got our dogs home they didn't seem as well cared for as usual and the little one was in really bad shape. His skin was red and inflamed and his stomach was broken out all over, also red. He wasn't like that when we took him in and we had only been gone for 5 days. When I called the vet they said it was just his allergies acting up and they had already given him something for it. The thing was they didn't really have room for our dogs this time, so left both in the runs. That doesn't usually bother me too much because they have done that before with our large dog when the kennel is too crowded. The runs are inside, large and warm enough, plus I always take blankets, bones, etc. so the dogs will be more at ease. There are usually several kennel workers and they wash the blankets if they get messed up and put them back inside with the dogs. This time I was surprised there was only one kennel worker and a helper (we always take the dogs back because our big one is hard to handle in getting her into the kennel originally unless we're with her). I could tell when the dogs got home that the blankets had been discarded very quickly after we left (since we weren't offered them back, when they have always returned all blankets before) because both dogs had hair worn off at some joints on their legs, where they had been lying just on the concrete floors of the run for 5 days, while the weather was cold on top of that. My husband went into the kennel to pick the dogs up and he said there were no blankets down. Plus, although I always mix high quality canned dog food with some good dry dog food so their stomachs won't get upset, and the kennel in question has always been good about doing that before, this time, despite the vet's kennel's sudden tripled fees, my husband said there was only dry food down, which the dogs had not touched. At any rate, our small dog just kept getting worse once he was home again. His skin remained red and started to get rather scaly under his hair, his hair started to fall out toward his back end, and he scratched constantly. I took him to another vet, who said that was not allergies but that the dog was suffering from Candida yeast, which he said dogs could indeed pick up from being boarded. This second vet gave him a shot and some meds that he said should start clearing up the problem shortly. The shot stopped the itching for a short while but the meds seemed to only make the dog much sicker and sicker so I stopped those. He started to feel better very soon after I stopped these meds. The health food store near me has thus far been the most help. The owner there told me to give both my dogs Apple Cider Vinegar pills (my big dog itches as well now, but is not nearly in as bad a shape as the small one..they were kept in separate runs). When I say small, I mean the small one is about 60 pounds, small compared to my big dog I mean.) The health food store owner also said to bathe him in fragrance free oatmeal bath mixture and apple cider vinegar. I've done that, plus I make sure he's only on a high quality diet and add fatty omega mixture to his food (he seems to like that) and the redness of his top coat has diminished greatly. I keep putting some natural anti-fungal cream the health food store sold me on his stomach and elsewhere and that has diminished the redness, but the poor dog is still scratching a lot, although the apple cider vinegar is helping I can tell. But he still seems miserable a lot of the time, although he seems to be slowly improving with following the advice from the health food store owner and he does sleep a lot more comfortably now than before (before neither he nor we got any sleep because he scratched literally all night long). Now he sleeps through most of the night and he sleeps calmly after he's had his oatmeal and apple cider vinegar bath (I have to bathe him more often now, about once every week and a half, because he gets such a pungent odor to him otherwise and he starts to scratch a lot again without this regular bath. Althoug he's short-haired I don't usually like giving baths that often due to taking the oil out of the skin, but it's a necessity at present just due to his condition and the baths seem to bring him a lot of comfort and ease afterward.) He's such a sweet and loyal dog, I would like to give him as much comfort as possible but I'm frankly afraid of taking him back to a vet at the moment since neither one he's seen lately has done him any good, but actually seemed to do more harm than good here. The reccomendations from owner of the health food store have been the only real and positive help, so if anyone has any suggestions about any other alternative and safe health treatments that can help aid in his speedier recovery now I'd really love to hear them. Thanks.