We had to give away my wifes West Highland White Terrier about three years ago. She had horrible allergies. To the extent that she ripped out 90% of her fur. We had, had her for three years at that point when they started. She was on steroid shots every other month for two years. They destroyed her bladder to the point she couldn't hold her urine for more than 2 to 3 hours at a time. My son was two at the time. Vet said we could try allergy shots for her. It was a thousand bucks for the allergy test. Then a hundred a month after that. The allergy shots only had a 50% chance of working. On top of the special shampoo, bath stuff, and dog food she was having to have. It worked out to being 450 dollars a month for us to keep her. The vet said we could put her down or try an find a rescue group that could help her.
We ended up giving her to Westie Rescue Tennessee. They invested the cash to get her back up to snuff. The University of Auburn Veterinary School even got involved with it, because she was such an extreme and rare case. They figured out that she was allergic to a fungus that grows on the grass in the South East. The a Rescue adopted her out to a man in Arizona, to get her out of the South.
We keep in contact with him still. He sends us pictures of her a few times a year and lets us know how she is doing. She has regained all of her fur and is as happy a dog as you could ever wanna meet. The Rescue and the University gave our dog her life back.
Giving her up was one of the hardest things we've ever had to do. The rescue put pictures of her on its website to try to raise money to help her. (This is how Auburn learned of her and stepped in) We had to endure the most hate filled comments and talk from people, over how bad she looked. (She really looked god awful) One woman even threatened to come kick our tails for not spending the non existent money we didn't have on her. To hell with the two grand I had already shelled out for two years. I told her next time I would just shoot the poor critter and end its misery. That finally shut her up. Well, that and a letter from my attorney inviting her to come down and kick my tail.