Immunology and the Mook Man

Ok, so I couldn't really stay away from this too long today, especially because I have been wondering about something. This shall be the first of my geeky posts, and it is about a dog (which is fitting, since this is a Dawg blog---by the way, for those who do not know, "Maietta Dawg" was my nickname in college via a Nat and a Nate. I still call the Suzer by this name, and when I shout things like "No WAY, Dawg!" to her while on my cellphone outside the med center, I sometimes wonder what people overhearing me think about that).

My dog has several grass/tree allergies, as confirmed by skin test about 2 weeks ago. Prior, he'd been hit pretty hard by bacterial and opportunistic infections because of them. When he has a break-out, he licks his paws a bunch, irritating them more, which is why he sometimes has to wear socks: Now, it is being discussed that Mookie needs to have weekly allergy shots. Does anyone else know of a dog that has to have allergy shots?

My question is, do dogs, like people, when they get allergy shots, eventually become less sensitive to their allergy? And how on earth is giving MORE allergen schooling the immune system to quit freaking out if the allergen is what is causing the Type I hypersensivity and all the IgE and mast cells causing all histamine outpouring and the wheals and flares and constrictions and bad bad baaadness? I suppose T and I will have to have a good long talk when I get back to Chi-town.

In other news, if you have no ATP, your myosin can't get off your actin. So when you die and you're not making any more energy/ATP, your muscles can't relax anymore---which is rigor mortis! Also, the sun just came out!