My staffy is allergic to grass and pollen?!

lizzak

Hi,

Ive got a female staffy thats just under 2 yrs old, she's been going through some tests to see what her rashes were on her arms and on her armpit. She has her blood sent off on friday to get an allergy test done then the vets phoned my boyfriend today and stated that she is allergic to grass and pollen etc.

He was then told that her treatment will cost £100 a time. I was just wondering whether anyone else has had this problem with their dog and whether they have used any 'alternative' treatment or antihistamines on them.

Thanks.

emmzy

my mums wee westie was allergic to grass an pollen and i cant remember what she was taking for it but it never cost £100 a time!! It was a wee pink pill once a day, antihistamines for people make dogs dopey as the vet told us to give piriton to our dog when we took him on a 7 hour train journey

ka7e

I have a Maine Coon cat that has a seasonal allergy (not had the blood tests) which is probably to a specific type of pollen. To be allergic to all grass and all pollen seems quite extreme - can your vet be more specific?

Tig usually has a steroid injections every 6 weeks while he's itchy and the relief is almost instant. Each plant has a specific time during the year when it releases it's pollen so it shouldn't cause allergies all year round.

meerkat2007

One of my boys developed the habit of chewing his feet. The vet prescribed priton. He has one tablet a day (my boy, that is, not the vet), and I buy them from an online pharmacy in a 500-tablet tub. You're probably looking at a cost of less than £15, including postage.

lizzak

well im oing to the vets to pick up the first batch of medication then im going to get them to tell me everything specific and maybe they could give me a copy of the test??

in all honesty i think £100 is too expensive so after the vets tomorrow im gonna do a bit of researching online again.

i know theres gotta be something less expensive but i guess i gotta domore researching tomorrow :S lol

KVet

Depends what they are going to do? Skin problems are expensive and usually life long. They may start her on Immunotherapy or something like Atopica? Hard to say what but both are costly

elsien

You could always give evening primrose a go as well.
Mine gets skin allergies on her feet and was chewing them to bits. The vet suggested the evening primrose (- some scientific evidence to do with prostoglandins which I didn't take in) and he said it only works for some dogs, it's not a miracle cure. Worked for mutt though, she's been much less itchy since.
For those giving piriton, what's the active ingredient, to get the cheaper generic version? And what dose- I gave mutt half an antihistamine the other day after she got stung by something on her foot and it knocked her out for 24 hours. She's never been so well-behaved or snored so loudly - a whole day with no misdeeds. She weighs 22 Kg so I was surprised half a tab would have such an effect.

lizzak

Thanks for all your replies. My dog is only 12kg so it would be handy to know the dosage of a hayfever tablet.
I also know one of the ingredients in hayfever tablets is loratadine so I'm hoping when I pick up the tablets tonight it'l state that ingredient!

foreign_correspondent

lizzak wrote: »

Thanks for all your replies. My dog is only 12kg so it would be handy to know the dosage of a hayfever tablet.
I also know one of the ingredients in hayfever tablets is loratadine so I'm hoping when I pick up the tablets tonight it'l state that ingredient!

loratadine is only one sort of antihistamine - piriton in a different chemical altogether I believe - please check with your vet about giving the dog anything different, and the dosages for your dog - getting it wrong could be disastrous. Some human meds can kill dogs, and i am sure an overdose would not be good news either.

You also need to know whether anything different would conflict with any of the meds the vet prescribes.

jessbob

lizzak wrote: »

Hi,

Ive got a female staffy thats just under 2 yrs old, she's been going through some tests to see what her rashes were on her arms and on her armpit. She has her blood sent off on friday to get an allergy test done then the vets phoned my boyfriend today and stated that she is allergic to grass and pollen etc.

He was then told that her treatment will cost £100 a time. I was just wondering whether anyone else has had this problem with their dog and whether they have used any 'alternative' treatment or antihistamines on them.

Thanks.

Hi.

I have a staffy boy - just over 2 years old. he has been to the vets last week due to his itchiness and nibbling his tail and feet.

The vet informs me he has a seasonal allergy and has given him Piriton tablets to take. he has been taking these for a week now, and is a lot better !!!

He also had the rashes under his armpits, but the tablets seem to be working for the moment.

I looked on the vets bill and the cost of the tablets was about 90p !!

lv1109

My dog sometimes suffers with hayfever and the vet prescribed piriton 1 tablet twice a day and she is 20kg in weight. I actually ended up buying the asda equivalent which were £1 for 30 tablets.

HTH