Skin scrape/blood test dog ballpark figure

aileth

Hi all, we are currently trying to figure out why our dog is so itchy ATM. He's had steroids and they worked, but they've worn off and he's worse than ever, just touching his back will get his leg tapping. He's at the vets on Friday, as soon as we could really get him in, and I'm assuming they'll want to go to the next step of either skin scrapes or blood tests or both to investigate.

I know prices will vary location wise and practice wise, but depending on the cost we'll need to shift some funds around or dig out the credit card. He has insurance, but I doubt it'll be worth the excess. Can anyone give me a ballpark cost of both procedures, or whether there's something else they might do? Thank you

Misty_Blue

One of my dogs has a big dust mite allergy and had blood tests which were about £200 (my practice is not the cheapest, though).

I keep going on about this so much on this forum that people will think I work for the manufacturer (I don't! ) but Atopica worked absolute miracles for him. Many vets only offer it to insured dogs as it can be expensive, but it made him into a new dog. Steroids were only just about keeping the itch at bay, but his coat was dull and his skin was scurfy, and he was short tempered with other dogs. Within 7 days on being on Atopica, all the skin scurf had gone, and it just got better and better from there.

We only had to touch his back to set off the scratch reaction as well. 10 days of taking the Atopica and you could scratch his back without him bothering.

aileth

Thanks for the tip! His coat is nice and shiny ATM and he hasn't really done any damage to himself so far at least. He started off just chewing above his tail and if you scratched him near there he'd leg tap, but after the steroids wore off he's now chewing his legs and paws a bit and goes crazy just when you touch him!

Misty_Blue

If it's mainly legs and paws, it may be a grass / pollen allergy. The blood tests are really useful to work out what the trigger is, so you can try and minimise the allergy with some lifestyle changes if possible. I live in an old house, with old, dusty plaster, so dust mites are a fact of life sadly. I can keep them down, but of course you can never totally eliminate them. But it helped massively to know that it wasn't an allergy to food, or pollen etc.

I hope you get him sorted soon.

aliasojo

What does he eat? After nearly 6 years of issues with my dog including skin, paw and ear problems, he's now a happy mutt after being taken of commercial dog food and being fed raw now instead.

Vet prescribed all sorts and I was getting sick of only ever trying to contain the problems rather than fixing them.

Not saying this will work for all dogs but there are many many owner's reviews on the net about this exact situation.

Maybe worth considering?

aileth

aliasojo wrote: »

What does he eat? After nearly 6 years of issues with my dog including skin, paw and ear problems, he's now a happy mutt after being taken of commercial dog food and being fed raw now instead.

Vet prescribed all sorts and I was getting sick of only ever trying to contain the problems rather than fixing them.

Not saying this will work for all dogs but there are many many owner's reviews on the net about this exact situation.

Maybe worth considering?

We put him on raw when he went for the steroid injection, been a good month and a half or so now, and it hasn't had any effect on him so far.

We mainly did it in the first place really to try his firm his poos up as he's always been a bit loose and really leaky from the anal glands, so we wanted to get some bone in there to increase the density and reduce the 'rubbish' that's in commercial to firm him up. Last poo I saw him do was really runny, thank god he did it in the garden as no way I could pick it up.

We told the vet about him being really loose and leaking anal glands and he really didn't seem bothered about it, said something that anal glands leaking could be to do with the allergies and that the loose poo is also to do with allergies. We felt a bit brushed off with him if I'm honest, especially with a quick-fix steroid injection and no discussion about anything else, so we're going to a different vet well-recommended by our in-laws to have him properly gone over and it's been suggested that they may do a skin scrape or blood test.

As per grass/pollen allergy, when we originally took him to the vets he wasn't touching his legs at all, not even the slightest, only the patch above his tail. Now he is chewing them every now and again but nowhere near as bad as his back. On a recommendation we gave him piriton for a week and it's done absolutely sweet f-all.

aliasojo

Poor thing, he's obviously got something going on. I hope you get to the bottom of it.

Good idea to get another opinion I think.

ac085

Do you have pet insurance that covers illnesses for one year or the life of your dog?

If it is the latter I would claim on the insurance, my cat has been refered to skin specialists, the initial consultation was between £2-300 But this was after 2-3 Steroid injections plus some anti biotics as some wounds were quite nasty.
The injections and drugs soon add up and for one excess I can claim for them all.

The skin specialist has put my cat on special diet to rule out a food allergy. This was after some skin scapings to look for a parasite reason for the irritation
My next option is allergy testing to find out what is causing the hassle and from that we can potentially create a vaccine or just have a better understanding of what to do to manage the problem.

My vet did suggest continued steriod use but it doens't seem to help at all and my cat is only young. I don't like the idea of being on them long term.

Misty Blue, If you don't mind me asking how much is Atopica for you? It is an option I'm considering after I've looked at the side effects etc. My vet mentioned it but just said it is expensive without an indication of how much.

aileth

My husband has the pet insurance, it's with john lewis, but i've looked on their website and it says £3,000 per year, but "If your pet develops an illness that this policy covers, you can claim for that condition, until your policy limit is reached, every year as long as you're insured with us and your premiums are paid." I'm guessing that's life time as long as I'm insured with them, or am I wrong?

Yes, I too don't like the idea of long-term steroid use and would like to get to the bottom of his issues. I think it might be good for him to be on them while we're figuring out the underlying cause though as he was seriously like a different dog while on them and didn't itch at all.

Misty_Blue

My allergic dog also used to have terrible upset stomachs, regardless of diet. It's rare now that the allergy is controlled. Whether there is a direct link, I don't know. I more suspect that he was stressed from being itchy all the time, as his stomach does get a bit worse if he is stressed even now.

ac085 wrote: »

Misty Blue, If you don't mind me asking how much is Atopica for you? It is an option I'm considering after I've looked at the side effects etc. My vet mentioned it but just said it is expensive without an indication of how much.

It comes in various sizes which will affect the cost. My 26kg dog takes the 100mg ones, which when I started him on them were about £101 per pack, and he got through two packs a month. Now, we've been able to bring the dose right down to the point where he only takes a couple of pills a week, so that's really decreased the cost and I only re-order every 2 -3 months.

Oddly enough, the last time I re-ordered, the price of the Atopica had gone down noticeably. I think it was about £80. I queried it, as I was concerned they'd ordered the wrong size, but it was right. The receptionist said it was probably a result of the drug company reducing the price (perhaps due to increased competition), so they were able to pass it on.

In terms of side effects, one of the most common ones is thickening of the gums. Gingerval hyperplasia, I think they call it. My dog has never had it, and actually he's never had any side effects from the Atopica at all. The leaflet says that side effects are rare.

If the Atopica hadn't worked, our next step was to have the vaccine made, but I know that was going to be very expensive. Not only were there the costs associated with making it specifically for my dog, but the vet had to pay for a special licence to have it on the premises, as I recall.

Misty_Blue

Previously itchy dog, restored to his former glory