Dog With An Allergy

ClaraPetal

My poor little pooch (he is almost 6) has on three occasions over the past 6 months come out in a skin rash. Initially we thought along with the vet it was an allergy to something he was coming into contact with outside, and this could still be the cause. On two occasions he was treated with Steroids and Antibiotics and the problem cleared up. After the 2nd bout in December within a matter of weeks he came out again in a rash, which scabbed over rather quickly because he was scratching and picking so I am planning on going down the route of having some allergy tests done on him. The 3rd bout has been the worse for him.

Sadly my insurance won't cover me, since I swapped his policy over some 15 days before his first appointment for the skin problem, however needs must and so I need to still go ahead with the allergy testing.

I thinking if it is an environmental allergy, I guess it could be any number of things. I suppose starting this thread I am looking for some advice. I am thinking of changing his diet to Hill's Prescription Diet d/d wet food in cans, which is suppose to help with skin problems. And it may sound silly but I was wondering if what I wash his bedding / blankets in could be causing an reaction, so I have rewashed today everything he comes into contact with in Fairy as recommended by the allergy foundation - I guess I am clutching at straws!

The vet gives an estimated cost of £350 for the allergy testing, but that should pin point what the problem is.

Can anyone offer any advice, or share experiences of their own pets who have experienced allergies.

GwylimT

Hills is a terrible quality food, I would keep clear of it.

If you are concerned about food allergy you need to feed a novel protein, so one that hasn't been given before eg kangaroo and after a few weeks add one more meat and slowly do this to identify any allergy causing foods. This identified our dogs issues with chicken.

Our dog did quite well on piriton until we pinned down his food allergy.

Sagaris

Our dog (beagle) has done a lot better since we put her on a raw diet. Vet seemed to think the 'fillers' in kibble type foods were not doing her any good. She gets a yeast infection on her skin in the summer - Malacetic shampoo sorts that out. She also gets itchy in the summer so she gets wiped down with a damp microfibre cloth after she's been outside in the warmer weather. If she gets really itchy then she has piriton (the drowsy one, not non-drowsy) and that helps too.

krlyr

One interesting thing to note is that with allergies, often there's more than one present - but when you deal with the main underlying allergy, the others clear up.

For example, I've heard several cases of dogs having been tested and come back with environmental allergies, like pollens, on top of dietary allergies. Dealing with the dietary allergies alone, then causes the dog to be much healthier and the environmental allergies lessen or clear up on their own.


I personally would also recommend a homemade exclusion diet over a prescription food - the latter does have the benefit that the proteins are hydrolized to really minimise the chance of the dog reacting to the ingredients, but the rest of the ingredients aren't that great. The dog then either has to stay on the food for life, or you have to gradually introduce new foods hoping that it's not the trigger anyway, so IMO you may as well just do the latter from day one. Raw is one option, and personally one I'd recommend, but I know it's not for everyone. If you do a homemade/homecooked diet, please do your research first though - a badly balanced diet can cause all sorts of longterm issues.

The below have some details on elimination diets, though if you go down the raw diet route, you avoid the need for carbohydrates - which skips another potential allergen or two.

http://communityvet.net/2010/03/diy-elimination-diet-for-the-dog-an-cat/
http://www.thehonestkitchen.com/articles/food-allergies-and-the-elimination-diet/

ClaraPetal

Thank you for the advice everyone. I will try the piriton and will also look into the diet advice! Anything to stop my little pooch from being so itchy, it's definitely affected him this time around, he looks rather miserable!

antw23uk

Feed him a raw diet with a weekly tin of cheap slides or sardines in oil. If you keep putting rubbish in him (would you eat fast food everyday of your life?) then with the combination of the wet weather, dry house from central heating ect you are going to get issues.


Raw food is a win win and cheaper and easier than you think. Good luck.

krlyr

antw23uk wrote: »

Feed him a raw diet with a weekly tin of cheap slides or sardines in oil.

Or even better, grab some sprats from the fish counter - cheaper, and better fed raw than the cooked tinned fish. Check out offers as well, I believe sardines are even cheaper than sprats at the moment on a half price deal. They may need to be frozen for a few weeks to deal with the risk of parasites, but once you have a stock in the freezer it's no issue to just replace your stash as you feed, to have a source of pre-frozen fish ready to feed.


The Facebook group "Rawfeeding Rebels" is a good starting place - or this site is a good read http://dogsdinner2.webs.com/

teddysmum

Some years ago, Teddy, my cavalier began the scratching and biting , sometimes causing large scabs.


Steroid treatments cleared him temporarily, but they are not a long term option.


We had a battery of blood tests (cost about £50,some years ago) which indicated a mild reaction to dust mites, but the vet thought there was something else, which we were unlikely to trace, as it's impossible to include everything in tests.


We treated for dust mites , gave him different bedding to no avail,so was told to try a hypo-allergenic food like Royal Canin.


They gave me a sample, which he loved (likes any food) and bought a sack, but it was very expensive ; again no effect, so I asked the vet nurse what would have been suggested had he not liked the sample and she replied 'JWB'....which I then bought as it's much cheaper.


Eventually we opted for Atopica, which is taken daily for two weeks,then gradually reduced to one a week, possibly for life. I was warned that some dogs are sick when first going on it, but soon settle.


Teddy was not sick and went onto one a week for a few years.


However, in the last year , he has been sick after the tablet, once in three weeks, so I have stopped them and he is stills scratching, bit not as bad ads before; no broken skin.


As both I and the vet suspected, some of his scratching is habit so he is easily distracted by 'lead on?','dinner','want?' or something else interesting.

dawnie1972

My dog (10yrs old) suffers with skin allergies - normally in the summer, last year she was on steroids so much so got pancreatitis. As a result she went onto Hills Prescription Diet Low Fat I/D food and this year only had one skin problem which cleared up with steroids. However a couple of weeks ago she had a really bad reaction, gnawed herself so raw until she was bleeding - she never gets a reaction this time of year. Vet gave her steroids, antibiotics and a medicated shampoo, it cleared up but now she's off the tabs she's all itchy again. I've also been told that her blood readings show that the steroids may have caused damage to her liver as her ALKP and ALT readings are high and nothing is decreasing them.

rising_from_the_ashes

Has your vet not prescribed anti-histamines anyway? Seems a bit odd if not

Speak to them first - like most things, it's trial and error - Piriton did absolutely nothing to help my dog's allergies (don't work for me either!) but I now get ones prescribed by the vet & they work well - and much cheaper too!

If you're going down the testing route, I'd also not play around with the food until the results are back (different if you're doing a home exclusion diet) as you might just pick something that has an allergen to him in it!

I had one of my dogs testsed but there were so many 'inconclusive' results (as well as + and - ones) that I wasn't really any further forward - I've done exclusion diets etc since and have got on much better

rising_from_the_ashes

antw23uk wrote: »

Feed him a raw diet with a weekly tin of cheap slides or sardines in oil. If you keep putting rubbish in him (would you eat fast food everyday of your life?) then with the combination of the wet weather, dry house from central heating ect you are going to get issues.


Raw food is a win win and cheaper and easier than you think. Good luck.

Depends what your dog is allergic / intolerant too - it doesn't suit them all!