allergies/bumps/hives

[Rockzy's Mom]

Rockzy my 4 y/o boxer has had bumps for about 6 weeks now. She gets them all over and we give her benadryl for it. We have taken her to the vet and he prescribed new food for her but it does not seem to be working. It is going on 3 weeks that she has been on the new food. When the bag is gone I want to try something different. I am thinking of cooking her chicken and rice and veggies. I really don't want to do the raw diet. Right now I am too busy to deal with that. Should I give her supplements or something to try to clear up the bumps. The vet said I could do the allergy tests but said they are not really that accurate. They are also expensive. Rockzy is now eating a duck and potato food. I noticed her coat is feeling very greasy. Could it be from the food change? My vet really thinks the bumps come from an allergy of some sort but could it be a different problem? I am at my wits end with this. I feel so bad for Rockzy. They only seem to bother her on the top of the head. She does not loose hair or anything and the bumps come and go. Any suggestions?

 

[Beausolei]

Try canned food. My Beau had dry irritated skin to where he was scratching off patches. 3 weeks of cannd food did the trick, but I still feed it to him everyday. He gets about 2 cups of dry Iams in the morning, and a 13 oz can in the in the evening.
I have a freind who had a lab that had a very serious loss of hair on the underside of his neck and going to his undercarriage on his chest, and 2 months of canned food has cleared up most of it. 5 years and thousands of dollars at the vet didn't fix what an increase of about 20 a month on the pet food bill did.

 

[courtney323]

We have taken her to the vet and he prescribed new food for her but it does not seem to be working

What food has your Vet prescribed - can you post the ingredients?

Allergies can be either food-related or environmental. It's sort of tough to figure out which it is, but just changing over to the Vet's food will likely not solve anything. You need to figure out WHAT she is allergic to, and avoid that. Most commonly, it is grains. However, it could also be a meat source.

I would be inclined to switch her over to a premium quality kibble, if you are not interested in BARF.

Read this article for more information on dog food ingredients, and choosing a premium quality kibble:

www.boxerworld.com/feeding

 

[Rockzy's Mom]

I am at work so i don't have the ingredient list but it is a limited ingredient food. I know the base is duck and potato. I will look at the other ingredients when I get home. I know it only had like 4 ingredients though. Before we switched her food she was on purinaone lamb and rice which had a ton of ingredients. I really don't think the allergy is environmental since I was away for 2 weeks and she stayed at my mom's and still got hives there.

 

[brucew]

HIves

My Ruby had Hives

I posted a short description od wahtr worked for me

I think the diet is the key, try the cooked chicken mince and rice.

Also have a good look around to check your dog isnt eating anything unusual from the garden. My girl had a bad habbit of eating any sort of fruit leaves etc.

I tried canned food but it made her worse.

Good luck.

 

[flossy1960]

hives

a couple of years ago i had to take shila to the vets.her face swelled up and looked like she had been 10 rounds with mike tyson!the vet said she must be allergic to the pollen in a certain part of the wood that i walk her.since then she no longer goes to this particular wood and she hasn't had it since!perhaps it is just something as simple as that!i hope so
good luck

 

[schipman]

Keep working with your vet on the allergy issues. You may find, as we did with Rocky, that there is more than one thing causing the reaction. With Rocky it is a whole variety of foods plus some environmental things like pollen and weeds.

We have been through a number of foods - be sure to read the entire ingredient list - as some "lamb and rice" formulas still contain some wheat products, etc. Rocky cannot tolerate any beef or wheat products. Watching his diet closely (even treats) has really helped. As for the pollen and weed allergies we treat with allergy pills during the summer season (short here in WI)

Good luck.

 

[vgndutch]

Bumps

Duchess has suddenly developed bumps all over her neck, some on her head and shoulders. I can only think it is allergies to something that is now blooming outside. I know she hasn't eaten anything she shouldn't have, and I supervise her time outside since I don't have a fence, but she loves to go sniff around the yard and the yard is enclosed by many types of trees and shrubs. I asked the vet about it on Friday 3/4 and said to give her benydril. It seemed to help some. The bumps don't seem to bother her, just me - worrying about her. She looks like she's contracted the mumps!!

 

[Angie K]

You could try the Chicken & Rice Diet for a while to clean out her system. We had to do that with our girl when she had Pancreatitis (sp?) She also had hives severly 2 other times. It took a good 3 wks of benedryl to get rid of them. We never figured out the cause. We think she may have been bitten by some kind of bug or spider in the grass or something. But the things we tried were to stop everything, treats etc. then after they went away we would introduce one thing at a time and see if she reacted with hives. Alot of the treats or biscuits have wheat etc. in them and we never think of them. Also the detergent you use to wash their blankets etc. Ultimately for our girl we ended up switching her to Nutro Natural food for Sensitive Stomach, that was the only one that she seemed to have normal bowl movements and was not throwing up with because of the pancreatitis. Good Luck

 

[Slobber Baby]

Same problems with allergies

I understand we went back and forth to the vet and we finally narrowed it down, in your dog house is there cedar shavings? If so a lot of boxers are allergic to the oils in them change them to pine needles. Also an all vegeterian diet he gets carrots for treats and is doing a lot better. If we could find a rawhide for him it would help. Hope this helps!!!