Allergies - Help Please

[Tally's mum]

Okay - so Tally has been suffering with her skin/ears since March. On loads of antibiotics, steriods, antihistamines, creams and gels.

Blood tests have just come back and vet has told us its allergies to house dust mites and storage mites (these are found at the bottom of things like bags of dried foods!).

Can give an injection to vacinate against but over £100 per month - way too expensive.

Anyone any ideas that may help. It has cleared up a little since we changed her to a diet of pork and potatoes, but still not great.

Any help or advice appreciated.

 

[PearlBoxer]

Ok what are you feeding her on? Is it a raw diet or a commercial feed? What where you feeding her on? First pork is not that good for boxers they don't do well on it. There's other things to consider like the places you walk with her, is it in fields if so do they spray the fields? What treats do you give her? Sorry for all the questions but I need more info to be able to help

 

[Rocky Hoya]

I agree pork is not a good food. Try a lamb and rice food high quality. No treats. The blood work I am assuming was allergy tests. Our friends fur baby had a lot of ear problems too. It turns out he is allergic to protein (meats) so he is on an all vegetable dog food and special treats and he has done 100 percent better. We have had our share of allergy related problems too and what I have done to cut back on the dust mites is we bought hypoallergenic air filter for some of the rooms and main rooms. Its great for everyone. good luck and keep us posted.

 

[RamonasMom]

Since I am not familiar with exchange rates, I will post what we charge at work ( I am a vet tech for a vet dermatologist). In regards to food (and again, I'm not sure if you have this), we suggest IVD (Innovative Veterinary Diets) brand diets such as Venison and Potato, Duck and Potato,or Whitefish and Potato. Feed ONLY the diet - no treats, rawhides,etc. Then our allergy tests/ELISA test is $198. From these results, we formulate a hyposensitization vaccine which is $155. The vaccine should last 4-6 months depending upon the amount and how often you give the vaccine. The general maintenance dose is 0.5cc every week to every 2 weeks depending on what your dog's symptoms are. Did the allergy test only come up positive to the mites or did she have some milder reactions to weeds, grass, molds? If so, you could wipe her off with baby wipes when she comes in from outside to keep her from absorbing those allergens. Once you get the allergy under control (whether it be food or environment - and many dogs have both), she should be feeling much better.

 

[spud's mum]

I don't know if this helps but Spud has food-related allergies and we have had him on an elimination diet, feeding him only Wafcol Salmon and potato, and he's done very well on it. He still has occasional flare-ups which we think at the moment are due to pollen/grass because of the sudden hot weather. On the advice of Indy B's Mom ( Thankyou so much, Jody, thankyou, thankyou! ) we found an oatmeal shampoo which really eased his itchy skin and made him feel a lot better. I hope some of this helps. We're still finding our way when it comes to managing Spud's allergies and I know how awful it can be to see your baby suffering in this way. Good luck!

 

[boxer]

An allergy formula food is unlikely to help if the problem is dust/storage mites that exist in the bottom of food bags. Those foods are designed to help food allergies (like being allergic to wheat or corn or chicken) - and they do so by NOT containing ingredients like that. They do not, however, contain greater or lesser amounts of dust than other dry dog foods.

Actually, I would be a little concerned about the idea of storage mites in food at all. They mean things like weavels, or what? LOL

If the problem here is mites, then the reality is that the problem is more likely to be environmental (ie. your house) than food related. I'm not sure what you can do about that - other than very regular vacuuming and cleaning to keep dust, and hence dust mite, levels down.

If you do want to address the food issue though, then I wouldn't waste my time on trying to find an allergy-formula food. Not unless she has allergies to ingredients in the food, anyway. Instead, you might find it more effective to just not feed dry food - try a raw or canned food diet instead.

Incidentally - there is nothing wrong with feeding pork, and boxers are no different to any other breed of dog when it comes to which meats are appropriate to feed. Many raw feeders feed it regularly. Just a case of using standard meat hygiene rules, including freezing the meat for several days prior to feeding.