Hives - Allergy Problems

[georgiabrown]

Hello all, New member Here.

Georgia is a brindel boxer and she has come down with a serious case of hives, so I took her to the vet... antihistamine... no relief.

Take her back to the vet because she is miserable and I get a steroid shot to control the flare up which helps a little. They give me a stronger antihistamine that I have administered for the last week. Now the hives are bursting and scabbing over into lesions.

The vet has been absolutely no help at all and I question whether I should throw down another $200 for another, "I think this will do it, try it or come back and spend another $200 bucks and we'll try that until you're out of money for good."

I now think it may be something in her food, so I have taken it up and let her begin to fast for 48 hours (as I read on another thread) then I'm going to put her on rice & tuna for a few days to see if I can get it out of her system.

Anyone have a similar experience? Suggestions?

 

[Net45582]

Could be food allergy...or something else.How long has it been going on? What are the first 5 or 6 ingredients of the food you were feeding?

 

[ali-da-pooh]

Ali had the exact same problem. He would break out in hives and we finally took him to the vet and did an allergy test on him. It was $300 dollars we found out what was causing the hives and we got a printed list of what brands of dog food he could eat and what he should stay away from.
We found he was allergic to a lot of allergens in the air as well. He takes allergy shots for them once a month. They are about $150 per 6-7 months of shots. I would suggest doing the allergy test. I know it is a lot of money but at least you can find out what is causing the hives and avoid what ever the culprit is. We spent a lot of money trying to figure out what the cause was until we decided to do the allergy test. It may be something to consider. Hope you find the cause of the hives.

 

[SandyHG55654]

What kind of food do you give her? And have you given her any thing different since this started, switched brands anything like that? My dog is severly allergic to corn and does this but the good news is about 12 hours after eating it the hives go away. We always have to make sure the kids don't drop corn chips or cereal it's kinda tricky. Food allergies are common in Boxers I would check into that first! Allergy testing is a great idea if you're having that much trouble and the vet can't even figure it out!

 

[Ronin1]

A few years back, I had Ronin allergy tested and all of his triggers are environmental. He would break out in hives all over his belly and chest, got a yeast infection in his ears and he chewed at his feet all the time. I finally realized that I was spending a LOT of money just treating the symptoms (for antihistamines, antibiotics, etc). I too payed about $300 for the allergy test and had him on shots for about a year. Now I know what he is allergic to and do my best to avoid the things that trigger his symptoms Good luck in whatever you decide to do and I hope you can find some relief for Georgia

 

[courtney323]

Definitely try a bland diet (boiled chicken & white rice) for a few days to see if that helps.

What brand were you feeding her, and have you considered a limited ingredient (high quality) allergy food?

It could be environmental or food-related. If the diet change doesn't solve your problem, you may consider allergy testing.

Good luck!

 

[georgiabrown]

Thanks Yall

I couldn't keep her on the fasting, had to give her something so I gave her some tuna and white rice, she ate it up... got it all over the place in the process. They're so funny.

Anyways, then I took her to the park and gave her a medicated bath and a benedryl afterward.

I was feeding her the big blue bag of adult IAM's formula from Sam's. I think I grabbed a different formula this time because that was about three to four weeks ago and come to think of it that is when she started acting weird. And, I've cut out everything else and she is still getting more hives so that's the only thing it could be.

I'll try this for a couple of days and then go with that petco specialized formula for boxer's I guess. Boxer 26, anyone try that before? I've had her on it before but it's really pricey. I dunno, I just feel like I get hosed everytime I take her to the vet and then I have the same problem again. Just fix it already, it's not rocket science it's an allergy!

Let me know of any other ideas and I'll keep you posted on how she's doing. I'll probably get the allergy test eventually.

 

[Ronin1]

I haven't heard anything about Petco's Boxer 26? There are two really great "Sticky" threads by Gmcleod in the feeding forum. One is about choosing "a good dry dog food" and the other is "dog food reviews and ratings". Both of these threads are real eye openers and are worth reading. There are also many threads in this forum from people who feed premium foods and they might give you some other ideas on foods to try for a dog with allergies. Good luck with narrowing it all down - I know how frustrating it can be

 

[KarleesMom]

Your girl could have a combination of food allergies as well as environmental allergies. In my experience diet can be controlled much easier than the environment so I would work on diet first. Once you get the food allergies under control the body can handle the environmental allergens much easier.

Iams is not the food it once was and buying the biggest cheapest bag of food will cost you more in vet bills than if you spend a few extra dollars on a “Super Premium” food. I speak from first hand experience…. Please learn from my experience…

Preparing meals for your dog is a wonderful way to feed and I highly recommend feeding fresh raw foods. However many of us have such a busy lifestyle that it’s hard to do all the preparation, plus making sure we prepare a complete diet is tough too. But we have several options these days…

If it were my dog I would put her on a raw diet or try to feed her at least 50% of her diet as raw. I have seen benefit from as little as 25% raw added to a dogs diet. There are several very good brands of complete & supplemental raw diets out i.e. Natures Variety, Raw Advantage, FarMore, Northwest Naturals, and Bravo. These are the ones I have experience with and can speak first hand as to the benefits in feeding them. NOW I know there are those of you that do not want to go raw or have fears of feeding raw, I felt the very same way several years ago. But after seeing the change first hand in a friends dogs and the over all health benefits I became brave and ventured into the world of raw feeding and haven’t looked back.

If your just not up to doing the raw thing there are some very good kibble/dry food options too. My #1 choice would be Eagle Pack Holistic Select in ether Duck or Fish as these are protein sources your dog has most likely not been exposed to. My next choices would be Natures Variety Venison or Solid Gold Wolf King kibble, also protein sources your dog has most likely not been exposed to. *See allergies are developed by over exposure and with this in mind please rotate your protein sources, i.e. feed a bag of Duck, then get Fish, then Venison, then maybe Lamb or Bison and back around to Duck again… Many of these brands have frequent feeder programs and coupons that can be down loaded to help with cost you just need to look into them. Feeding these types of food is much less expensive than a vet bill…

I really good book I recommend reading is “See Spot Live Longer” by Steve Brown & Beth Taylor. It explains just how food allergies work… I hope this helps…

 

[gmacleod]

Iams, I'm afraid, is a very low quality dog food and switching to something better is a very good idea. But I really would not recommend you change to the Boxer 26 (which is made by Royal Canin, not by Petco). It may be marketed as "specially designed for boxers" but it is very little different to any other food in that range - and happens to be filled with some of the most common food allergy causing ingredients known to dog. It has wheat (the number one cause of allergies), corn and beet pulp in there. The only one of the major culprits missing is soy!

If you have an allergic dog, or one that ever suffers from yeast infections, you really need to avoid those ingredients. Wheat, soy, corn, beet pulp and molasses - they'll do more harm than good for your dog. Avoid anything with by-products, chemical preservatives, or grain fragments as well. It's junk.

There are far better foods carried by many Petcos than that At www.boxerworld.com/feeding there is some good information to help you assess the quality of a dog food. No food can magically be any better than the ingredients used to make it, and that page tells you what to look for, what to avoid, and why. And at www.dogfoodanalysis.com you can compare the ingredients of different brands, as well as get a general opinion on those ingredients/foods.

If you'd like some suggestions on brands, I would think that California Natural, Fromms Four Star or Natural Balance could be very good choices.