Suspected Allergy Please Advise

[Mikejo]

Hi guys I don't know if you remember but a while ago I posted saying that Shankly had an allergy. Well since that post there have been a few developments. Firstly my normal vet referred me to a specialist in skin problems who I went to see on Monday. He said that Shankly does have a allergy and in order to find out what she is allergic to we have to firstly do a food test. He prescriped a dry food called Hills ZD science plan. (Not sure if you can get this in the US). We have to keep her on this for 4 weeks and if she is no better then he will do an allergy test. I'm sure its not a food allergy but I will do the test. Unfortunatly Shankly doesn't really like dry food and getting her to eat it will be quite hard. Anyway thats the backgroud what I'm really asking is has anyone else's dog had a similar allergy and found out what the dog was allergic to. The main place that she scratches is her neck and the back of her front legs. She will scratch so much she will break the skin. We are constanly giving her tablets to stop the itch but she is building up a tolerance to them, and I don't like giving her them anyway. I know that she is not affected by grass pollen because she sratches during the winter and the scratching is constant from morning to night so its nothing in her bed etc.

Someone please help.

 

[Storri]

It could be that Shankly is allergic to something in your home invironment. It could be the carpet, detergant used to clean the carpet, bedding (try washing all bedding Shankly comes in contact with in a baby detergant...including yours if Shankly sleeps with you). Do you bathe Shankly often? Could be shampoo. Try and use a hypoallergenic non-soap based shampoo. The list can go on and on, but try an eliminate some of the above mentioned items first. It is not expensive to switch those few items. If you have recently cleaned your carpets with a detergant based cleaner, you may want to have them steam cleaned to remove that stuff form your carpets.

These are all issues that I am dealing with right now and I just bought the baby detergant today. They were suggested to me by my breeder. I go to a new vet tomorrow to get their opinion and to see what else I need to do.

If they give me some great thing to try, I will let you know and maybe you could give it a try too.

Good Luck!

 

[Lisa M]

Sumi (my lab mix) has had lots of food allergies and has been on Iams, Nutro, Eukanuba and Science Diet Perscriptions as well. It is no wonder why - the main food allergies they develop are from corn, soybeans and other cheap filler grains found in most "premium" foods - including science diet. After doing lots of research with the help of many board members , I've place both of mine on Solid Gold food. They use food that is human grade, and they use no preservatives and avoid the allergy causing fillers that are usually the top ingredients in other foods.

Visit http://www.solidgoldhealth.com to learn more about the food and ingredients. And you can compare theirs to Science Diet's web site which lists its ingredients as well.

The way I saw it - why do tests to find out what she's allergic to when I can just put her on a food formulated to aviod all of the allergy causing ingredients that uses human grade food and does not contain cancerous preservatives!

The dogs are both thriving and so far Sumi is much less itchy - they get Hund N Flocken kibbles with a bit of warm water, a table spoon of yogurt, a sea meal supplement and I also add a bit of freeze dried beef on top for the spoiled brats!

 

[Storri]

I too am using Solid Gold Hund-N-Flocken with Seameal, Bee Pollen and Vitamin C in hopes of helping my boy with his allergies. He has only been on it for about 4 weeks and I have not seen any change yet. But I also know it takes a little bit longer than that to see results.....so we are still waiting. I love the food though and so does Joe. He has never eaten so well

I still am going to try the environment changes and see if I get any results from that.

My breeder suggested that I put him on a venison only diet also, but I am not convinced yet that that is what I need to do. I will wait and see what the vet says tomorrow.

 

[Sasha's Mom]

Couldn't have said it better myself!

I agree with Lisa and Storri Right now, Sasha's on a prescription food (Walthams selected protein) for treatment of colitis, which our vet feels is due to food allergies. I've been reading up on the Solid Gold products and they sound good enough for me to eat! In addition to the Hund-N-Flocken (which lots of my friends feed their dogs who LOVE it), they now have a dry food called holistique blendz that is semi-vegetarian (fish is the only protein). Since we've determined that this is one protein she can tolerate, we're going to start with it once we get the go-ahead from our vet to take her off the prescription food.

BTW, Storri, you're right - I'm pretty sure that I read on their website that it can sometimes take at least four weeks for them to kind of detox from what they were eating before. I hope it works for you.

Good luck!

Susan
lovicon

 

[pep0987]

Bailey also has food allergies. My vet said that the most common food allergies in dogs are beef, corn,soy, and wheat.
Bailey has problems with beef. Since we found out we have switched to Nurto Natural Choice Large Breed puppy Lamb&rice.
I could not belive how well Bailey likes this food. NOw he has no problems with the rashs or the sores he got on his chin from the rawhide bones, eveen though hi misses them. :(

 

[buddy'smom]

My male also had an allergy. After doing a lot of research on the food he was eating, we located the culprit as being the pork fat the company was using in their product. We then had to put him on a lamb and rice forumula, but we needed to locate a company that would guarantee no trace of pork in their lamb and rice line. It seems a lot of companies 6 years ago did not run a separate line for their lamb products. We finally located one and Buddy remained on their product for the next 6 years and did fine. I now have Kailee on Holistic Blend to try and prevent any medical conditions that could be caused from fillers and preservatives in food. As well it was important to me to know where the source of the meat was coming from. She has been on it now for about 6 weeks and she looks wonderful. I can tell she also feels good just by the way she plays and her whole demeanor.
One thing that I also found with Buddy was, he would break out in hives whenever I used any carpet fresheners on the rugs. You may be surprised what environmental issues could affect allergic reactions in your pets. I switched to using just plain old baking soda to rid of odours. It worked and he didn't react to it.

 

[Dnmeistr]

My Reeses was exactly the same way, and I can relate to how frustrating it is going through the process of finding out what is causing the allergy. I just about tried everything short of getting her skin tested (lots of money) or using prescription dog food, I had her on Solid Gold, Cal. Natural, Natures Recipe and last one was Science Diet skin allergy and none of them had any effect, the back of her ears where she would scratch was bald, her front for legs where she would constantly lick and scratch at were beat red. Every visit to the vet wasn't working they put her on allergy pills one of them had side effects where it made her go pee quite often like every two hours. I live in a TownHouse and that was just not going to work since I can only come home for lunch during the day and she couldn't even make it through the night without having to go. Finally I was going to give this vet clinic one more chance before switching vets and I got an older guy who was going to retire the next week he took one look at her and looked at the previous visits and just shook his head saying these new kids coming out of vet school just don't get it that the allergy pills rarely work. He gave her a shot I can't remember what it was allergy, cortisone something like that, I'll look it up when I get home. It has been a 1 1/2 months now and the shot is only supposed to last a month and she is 100% better, hair is growing back behind her ears and forelegs. The shot did make her go pee more often for the first week but not nearly as bad as the allergy pills. I feed her Nutros and a food supplement that I bought from the vet that you squirt on her food and smells real nasty (fish oil) but she likes it. To sum all this up, have the vet give her an allergy shot, they charged me like $20 - $30 for it and by far much cheaper than a skin test.

Dennie

 

[Coco's Mom]

Mikejo, I know just how you feel!! I am going thru the same thing with Coco,and it is driving me nuts !!!She scratches in the same spots,but also the tips of her ears have dry scabby spots. I have had her to the vet several times and have the shots,the pills(which make her pee all the time) have tried the zd diet for 2 and a half months didnt do a thing for her but cost me alot of money(although she is worth every penny) I had them do skin scrapping to test for over growth of yeast,came back a little high but not to far out of range. I am at my wits end,my next step is either a holistic vet or a dermatoligist, which is not real close for me. My vet said he could do a simple allergy test,but I would probally have to go see a dermatoligst. Does Shankly have a different smell other than dog? Coco seems to smell different than the usual doggy odor,and I swear it is because of yeast,she also seems to get vaginitus(milky discharge from her bottom) every so often.Please keep me posted if you find out anything and i will do the same.

 

[caro]

My dog eat eukanuba lamb&rice because he has a food allergie.
Now he is good.