Questions for people who have dogs with allergies

[Scarlette]

I took Mirra and Scarlette to the vet today (Helen and Sydnee go on Friday) for vaccinations, heart worm testing, and for Mirra to have allergy testing done and have a bump examined on her nose (not only am I worrying about Scarlette having tumors, Mirra has some type of lump on the bridge of her nose ). I noticed since spring has rolled around she has really had a bad flare up. She had a couple of ear infections this winter but we put that Zymox Otic in them and they clear up. Now both of her ears look like crap and she digs them so much that they bleed. Her feet are red from licking and she's got a nasty rash in the thigh/groin area. I said enough is enough, do the allergy testing so they drew some blood today.

My question is this: What if the tests come back inconclusive? Jeff's cousin has a Lab that has terrible allergies. She's constantly itching and scratching but her tests came back inconclusive so the dog is constantly on steroids because they don't know what she's allergic to.

What if the test comes back as dust mites, pollen, ect? How do you protect your dog from that stuff?

Maybe I should stop worrying about it until I get the test results back (which could be up to 2 weeks).

Why oh why do I keep getting more dogs. Between Scarlette's tumors, Mirra's apparent allergies, Helen being a psychotic couch nazi, and Sydnee just being a little snot......I NEED A VACATION!

[Denise]

Rhonda, spring time is the perfect season for allergy flare ups. I have to closely monitor Molly right now because this is when she is more prone to ear infections and licking her paws.

I may get flamed for this but I don't vaccinate my dogs. Vaccinations compromise the immune system and there have been many articles citing the negative side affects vaccinations have.

Jeff's cousin is doing more harm than good by keeping his lab on steriods. That makes the situation worse IMO.

Rhonda, wait until the test results come back. The pit bull forum I belong to has a wealth of information about allergies. In fact, there is one member whose pit bull has allergies so bad that he can't go outside without his feet bleeding and getting pussy.

Hang in there.

[Scarlette]

Quote: Originally Posted by Denise Jeff's cousin is doing more harm than good by keeping his lab on steriods. That makes the situation worse IMO.

But what are the other options? The dog was maxed out on Benadryl with no relief and since the tests were inconclusive they don't know what she's allergic to.

My vet kept talking about putting Mirra on steroids and I hope it would just be a temporary thing. She said she doesn't like to do it but sometimes it has to be done to keep the flare ups under control.

Right now I'm giving Mirra benadryl tablets every 8 hours and it seems to help at the moment.

[Mygala]

Quote: Originally Posted by Scarlette What if the test comes back as dust mites, pollen, ect? How do you protect your dog from that stuff? Maybe I should stop worrying about it until I get the test results back (which could be up to 2 weeks).

Depending on what your dog's allergic to, ...you can't protect them. Mine is allergic to grass pollens and mold. I have an acre of grass around the house.....

For some of the year, she is just as you describe: red feed from licking, constantly scratching... She gets a steroid shot whenever the itching/scratching get too bad. We realize it's possibly shortening her life, but it's worth it to keep her comofortable.

We have her on TEMARIL-P, and she'll likely be on it for the rest of her life. It controls her itching better than anything else we've ever tried. We vary the dosage, depending on the time of the year, and the severity of her symptoms.

Just wait until you get the tests back, worrying now won't help. It could be easier to deal with than you might imagine, ...it can hardly be worse, since you already don't know what the cause is....

Good luck
bob

[HappyDancer]

my dog Lady has allergies to...we keep the house as dust free as possible with an air purifier (for her and my daughter lol) and we use all the anti-allergy things to clean with...even bought a new vaccum to cut down on the dust...when shes outside and her allergies are particulary bad we put socks on her feet to try and avoid her feet getting bad on the grass and we tend to limit her time outside on the grass...when we take her out to play we take her to my grandmas and she plays out in the shop (very very large open area) so shes not on the grass...she takes her pills but we haven't gotten her any steroids shots as of yet...

we have to keep the house pretty sterile for my daughters health issues so LAdy benifits from that... this year she has had no major attacks from her allergies and the doc is pretty happy with how well shes been doing, never bites her feet any more and no more itchy skin

[millie121]

I was a little confused on how blood tests could be inconclusive, I thought that was a failing of skin tests, primarily. In any case, while I was looking some stuff up, I came across this handy link. It's really geared for a particular brand of allergy test kit, but besides that it gives some really nice background on veterinary allergies.

It also gives pros/cons of skin/blood testing, as skin testing would be something you could consider if the blood tests weren't all that helpful. You'd probably have to go to a specialist though. Anyone ever had skin tests done on an animal? Sounds like it might not be a whole lot of fun, but dealing with allergies isn't fun either.

http://www.allergyvet.co.uk/PDF%20fo...4%20120207.pdf

I hope the blood tests narrow it down for you though, and there's something you can readily do for her!

[Mel]

Mine has food allergies, so I just feed her fancy schmancy food. Solid Gold, yay!

I don't know what to tell you about that though. Good luck!

[corgimom]

All three of mine have mild allergies (Ein and Tucker much worse than Colleen). They only flare up in spring and fall, so we're pretty sure they are pollen and/or grass allergies. Ein and Tucker have both been on Temaril-P for short periods of time and they both did really well on it.

[Scarlette]

The Benadryl seems to be making her feel bad. The vet tech said that Benadryl normally doesn't make dogs sleepy like it does with humans but I've noticed a change in her activity level since giving it to her. It probably doesn't help that she just came into heat though.

No results yet, probably one more week of waiting.

[Mel]

Really? My vet said Benadryl WOULD make them sleepy. :/ Maybe its different for different dogs.

Good luck. Oatmeal baths?

[Scarlette]

I got the results back today. Mirra is allergic to everything except 3 of the items on the list. Her allergy levels to ragweed and dust mites were the highest my vet has ever seen in her career. We're going to try doing the allergy shots and see if it works for her. We also have to freeze her food for a week prior to feeding it to her due to her high allergy levels to grain mites. As far as ragweed, pollen, dust mites, ect there's not much you can do. The vet said we could live in a stainless steel house and still have dust mites.

So, I guess we'll have to see how the allergy shots work for her. They have to be ordered so hopefully we'll have them in the next few weeks.

[millie121]

Good Luck! My co-worker's cat has responded exceedingly well to her allergy shots. She was literally bald and scabby in places due to her allergies, and is now completely grown back in with hair, and not itching anymore, though it took a couple of months. They started with shots every few days, then it was every other week, now it's every 3 weeks.

I hope Mirra responds just as well the kitty!!

[HappyDancer]

poor Mirra...I get shots every week for alergies to lol so Mirra will be like me I am alergic to everything to...