shallhb

Pearl very itchy almost all the time--it's gotten increasingly bad as she's gotten older. The only thing that seems to really help it is prednisone, and I hate to give her that on a routine basis. She was on Wellness fish and sweet potatoe diet for awhile, and that didn't dent it. Every so often I see a post somewhere that someone has tried allergy testing and shots for their dog, and it helped considerably. My vet doesn't seem very excited about them. Any one out there tried them for their dog? What kind of results did you have?

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Sharon Hall

Grace (puppy in training)
Bella, UD, VER, TD, RE, CGC
Pearl,UD, TDX, RE, CGC (Waiting at the Bridge)
Samantha, Theodore, CGC, Louella, Zeke and Arty, Bassets All; (All Waiting at the Bridge)

murraysmom

Murrays allergies got really bad last year. He was biting at himself all the time and had hotspots frequently. I tried all kinds of things and finally out of desperation we did try allergy shots. The first few went OK, then he started to develop hives after he was injected, so we stopped. Here are some things I do now which seem to help: I wash his bedding in hot water only, no soap. He eats Wellness Fish and Sweet Potato, along with pumpkin, brown rice, lentils and a little fish of some kind. He only gets a bath when he really needs it; in fact I think he has only had 3 in his entire life, his coat is very soft and shiny and he does not have a hound odor. He gets yogurt every day and I think this has helped his yeast problems in general and his ears in particular. He had strange immune reactions to his yearly shots so we are doing yearly titres now and only vaccinating when the levels show that he needs it.He developed an allergy to Advantage after using it for more than a year;now he is on Frontline which he is tolerating with no problems so far. As you can see, Murray is definitely my 'Allergy Boy'. I've been helped many times by the folks on this board, and hope something I've written here is of some help to you.

[ February 04, 2005, 12:08 PM: Message edited by: murraysmom ]

Betsy Iole

From what I read, about half of dogs will improve to some degree with hyposensitization injections. Bugsie has had terrible allergies since the age of 2. We gave the injections a couple of trials but found they weren't that helpful.

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Betsy, Mom to
CH Bugle Bay's Sin City Caper UD RE TD BHCA-VC
CH Bugle Bay's Sin City Cuppa Joe TD
CH Bugle Bay's AllUCanEat Buffet CDX RN TDX NA CGC BHCA-VCX, 1996-2008
"Bugsie" UDX NA NAJ CGC, 1991-2006

Anonymous

my guy has a million allergies also. i also don't like prednisone (spelling) he was eating a perscription food from the vet limited ingred. venison and potatoe, which helped now he decided he doesn't like it and is also on whitefish and potatoes benedryl does help him to some degree and the vet said he could have it 2x a day and many days i do give it to him occaisionally he gets a shot to get it under control, but to tell you the truth i don't know what it is my vet is basically holistic and i think he makes concoctions back there!!!!!

momlady

My CJ was allergy tested about 2 years ago. His identified environmental allergies were pine, bermuda, mugwort, plantain, lamb's quarter, birch, mulberry, timothy, D farinae, cladosporium, peicillium and alternaria. His identified food allergies are corn, fish and brewers yeast. He was on a schedule of hyposensitization injections that began with one every other day. He now takes one every 3 weeks plus he takes 1 to 2 chlorpheniramine per day and thyroxin twice a day to primarily help his coat. Usually in the spring and fall, we have to go back to injections every week.

When we rescued him from a backyard, he had hardly any coat and was a raw bloody mess. He now has a shiny soft coat but even with all the meds, he still gets the itchies and sometimes chews his paws bloody.
Here he is now.


[ February 04, 2005, 08:51 PM: Message edited by: momlady ]

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Karen, Queen Charlotte, CJ and Samantha Arabella Rose

Anonymous

he's adorable

Wayne

Our old lab has had allergies for several years. The vet started giving her cortizone shots and it helps for maybe a month. We tried putting her on a Nutro brand feed for older dogs and allergies but after 2 weeks she stopped eating it. When she needs it we take her to the vet and get another shot.

shallhb

Thanks everyone. It sounds kind of iffy, but maybe worth a try if the itching continues to get worse. BTW, CJ is seriously cute.

[ February 05, 2005, 07:44 PM: Message edited by: S. Hall ]

__________________
Sharon Hall

Grace (puppy in training)
Bella, UD, VER, TD, RE, CGC
Pearl,UD, TDX, RE, CGC (Waiting at the Bridge)
Samantha, Theodore, CGC, Louella, Zeke and Arty, Bassets All; (All Waiting at the Bridge)