Dog Community

Introducing myself and allergic beagle!

Posted : 9/22/2006 9:42:53 AM

Hi All!
SO glad I found this board. My name is Laura. I live in Tampa and have a VERY allergic Beagle (Ramsey, 2). my vet said it is the 2nd worse case she has seen. We have tried everything, had her tested--worst culprits (though there are many) are dust mites, dust and pollen--the 3 things you basically can not avoid.

Ramsey had been on shots but we discontinued them after a year as there were NO signs of improvement. She has been on predinsone (5 mg) pretty much daily since she was 7 months old. It is the ONLY thing that keeps her comfortable (along with fish oils, benadryl, weekly oatmeal baths). Luckily, her bloodwork has been perfect every time we have tested it (we do this every 6 months to monitor her).

She is on Atopica again now. We gave it a go a year ago and it didnt work. Well, my vet urged us to try again, but this time allowed us to keep Ramsey on the pred at the same time. Maybe I am imaginging things, but I feel like the itching may be getting slightly better. I'm gonna give the Atopica another month and then try to back off the pred and see how we do.

Anyway, I just wanted to say hello and thank you all for all the info you share here. it is SO hard having an allergic dog that you love so much. I have so many conflicts of having her on the pred (I know it is bad long term), but wanting her to be happy and not completely break the bank with tests, etc that have not worked up to this point.

I am so glad that she is handling the pred so well..we do have her on SAM-e and a whole body supplement, Maybe that is helping?

Anyway, any info helps and if anyone has questions regarding treamtnets, we have probably tried it at some point!

Thanks,
Laura and Ramsey

jessies_mom

Posted : 9/22/2006 10:28:21 AM

Welcome to idog; Your Beagle is adorable. [

] I agree; it so so hard having an allergy dog that you really love. I don't think I can offer much advice since you have already tried immunotherapy and are doing weekly baths. Did you ask your vet about the possibility of doing immunotherapy and prednisone together to see if it reduced the need for pred? One thing my vet suggested was an air purifier; maybe that would help. Have you tried Nusal-T shampoo; [linkrodID=1187]http://www.petrx.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&

rodID=1187[/link] >http://www.petrx.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&

rodID=1187]http://www.petrx.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&

rodID=1187[/link] It may help more than the oatmeal shampoo you're using now. I have good results with a shampoo and conditioner made by Virbac. The conditioner is a leave in conditioner with a steroid and it can be applied between baths if needed; it's called ResiCort. Cakana is using Atopica and may have some input about it. Have you ruled out a food allergy; besides environmental allergies Jessie is allergic to chicken. Blood tests are unreliable for food allergies so you would need to do an elimination diet or try a food without the same ingredients as the food she's eating now. Have you seen the threads about contact allergies to plants that are common in Florida like Wandering Jew and night blooming Jasmine? It may help if you could keep your dog from coming into contact with those plants.

jjsmom06

Posted : 9/22/2006 10:33:33 AM

Welcome Laura & Ramsey!

Sorry to hear about your baby having so many allergy problems [:'(]
Welcome to i-dog! I am sure you will have a lot of great info to share with all us other allergy sufferers from your experiences as well.
Glad you joined and Welcome to the forum! [

]

Gotta any pictures to share. . .we all love pics!

cakana

Posted : 9/22/2006 12:05:09 PM

Welcome Laura! Your beagle is adorable [

]. Unfortunately you qualify to join our allergy group [:@] but at least we're not alone right? I wish I had some great advice for you, but my path has been much like yours. I'm currently giving my lab, Sassy, Atopica too. We've been using it for about 6 weeks now and I have to say that it just might be working. I'm almost afraid to get my hopes up, but things are more stable than they've been in quite some time. My vet is a big proponent of Atopica vs. immunotherapy because she feels that the success rate is higher and the results are seen faster. I'm trusting that she's right and so for now, we'll stick with it. If it ends up not working though, we're going straight to the allergy shots.

I'm one who really believes in the benefits of frequent (weekly for us) bathing and we use the Nu Sal T shampoo and have really felt that it kept the itching in check for longer than any other shampoo. We also use benadryl daily and I think that helps also.

What food are you feeding? It never hurts to rule out food allergies if you haven't already. I tried a true elimination diet for Sassy this past spring. 12 weeks of only pork & buckwheat, no other treats or food whatsoever. I found that it didn't improve things one bit, but it cleared up the question in my mind. I feed Natural Balance Duck & Potato and Sassy seems to do best on that.

sallya

Posted : 9/22/2006 12:06:19 PM

Trudy is one of the worst cases of allergy my vets had seen. She is fine now. The Skin Testing, shots I give her, Hydroxizine antihistamine, and Natural Balance food did it for her. Did you see a dermatologist? Skin Testing? Yes, Pollen, dust and mites are the main causes for allergy for all of us and doggies.

What food are you feeding him? It is a hard job to help allergy doggies. I am sorry. Was the thyroid tested?

Christy J Wiebe

Posted : 9/22/2006 2:37:12 PM

Welcome.
I'm relatively new too. And unfortunately also qualify for this part of the forum.
This is a great site. People here are helpful as they have mostly already "done it" and offer some great words of experience.
My dog is a pitt mix that has been plagued since I got him at 4 months (that was six years ago). We finally seem to be on the right track and he has finally gotten some relief. He has been a nightmare (more for himself than for me. I can't imagine being that itchy all of the time...). I was literally just shy of [sm=banghead002.gif].... At one point I was going to put him down. He was so sickly. Any way, this site has been instrumental in facilitating his comfort level.
Nice to meet you.

Laura

Posted : 9/27/2006 11:43:01 AM

Hi All,
Thanks for your intial thoughts. I thought I would answer a few of the questions I got and ask one more of my own. Anybody else giving thier dog prednisone on a regular basis? if so, have you had any health problems as a result??

Yes, we tried shots for a year and saw no help. ramsey was on the pred at the same time so we did try that.

I will get NuSal-T shampoo and give that a go!We have genesis spray and resiCort cream at home as well.

Ramsey is on fish oil 2X day and benadryl 2X day.

We did visit a vet derm and she was fine but wanted to test her again--said dogs allergies can change with age etc. We just didnt want to tgo there again yet--expense!!

In terms of food, she is on Purina Pro Plan for Sensitive Skin and Stomachs (it is salmon mostly). ramsey is allergic to chicken and beef, so that makes things interesting!

sallya

Posted : 9/27/2006 12:01:12 PM

Did you do a skin test for allergy or the blood test? Skin is best. You can change antihistamines also.

Long term use of steriods isn't good. There are pills like Tavist with a tiny bit of steriod that is better than a lot of them, but long term it isn't the best.

Itching, infection and pain isn't good either of course. Allergy is SOOO Hard. I sympathize with you! I am so happy that the shots and the Hydroxyzine allergy pills work so well for Trudy.

Are the paws scaly/itchy? Any staph infections? Trudy that that and took some pills and that was gone quickly.