calliecritturs
Posted : 9/22/2010 3:33:12 PM
I'm seeing CONTACT allergy -- see the red edged lips?? most of the damage is places she'd rub -- face/eyes, belly where exposed (especially if she's lying on something).
Things like poison oak, wandeirng jew (anybody have houseplants?), and there are a million other things that can cause contact allergy. It's not something vets look for usually -- it can be hard to diagnose. Then once the skin is irritated then you get 100 other things that add on (increased exposure to external atopic allergens -- that will make it cycle worse at certain times of the year altho it never goes away b/c the contact allergen is usually something IN the house that has been tracked onto the rug/floors so every time she lies down it worsens it)
Most allergy foods (particularly Hills Z-Diet -- and I don't know how close that one is to Z-Diet) CONTAIN all sorts of allergens -- but the food itself is hydrolized into such tiny particles that the body isn't supposed to absorb them the same way.
The ONLY way to know if food allergies are a part of it is to actually do an elmination diet which takes consistency and dedication AND TIME on the part of the owners.
There can ALSO be a huge fungal part of it -- simply because distressed skin is so wide open to any sort of fungus/yeast. They can get strange things like that from puddles and anything they walk thru (including a walk in the woods).
Bathing her and clearing her environment of contact allergens would be the place where *I* would start. It's not just one bath -- but probably having her lie on white sheets (like just cheap cheap sheets that can be laundered daily in mild soap and something to cut oil).
See the dog didn't have to get into it originally -- someone who was out tramping thru a field who got poison oak on their boots (and humans don't always react to poison oak themselves) -- they come in and track it thru the house and the dog lies down next to them or rubs up next to where the boots rested against the front of a sofa or something. Once the dog gets it on THEIR skin and they rub their face, back, etc. on the carpet (because they're itchy) and that further spreads the oil.
Literally contact allergies just keep spreading -- or it could be something like whatever they use to clean their carpets or kitchen floor -- generally it's something that has an oil in it -- either a leaf that gets bruised and the oil transfers that way, or it can be inside something else that's used.
For ME, personally, things like manilla file folders and paper are contact allergens (and yeah, I'm a frigging legal secretary). But when I pick up a manilla file folder it actually *burns* my skin and normal people don't react like that when they touch it.
I ate something at dinner last night that blew me out in hives big time and I don't even know what it was!!! I know it was something I consumed but it didn't react on my skin for a couple of hours. And suddenly my ankles were blood red, full of tiny red bumps and I was ready to jump out a window (but my house only has one floor *sigh*).
THAT was a food allergy. The two can look SO similar -- and one can affect the other. Cos once the skin is sore it's SO open to anything else that comes along.
If they're interested have them email me -- and I'll make some suggestions. But the face and belly, TO ME, look particulalry like contact allergy.