Dog Community

Advice on the itchies...

Posted : 12/28/2006 10:32:26 AM

Wow there are alot of posts about itchy skin and allergies....
Come on now people...
GET YOUR DOG ALLERGY TESTS!!!! If you suspect allergies insist that your vet give your dog a comprehensive allergy test. Vets usually do not offer them right off. Some vets do not offer them at all...in which case you need a new vet. For some unknown reason vets seem to always go for the trial and error, hit and miss, approach to treating itchiness. If your dog has had a skin scraping...and fungus and other illness has been ruled out...get an allergy test. It is up to you to protect your dogs health. If it were your kid and the doc was just throwing pills at the kid without a real diagnosis you would be making some demands of that doctor...demand the same from your vet!
On of our foster homes personal dogs just had a allergy test....you would believe the things he was allergic to...mice, corn, grass, fly excrement....my point is that a good allergy test covers everything from food allergies to cockroaches.
many allergy cures are as simple as a change of foods...or eliminating certian treats...but you cannot know what to do until you know what the dog is allergic to!!!!

just throwing treatments at your dog to see if it helps will do one thing...make your dog less healthy. As an example...one of our rescues has an allergy to corn. His vets solution was to put him on styeriods when he has an outbreak. Steriods are dangerous. All he really needed was a food without corn. The vet, treating the symptom instead of the illness, risked his liver and kidneys when all he needed was a better quality food. Does not make much sense does it?

jessies_mom

Posted : 12/28/2006 10:45:09 AM

I agree with you about the allergy testing except for food allergies; the veterinary dermatologist Jessie sees believes blood testing for food allergies is inaccurate and the only way to determine if a dog has food allergies is with an elimination diet. My experience with our former vet is as you describe; it got to the point where Jessie was in almost continual discomfort from foot and ear infections; she even had a severe allergic reaction in which her head swelled, among other things, which required an emergency room visit and the vet was still reluctant to refer her to a veterinary teaching hospital for testing ( they didn't offer it at the clinic.)

Misskiwi67

Posted : 12/28/2006 11:11:17 AM

I spent the money to have my dog intradermally allergy tested by a veterinary dermatologist at a veterinary teaching hospital. He was negative across the board.

There is nothing wrong with trial and error up to a certain point. I could have saved a lot of money if I had listened to my dermatologist and gone with a food trial first (pain in the ass that it is)

DE Lee

Posted : 12/28/2006 11:57:06 AM

maybe my vet does a different kind of test of something....cause the test our vet does includes common food allergens like corn etc...etc...
if you dog show allergic to corn in this test then it is very likely you should not feed it in their food...
I never really asked if there is different testing "groups" and differnet testing "depths" in the allergy tests. maybe all the allergy tests do not include all the same things...

cakana

Posted : 12/28/2006 1:29:25 PM

Just thinking outloud (sort of) here, but if your dog tested positive to corn, could that be considered an environmental allergen rather than a food allergen? For example, could it be possible that the dog would react to rolling around in corn field, but not have a problem with having it in the food? Or vice versa, it could not tolerate it in the food, but wouldn't be bothered by it externally.

While I agree that many people (and their dogs) suffer far too long with the trial and error process, it isn't much different for humans. I don't know many human allergy sufferers who didn't try pinpointing the problem, taking OTC or prescribed meds, etc., before they and their Dr. decided on the allergy testing. Why, I'm not sure, but I think cost has something to do with it. Not everyone has a few hundred dollars to plunk down, especially if you're already spending $$ on other medications.

dyan

Posted : 12/28/2006 3:54:19 PM

I agree with you to a point!
For us and our Ollie,,,we wasted a lot of time, and worse,,,money! We went to a few different vets, tried eliminating, changing,,etc etc gave him a lot of different medications...none of which were probably really healthy for him,,,,and all in all I have said a thousand times if I didn't say it once..we wish we would have went to the skin specialist and get him tested right away instead of fooling around, making Ollie sicker and wasting a ton of money. None of the 3 vets that Ollie went to offered allergy testing..we took him to a skin specialist on the advise of a groomer that my boss took his dog to. He was blood tested, it was quick and easy and not that horrible expensive either. It was probably lesser expensive than the money we spent on the other vets, drugs and treatments.

cakana

Posted : 12/28/2006 6:07:47 PM

Dyan, I totally agree with you and as you know we went thru the same thing with Sassy. I'm not agreeing with how it happens, just explaining why I think it does. I was actually having to push for the allergy testing with my derm vet but I think she just didn't want me to expect it to be a cure-all and it wasn't. There were so darn many things that came back off the chart, that it was like "well, now we know she's allergic to everything, but what do we do with that?" We're using Atopica and it seems to be helping as much as possible, but I'm sure you've read the posts like I have where people had the allergy testing done and the dog is still having problems. I don't know what the answer is, but I always like to think of prevenatives vs. treatments, but I don't know what that would mean, altho I think the vaccination issue is worth further studies.

Misskiwi67

Posted : 12/28/2006 8:43:10 PM

ORIGINAL: RobDar

maybe my vet does a different kind of test of something....cause the test our vet does includes common food allergens like corn etc...etc...
if you dog show allergic to corn in this test then it is very likely you should not feed it in their food...
I never really asked if there is different testing "groups" and differnet testing "depths" in the allergy tests. maybe all the allergy tests do not include all the same things...

If your vet offers the serum tests for food allergens, then they haven't read the research that shows serum tests for food allergies are worthless.

dyan

Posted : 12/28/2006 8:51:45 PM

If your vet offers the serum tests for food allergens, then they haven't read the research that shows serum tests for food allergies are worthless.

However, it is said that very few dogs are allergic to food.[align=right]

sallya

Posted : 12/28/2006 8:55:47 PM

I agree with getting help for the dogs. It is good to try differnet foods, especially Natural Balance with no grain, like Fish or Duck. Then antihistmines, shampoos, but to go too long with a dog that is ill and so itchy is just sad and not needed. So many vets give steriods. That is just for a short time to give relief, but not good long term.

Trudy is a wonderful example of what can happen with a great dermatologist and skin allergy testing!!!! She has SO many allergies and I give her a shot each week from her antigen. She takes Hydroxyzine also. She does well on Nat. Balance Fish. She is doing great and we are so very happy! She is a healthy, happy doggie!

Misskiwi67

Posted : 12/28/2006 9:08:54 PM

ORIGINAL: dyan

If your vet offers the serum tests for food allergens, then they haven't read the research that shows serum tests for food allergies are worthless.

However, it is said that very few dogs are allergic to food.[align=right]

Thats what I thought too! But I actually think its more common than the 2-10% of allergies that the literature states. I went the intradermal testing route because of my dogs age, history, clinical signs (chewing feet and secondary infections are his only problem) and figured I was doing the right thing. After a feeding trial, I now know he is one of those rare dogs with true food allergies. I now have a dog and a cat with food allergies. How on earth does a vet student end up with 2 animals with food allergies if its as rare as its supposed to be??

I think food allergies aren't rare, they are under-diagnosed. They're a pain in the patookas to diagnose too, so it'll probably stay that way.

Lynn

Posted : 12/28/2006 9:50:04 PM

Well, I asked for a blood test first thing. Problem was it only tested a few items - those considered to be the ones most likely to cause issues.

Hmpfff, it didnt' help since it didn't cover ALL the foods that can be given. I didn't want to do an elimination diet - so I fooled around with lots of different kibbles.

I'm now doing "the diet", and just discovered she is quite "sensitive"/ "allergic" to an enormously common ingredient in kibble (which is why my switching didn't help) and

it was an ingredient that, of course, was not included on the test b/c it's not supposed to be a common problem. I look foward to testing the ones that were on the list to

see how she reacts w/o the foods in her system that has been causing problems.

jessies_mom

Posted : 12/28/2006 9:55:02 PM

However, it is said that very few dogs are allergic to food.

That's what I used to think because everything I read said they were rare; at the first consultation with Jessie's dermatologist she said that she thought food allergies are more common. I was skeptical, but after putting Jessie on a special diet according to her instructions I learned she's allergic to chicken. I don't know if my dermatologist thinks that because of her experiences with allergic dogs ( she's been practicing for more than 20 years), or if it's because she also teaches vet students so she's current on the latest research. When I first joined this forum I still believed they were rare, but after learning from several members about their dogs having food allergies I'm beginning to agree with my dermatologist and Misskiwi67.

jessies_mom

Posted : 12/28/2006 9:58:58 PM

Hmpfff, it didnt' help since it didn't cover ALL the foods that can be given. I didn't want to do an elimination diet - so I fooled around with lots of different kibbles.

I'm now doing "the diet", and just discovered she is quite "sensitive"/ "allergic" to an enormously common ingredient in kibble (which is why my switching didn't help) and

As you learned, doing the elimination diet saves time and frustration in the long run. Jessie's on a potato and rabbit diet now to see if she's developed any new food allergies; her ears have been itchy the last several weeks. What is the common ingredient your dog's allergic to?

Misskiwi67

Posted : 12/29/2006 12:37:34 AM

I don't know what he is allergic to yet. He's 6 weeks into his 12 week restricted diet. I can bet whatever it is can be found in Science Diet buiscuits though... the cats knocked the bag over in the middle of the night and he was itchy the next day. It could be a coincidence though, its common for dogs to have recurrence of clinical signs midway through their diet trials. The entire holiday has been a nightmare of hoovering things he shouldn't have, so I may have to start all over at week one. I'll have to ask Dr. Noxon when I get back to school. I'm not supposed to start testing him, one food at a time, until he's been restricted for a full 12 weeks.