My black Doby has allergies - my red Doby doesn't

    • Puppy

    My black Doby has allergies - my red Doby doesn't

    Hi --- My black Doberman is fine all summer, but from Sept to May, he scratches constantly and rubs the sides of his snout against furniture (this makes him gum area quite red afterwards). My original vet recommended Benedryl, but I don't like the idea of giving him this type of drug. I'm looking for something in a more natural form (i.e. herb or oil). Any ideas?
    • Gold Top Dog

    have you seen a homeopathic vet? That would be my first step if you're looking at alternative treatments.

    Have you tried allergy testing, to see what he's really allergic to? once you do that- you can learn how to better control his environment.

    • Gold Top Dog

    Alleriges have nothing to do with coat color -- breeding? yes, coat? no.

    My best suggestions for you would be to either find a vet who does TCVM (traditional Chinese veterinary medicine) -- http://www.tcvm.cocm -- that's the Chi Institute which is a qualifying agency for Chinese medicine/acupuncture in dogs.  You may find GREAT help there (there is a locator on the left either by state or zip code).

    OR

    Find a vet who does either homotoxicology (a pretty cutting edge form of homeopathy that uses TCVM to formulalte a serum that is a body'friendly version of an allergy 'shot';) or even a vet who does Classical Homeopathy.

    If you are in the US, you may find help locating a vet via the American Holistic Veterinay Medicine Association:  http://www.holisticvetlist.com/ -- if you need help wading thru that locator let me know -- it's kind of a challenge.

    But honestly, I'm not going to just tell you "give this" or "give that" -- because it sounds like it's atopic allergies (seasonal ones) and there's no "simple" solution.

    acupuncture can really help allergies -- and there are a lot of Chinese herbs that can help manage the symptoms but they are best administered by a vet.  Simply because allergies are an immune problem -- and sometimes you can actually better the dog's whole health and incidence of later disease by properly managing stuff.

    Homeopathy is WAY stronger medicine than you'd think.  A homeopathic is a "thing" VASTLY diluted.  Literally diluted so far that it is virtually unrecognizable as that substance.  But administered by a competent professional you can actually wind up **eliminating** allergies almost entirely. 

    There are homeopathic blends you can get over the counter -- Newton Labs has allergy drops, Hylands has both a "hayfever" formula that is good (altho because of how dogs deal with allergies internally it's not as effective alone as it might be in humans).  -Heel has a couple of formulas that are incredible.

    But again -- because homeopathy (and particularly homotoxicology -- or HMTX in the list on the AHVMA website reference list) can actually do such deep healing and deep changes, I'd rather point you to a good professional who can help treat your dog way better than just something over the counter.

     If you have more questions, let me know.  I use both TCVM and homotoxicology for my dogs.  Billy has been THE WORST allergy dog I've ever had (and trust me, I've had some pretty severe allergy dogs), ***and*** he is an IMHA survivor (and the threat of relapse is always present) and homotoxicology has literally given me my dog back.  In fact, he is BETTER now (particularly allergy-wise) than he has EVER been in the 5 years we've had him (and he's about 9-10 now).

    But at the same time, I've seen awesome results with TCVM. 

    And neither are going to expose your dog to chemicals that are going to kill their kidneys or overall cause other problems.