My vet strongly suggested I take Ella off raw

At Ellas age, the chances are very slim that she has hypothyroidism.

I was taught that 8 times out of 10 calling any sort of canine health problem "neurological" is a cop-out diagnosis, and you need to keep looking. My personal thought it that allergies are a good place to start, especially if you're seeing so much improvement with the antibiotics. Dogs don't get bacterial skin infections without an underlying cause.

At Ellas age, the chances are very slim that she has hypothyroidism

 
Our first golden retreiver was diagnosed with hypothyroidism just about the time he turned 4.  On one of my golden boards one suspected it in her 2 year old golden but the vet said no, she was to young.  The lady fianlly insisted and sure enough, the dog did have it, not severe, but that she was put on a very small d0osage of soloxine each day and her fur retunred to normal, she lost weight and she was not so "grouchy."  True, this a problem common in goldens, but I would not rule it out in any breed at any age.  You just never know.

Hypothyroidism - even at an early age - is a growing problem in Border Collies too. [] I wish I knew why - maybe because we baby them now where in the days when they were mostly working dogs, the affected dogs fell off the radar. Or the cliff. Or into the lake with a heavy weight tied on. [8|]

Anyhoo, thank you so much for mentioning the neurological-problem-as-copout. Even my wonderful vet took a long time to come to terms with the idea that Ben's skin problems might be something other than a nervous habit. He's a BC after all - they do weird things, right? So ripping a couple of holes in his back might be well within the norm for his breed? []

Adjusted his diet - 50% better. Put him on thyroid meds - 75% better. Added the cholodin and sea veggies - 85% better. I'm thinking at eleven years old that's about as good as we're gonna get! [sm=wink2.gif]

Bevo was diagnosed as a hypothyroid dog at 19 months, so it is not out of the realm of possibilities, though it is unusual.  I would consider an elimination diet.

Bevo was diagnosed

 
Would he happen to be named after Bevo the University of Texas longhorn steer mascot?  I have 3 brothers in that area, one right in Austin, one just up the road in Round Rock and another just on up the road in George Town.  All are HUGE Longhorn fans.  Have Longhorn shirts, Longhorn caps, Longhor decals on car, Longhorn glasses to drink from during games, you name, they have it.

I'd like to mention part of a long story one my dogs is living through in hopes it might help. After all else failed & she woke up screaming like a boat horn one morning, after being rushed to the emergency vet I caved (I've always loathed this drug) & put my girl on Rimadyl. Loooong story short she had an extremely bad reaction to the drug. She had been given a shot which was supposed to work more quickly & absorption rate would be better too... bad choices all around. This is a dog that had a cast iron stomach, never had an allergy in her life. We've had non-stop problems since this drug. We paid $300 for allergy tests & she basically came back allergic to everything. This means that Rimadyl put her body into shock & that she is rejecting everything. We are currently on a detox & feeding Innova EVO which is supposed to be next best to raw. We hope that removing the fillers will help, she's allergic to most meats & all fillers at the moment.

Some of our story (the parts I shared) ring a bit to what you described in the original post with allergies. Strong drugs can cause the body to go into shock & start a war on all 'intruders' whether truly allergic to them or not. Have you given your dog any strong medications either in the past (it can take some time for reaction like this to surface) or recently? You might want to try a detox of some sort. We are trying a mild homeopathic detox called Flor Essence, it should help get anything out of her system that shouldn't be there. Medication can stay in the bodies cells for life if you don't remove them. We have our fingers crossed that this helps our girl, not much else has so far. She's been in an uphill endless battle since last April. Rimadyl was just the cherry on top.

Jennie: So, she did have a bad reaction to the chicken livers, then? So, even after 3 years, she reacted to it? An odd thought of mine, I suppose, but I would think the liver of a chicken would be more like the liver of say, beef, than say the protein of a chicken. Even tho it's from chicken, I would have thought the liver itself wouldn't have the same reaction as the chicken meat. I suppose that's an odd thought, but that's how it seems to me. So, she does ok on other liver? Just not chicken liver b/c she's allergic to chicken? Interesting.

And, about the quercetin: As I recall, it helps with allergies??? So, in doing the elimination diet on my girl, I can't get her down to "zero" on her symptoms. I can get her down to about a "2" and I decided to just test at that level b/c I couldn't get her cleared completely up. I didn't want to use a drug, b/c I thought that might affect the challange foods as well, so I really wouldn't know how bad she reacted.

SO, could I supplement her with the Quercetin to help reduce the allergic reaction (she shows it by the redness of her skin -- and it's very reactive. She can get down to a level of "1" on rare occasions, and flare back up w/n 12 hours of eating a bite of something).

So, how much would I give a 30 lb. dog? Would I give it in food? Can I use this regularly for a while (several months). I know with some supplements, you don't want to stay on them all the time or the body becomes used to it and it doesn't help. So, would it be alright to use while I finished the food trial (which might be as long as the remainder of this year ------ so in that case, I'm thinking it would be good to be on it awhile, and then go off awhile and use it in cycles to give the body a break from the supplement?) ?????

Gosh, I'm glad you work in a health food store.

When Emma was a puppy, she had a milder reaction to chicken livers than to chicken muscle. That's why I tried the livers. Also, chickens are slaughtered very early, so contamination in chicken livers would be less than beef livers. I overthink things[] Even after three years, she reacted, and other livers (pork, beef, calf, rabbit, turkey) don't bother her.

You would want to give the quercetin away from food. It contains bromelain, which functions either as a digestive enzyme, or as an anti inflamatory. You want the anti inflamatory. As far as I can tell, it's fine to use every day. I've been using it daily for over a year, and haven't gotten used to it, yet. I take extra when I start having a reaction, and it calms the reaction (I have respiratory and contact allergies. Cats and dogs are two of my triggors. Some days are better than others, and yes, I'm a pet groomer--- and work in a health food store part time). I gave Emma one of my Mega Quercetin (by Solaray, the only brand of Quercetin that works for me), twice a day, since she was *in* a reaction. Normally, I'd probably give her a regular QBC (which is about half as much as a Mega) per day to keep her under control. She weighs in at 17 pounds. Queretin isn't harmful. I've taken four at a time, every hour, on a bad day. The worst thing that's ever happened is yellow diahrrea. It's got lots of vitamin c[] For a 30 pound dog, I'd probably start out with a Mega Quercetin a day, and then lower to a regular QBC. It's totally adjustable. Use more when you need it, less when you don't.

I'd like to mention part of a long story one my dogs is living through in hopes it might help. After all else failed & she woke up screaming like a boat horn one morning, after being rushed to the emergency vet I caved (I've always loathed this drug) & put my girl on Rimadyl. Loooong story short she had an extremely bad reaction to the drug. She had been given a shot which was supposed to work more quickly & absorption rate would be better too... bad choices all around. This is a dog that had a cast iron stomach, never had an allergy in her life. We've had non-stop problems since this drug. We paid $300 for allergy tests & she basically came back allergic to everything. This means that Rimadyl put her body into shock & that she is rejecting everything. We are currently on a detox & feeding Innova EVO which is supposed to be next best to raw. We hope that removing the fillers will help, she's allergic to most meats & all fillers at the moment.

 
My druggist looked rimadly up for me and described it as a "nasty drug".  All of the NSAIDs can be rought on them, but i do think Rimadyl is the worst  My vet does not prescribe it because of the high number of reactions he has seen to i t.
 
My oldest golden retriever will be 12 in two weeks and has some arthrtisi in hips and lower spine. Right now he is on joint sups and thanks to Callie, knox nutra joint.  When he has an exceptionally active day--more running than usual, longer walks, etc, or it is very cold for this area and he seems a little slow, i give him White Willow Bark for pain and it does seem to help.  But i know the day is coming when he will need more and I have already started him on milk thistle to prepare his liver as best i can.
 
You are so right about the body mistaking drugs for "enemies".  I lost my 4 year old golden  in Oct. 2003 when his body attacked his red cells (autoimmune hemolytic anemia) and his liver had spots dying following his proheart6 heartworm preventative injection.  It was pulled from the maket 10 months after his death because so many dogs had severe reactions and so many died.  AIHA was one of the leading reactions.

ORIGINAL: sandra_slayton

Would he happen to be named after Bevo the University of Texas longhorn steer mascot?  I have 3 brothers in that area, one right in Austin, one just up the road in Round Rock and another just on up the road in George Town.  All are HUGE Longhorn fans.  Have Longhorn shirts, Longhorn caps, Longhor decals on car, Longhorn glasses to drink from during games, you name, they have it.

 
 
Bevo is, in fact named after the UT Longhorn.  Both my fiance & I are graduates of the University of Texas.  We are huge fans of the Longhorns, Bevo has UT sweaters, collars, leashes, and bandanas.  He looks great in burnt orange.

My one brother even has a burnt orange car!  And his cell phone plays the UT fight song.  He gets season baseball tickets, and goes to a lot of basketball games and m akes some football games.