Question:
I just found this group this morning.
I have tried almost everything to help my dog and his skin problems.
His belly gets dark red and very warm, and he does a lot of scratching,
and very sensitive to touch. I used an oatmeal bath and rinse on him
yesterday, and did not find one flea, or any flea dirt. Over the last 4 summers,I have tried all kinds of supplements, changed
foods, Avon skin so soft, and some holistic pills from by vet. all to no
avail. The only thing that appears to work is a steroid shot, and I know
that in the long term, these are very damaging to my pet.
Does anyone have any suggestions that I could try, short of another
steroid shot.
Answer:
What are you feeding her?
Many many allergies are to ingredients in lesser quality foods. I feed
California Natural to my allergy ridden golden, and Innova to my other dogs.
Both can be found at www.naturapet.com A friend of mine had a dog that did the exact same thing.
Only in the spring and summer though. It turned out that she
was allergic to grass and pollen. The vet recommended that
she be given a daily dose of antihistamine and that made her
last few summers much mroe enjoyable. It didn't completely
eliminate the redness and itching but there was a remarkable
difference in her comfort level. Talk to your vet about
allergy testing. You mentioned that you've tried things the last 4 summers so I am assuming
this is just a summer problem. If so then your dog likely has seasonal
allergies. The best approach would be to get allergy testing done (blood
test or skin test) and treat with hyposensitization shots that are
formulated with the allergans that affect your dog. This approach reduces
or eliminates itchiness in about 70% of dogs. I believe long acting steroid
injections are the absolute worst form of treatment for seasonal allergy.
You are less likely to have long term side effects if steroids are given
orally and gradually tapered to the lowest effective alternate day dose.
Some dogs can have the itchiness significatly reduced with concurrent use of
antihistamines and omega 3/6 fatty acid supplements. The antihistamine most
likely to help is hydroxyzine which needs to be prescribed but you can talk
to your vet about over the counter antihistamines that sometimes work for
digs. In Canada there is a prescription product called Vanectyl P which
combines a steroid and antihistamine which often gives good results with
much lower doses of steroids than when steroids are used alone. Also there
is a great deal of evidence that in dogs with seasonal allergy the allergans
are presented to the immune system through the skin rather than through
inhaling the allergans as occurs with people. Washing your dog weekly with
a gentle moisturizing shampoo should thus decrease exposure. I second this opinion about food allergies. In dogs as in humans, food
allergies can undermine the body's immune system as can systemic yeast.
Then when something comes along---change of seasons or grass sensitivities
or stress or ?---the allergic reaction kicks in. Since nutrition is the basis of health, might not that be a good place to
start in discovering a solution for your dog?
On the other hand, since there are allergies, doesn't that mean the dog
*isn't* "healthy otherwise"---isn't this a signal of immune system episode?
I personally don't give my dog steroids, would consider that the next to
last step before putting him down. yes it is probably a seasonal allergy. i dont know how much of a
steroid shot your dog gets. if it lasts the entire time and it is not to
potenta dose and nothing else works it should be ok. you would have
in my opinion that is-- use a lot of a steroid before your dog had any
problems. that is provided that you dog is healthy otherwise. ask
your vet what he give and the dosage and look it up in the drug book
for dogs and i think it will ease you mind. but i do hope that you find
a cure. ----------i wanted to tell you this. go to this web site
drs.fostersmith.com---------ask for a catalog . they have some wonderful
shampoos in there and other things that you wont see anywhere else that
will maybe keep you from having to use the steroid that you worry
about!!!. i cant begin to tell you ---the catalog is free and you wont
be sorry you got one!!! these are two vets and you can even talk on
the phone with them free!!!!i have done so for many years-----------if
mary beth and the rest of the grumpy members are reading this ------you
better go there also so you can learn something.
