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Allergies
My dog has allergies. They start in the month of August when ragweed is in season and she continues to have them until the 1st real frost hits. Because of her allergies, she becomes increasingly itchy and continues to lick and scratch until she no longer has fur on her paws, belly, under her legs, base of her tail and even the sides of her torso and develops sores and scabs in these areas as well. I know she's miserable even though she looks at me witha "smile' all day long.
My husband and I have tried bathing her with medicated shampoos and gving her benadryl with no relief. I even increased the benadryl hoping a higher dose might help but there was no improvement. We go through this every summer/fall and I just can't stand to see her going through this.
Anyone have any ideas of what we can try other than going to the vet for allergen shots?
Re: Allergies
I was just coming over here to ask this same thing!
Our poor dog has allergies (usually just April through August, but we are still battling this year). They seem to be getting worse every year. She has torn her face to shreds! Her ears are so swollen and I think she is getting cauliflower ear.
We have been to the vet 3 times in the past month, done injections, and she has a pill that she gets 3 times every day. She has also gotten a staph infection on her face now from the open sores and just finished her 2 weeks of antibiotics. We went out and got her an e collar last week so her face could heal but she is still managing to tear it up. Last week I also cut down everything in our backyard hoping that would help her, no luck.
I am at a total loss! Any ideas?
Take these poor dogs to the vet, WTF? Why let it get so bad?
Why has this not already occured to you?
I have, 3 times in the past month. I have spent hundreds on trying to beat these allergies. My poor dog is still suffering. I was hoping someone would have some genius allergy cure we haven't tried yet!
She has gotten the injections and is on a pill for itching 3 times a day. We also give her fish oil everyday. the only thing we haven't done is the testing to find out what she is allergic to. Our vet doesn't recommend it because it is so expensive then even if you know what the allergy is it's not like you can get rid of all of it in the enviornment.
The shots help her but the effects only last about a day. I feel like our problem now isn't so much itching from allergies as it is itching from her sores healing. I thought the e collar would do the trick but it doesn't seem to help.
What specific medication is she on and what injection did she get? It sounds like she needs to be on a steroid for a good 2 weeks to help with the itching.
Allergy testing is expensive and some people are very against it because they don't believe that it works. We have a client (golden retriever) that we allergy tested about 5 years ago and she was a complete mess. Allergic to pretty much all grasses and trees as well as a lot of food. Her mom is amazing and has been treating her for the last 5 years and really staying on top her care. With the allergy testing, if the allregies are bad enough the dog can (and most often should) be put on desensitization shots. It's no different than when humans have allergies and get allergy shots. Anyways, we recently retested Emma and she isn't allergic to nearly as much stuff as she was before! She still has a few allergies but nothing compared to when we first tested her. So, allergy testing can be beneficial but you have to be willing to work through it all. It isn't one of those things where you just test to find out and call it a day. You really have to understand the allergies as well as the injections (they come with a very specific schedule) but in the long run they really do work. I know most people think it is a waste (mostly because they don't understand the process) but when you see results like Emmas (not to mention the countless other dogs currently on injections - my own included) it really makes it worth the expense in the first place.
I haven't posted on here in a really long time but this is something that we deal with for Rusty.
He's on a raw diet, gets fish oil pills and we wipe his paws and legs down with baby wipes to lessen the amount of allergens on him. Benedryl works at night to relieve the itching, however, we usually need 3 weeks of steroids to get through the bad part of the season.
You can wrap their legs with medical tape to keep from itching but you have to change the tape daily. If she has an open wound from itching, there are topical sprays that you can use to help heal the wound (and wrap the leg loosely with a bandage and medical tape over it). Sometimes I use Aveda Calming oil when I see him itching and that helps too.
Good luck!
Happy to report that Molly is doing much better. I changed her allergy meds from Benadryl to Reactine and she's improving drastically. I think she just had a tolorance to the benadryl. We started the Reactine yesterday and she only scratches and licks about 10% of the time now verses the 95%.
For those who are asking what we feed our dogs, we feed them one of the best foods on the market. Blue Buffalo. and like I said she only has allergies from August until the first frost, so no it's not her food, it's allergies.
We did have her tested 3 years ago when she started this whole allergy business and it was ragweed thats she's allergic to.
We also started giving her Omega3 and 6 pills to help her with her skin.
For most of the year, we give her Zyrtec (check with your vet for dosage). Benedryl does nothing for her. When she flares up, we have to get meds from the vet. This last time she had a double ear infection that we weren't aware of because she was more focused on scratching and licking her belly and feet.
So, take her to the vet and get her feeling better.
We are having the same issues. My dog starting scratching in February. We have been to 2 different vets numerous times. We have tried changing her food to no grain different protein source. Then we tried benedryl, claritin & zyrtec (not at the same time) with no relief. We do fish oil as well. We did 2 rounds of steriods to help her heal. After the steriods though about 10 days later it all started again. Now she is on a medication called Atopica. She gets this everyday. She has been on it for 5 weeks & i've noticed about a 50% improvement. In my eyes that's not enough. After this month I think I am going to have her tested even though we have already spent a ton of money. I don't like seeing her suffer so I will do what it takes to get her better. Does anyone have any remedy that we haven't tried?