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**Higgy**
I meant to page you on here a few weeks ago when the stuff with our dog first started happening, but I never got around to doing it. I thought you might have some insight.
Our 3-year-old dog has recently had some major allergy issues. One of her eyes became very swollen and red and she scratched her entire belly raw. She has been to the vet several times and finally was put on a very strong antihistamine, which seems to be working. The vet thinks she might be allergic to grass! He said it looks like something that she's coming into contact with. The only other thing I could think of is that I used some carpet freshening powder shortly before her rash broke out. We haven't used it since then.
Anyway, is it normal for a dog to develop an allergy to something as common as grass after they are already 3 years old? If it is the grass, I'm assuming that as soon as her meds are gone, she will break out again. Do you know of anything that we could do other than restrict her to the driveway in the backyard or remove our grass? Would the oil mentioned in that other post be something we should try?
Any insight you have for me would be much appreciated!! Thanks!
Re: **Higgy**
That's really a tough call! Does she roll around in the grass a lot? She can definitely develop an allergy even though she is 3 years old. Did the grass get fertilized before the rash developed? The carpet powder sounds a little suspicious too... because of the timing of you using it.
What doesn't make sense is her eyes swelling up. Usually something like that woudl be caused by an insect bite, something she ate, or even vaccines. I don't think her eyes would swell from the grass.
You could definitely try the oil mentioned in the previous post or even a human fish oil supplement. The supplement Copper takes is called Eicosa (it's a veterinary product, not human). It it only once a day, and like I've said, has worked really well for him. We finally took him to a pet dermatologist after battling with his skin issues for at least 3 years. For me, it was the best thing I could have done, though, because I was able to eliminate most of the things he was allergic to. If eliminating his biggest allergens didn't help, he could receive weekly allergy injections formulated just for him, just like people get.
He does have some environmental allergies: grass, sycamore trees, ants, dandelions that obviously we can't completely get rid of. Needless to say, he is not allowed to come camping with us and literally goes outside to go potty and comes right back in. If we do take him on long walks, he is restricted to the sidewalk only and we wil wipe his paws with a damp cloth when he comes back in.
She doesn't really roll around in the grass, but she does wrestle a little with our other dog. She lays down a lot under our big tree, but that has dirt around it, not grass. And there was no fertilizer or anything put on the grass either. I was kind of surprised when the vet said he thought it was the grass.
My fingers are crossed that it was just the powder or some sort of insect bite!
Thanks for the info about the supplement. I will definitely keep that in mind if this continues. I'm so glad to hear you guys finally figured out what was bothering Copper. It's so hard to see your animals in any sort of discomfort. Good thing Copper has awesome owners!