Minneapolis/St. Paul Nesties
SunshineJoy
member
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
*mbgreenwalt* or other vets/vet techs
Our dog always gets allergies this time of the year. Our vet had said to use Benadryl but this seems to be losing effectiveness. I read online about giving dogs small doses of coconut oil to help with allergies or skin itchiness. Do you know anything about this? TIA
Re: *mbgreenwalt* or other vets/vet techs
Allergies are so bad right now for people and dogs. We have had at least 3-5 appointments a day for allergy cases. I have not heard about using coconut oil. I would assume it could have similar benefits of fish oil for allergies. It helps keep the skin and coat in good condition/moisturized and is a natural anti-inflammatory. I'm not sure what a proper dose would be though.
Benadryl is one of the weakest antihistamines that can be used for dogs. There are alternative Rx antihistamines that work better (Hydroxyzine or Chlorpheniramine). Depending on the severity of the allergies and the irritation to the skin antibiotics may be necessary to get any secondary infection under control. Some dogs even need a steroid bump to get the allergies under control (those are usually severe cases).
Oatmeal shampoo can help relieve some of the irritation and inflammation too. Lather it on and let it sit for 5-10 minutes and then rinse. Don't bathe too ofter though, it can dry out their coat. If they are getting really greasy and yeasty you can bathe weekly, otherwise 1-2 times a month is good.
Food can play a role too. A lot of dogs have allergies to the corn, grain and chicken in food. Some dogs benefit by switching to a food with a novel protein (rabbit, salmon, venison, bison). A true food allergy trial would be to change over to the new food and then feed that exclusively for 6 weeks. No treats, food scraps or other diets.
I hope this helps and that he feels better soon. Let me know if you have any other questions.
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