Allergies

[bendog]

I've posted about this before, but now I'm in a position to actually do something about it.

Sash is allergic to virtually everything. At the moment it is controlled by steroids - Medrone (methylprednisolone) - she is supposed to be on 2 a day, but we are trying to reduce the dose, so she actually gets about 1 every other day, which does just about keep things ok. Missing too many doses and she'll scratch herself to bits again.

She is itchy virtually everywhere, her paws are improving, but she's scratching her armpits (for lack of a better word!) and chest a lot more.

Groin


Chest


Paw
She used to bite her paws all the time but this seems to have improved.

She also gets near constant ear infections to the point that her ears are clogged up with scar tissue:


And her bum and vulva are very sore and swollen due to lots of bum scooting so anal glands may also be an issue?


As well as her steroid she gets a Dorwest Garlic and Fenugreek tablet daily. Once she starts scratching she just goes into overdrive and can't seem to stop - previously she would snap at you if you touched her whilst she was scratching, but now I can gently restrain her and give her a good rub all over with my hands for 10 minutes and that seems to ease it a bit, or else just gently stroking her to calm her. The other thing we try to do is to keep her busy so she doesn't have time to sit and scratch. Her main allergy is grass, so we stay away from it as much as possible, but most people have front lawns and despite our efforts Sash does walk on them sometimes. We avoid long grass/freshly cut grass/parks etc and she doesn't go in the garden. So she only has short on lead pavement walks - she walks extremely slowly and tires quickly although she does enjoy the walks.

In the past she has been on Atopica, homeopathic treatments, numerous courses of antibiotics and ear drops, but steroids are the only thing that manage to suppress the symptoms.
Her previous owners spent thousands on her in vet treatment, but also essentially gave up at times and let the situation get really out of control before seeking help. She was fed a very poor diet when young (tinned Spam or corned beef) and is doing much better on grain free kibble though I would consider changing again if it would help.

My questions are:
a) can anyone recommend a good vet in the North West Uk (Liverpool/Lancashire areas) that could help us?
b) Any miracle cure for allergies anyone has heard of?
c) anything we can use to sooth the sore parts e.g. oatmeal bath, aloe vera, honey? Especially when she's created open sores like on her chest in the second picture?

[ClareMarsh]

Poor Sasha, just thinking about how awful it is to be itchy

I'm not sure this helps you but it might others so I'll throw it out there. If she were my dog I would switch her to raw and bring in one protein at a time, giving a good few weeks before bringing in new ones and monitor her skin/rashes as I bought each new protein in. I would literally set up a spreadsheet and write in what I was feeding and what impact, if any, it was having. That way if she has any allergy to food that is exacerbating the grass allergy I would have a good chance of finding out. But then I am a huge raw advocate so that is the way I would go. Perhaps you could do a variation of this using different proteins in whatever kibble you feed and keeping her diet very restricted as you work through the different types of food.

I don't know of a vet where you suggest but I have heard rave reviews of people who Roger Meacock (website below) has helped remotely. He's a homeopathic vet, specialises in horses but I know people with dogs he would help. I haven't used him myself but if it were Ted and there was no one locally I think I'd be on the phone to Roger to at least see what was possible.

http://www.naturalhealingsolutions.co.uk/

[runlikethewind]

So she is allergic to grass - what type of grass and what else? Dust mites? Garden grass is usually fine.

I would concur with all that ClareMarsh says. My dog had environmental allergies when he was younger. I was told there was no cure for them (people can grow out of them though). He was on allergy shots - has she had allergy shots made up for her? He had a year and half of allergy shots and then I starting researching the body's mechanism /response to allergens - it gave me a headache! no one really understand why the body overreacts like this.

Anyway, to cut a long story short: He is no longer on shots and has not had any reaction for over 2 years - and we have been though the hayfever seasons with no issue and we have been able to give him feather pillows back complete with dust mites etc

straight onto raw food - never looked back. Even though the cause of my dog's reactions were not food related, this I believe has been the defining reason he has got over them
add fish oil - this is very important. TOO MUCH OMEGA 6 (grain fed meat etc) is inflammatory in the body
aloe vera juice
dermacton cream before walks (so he could not lick it off)
wipe body down with microfibre cloth after each walk
anti allergen beddding and covers everywhere
greenleaf tablets
bought a very expensive vacuum cleaner....

[MissCarla]

I'm sorry if you've already posted this somewhere and I missed it, but have you had her tested to see what exactly she is allergic to? I see you mention grass, but are there any food allergies?

It is expensive, but worth every penny IMO

So happy Sasha is with you now!

[bendog]

Thank you all for the responses.

Clare, I will certainly check out that link and see if that guy can help. I have a hunch that chicken makes her worse, though no firm proof. If thats true it would make raw feeding more tricky.
So perhaps the solution will be to switch to vension flavoured kibble like Orijen in the long run. At the moment she's on James Wellbeloved Lamb and Veg. But again, I might introduce some foods like you say and try and isolate a specific trigger. She's definately doing better on a better diet, so diet does play a part.

runlikethewind and MissCarla: I have no idea what type of grass. The only info I have is what her previous owners (boyfriends parents) told me, and what I have observed myself.
I know that her allergies started at around a year to 18 months old. And she's nearly 8 now.
She had the blood test to check for allergens, but they only told me: Grass, Carpet mites and Sawdust. Nothing more specific. Perhaps the old vets would have the full results on file somewhere, I'm not sure.
If I found a new vet I would consider having it done again anyway.

Boyfriends parents are unfortunately not the brightest people, and don't understand most of the things the vet tells them, or what medications the dog has been on in any more than a vague sense.
They didn't even know the difference between the steroids and the antibiotics. Or one brand of steroid from another. They mentioned "injections" which I guess are the allergy shots, but I don't know how long they perservered with these. And they tried Atopica recently, but again, only for a couple of months.

Essentially I'm starting from scratch.

She gets tinned oily fish once a week, but I can always add cod liver oil or salmon oil to each meal and see if it helps.

I've found a site here selling dermacton cream: http://www.aromesse.com/skin-problem/pe ... -skin.html Is this the stuff you meant?
Do you just cover paws in it, or whole body before walks?

I'll try greenleaf tablets in addition to the garlic one, it can't hurt.

[ClareMarsh]

I'll post a better response later when I'm on my laptop rather than phone but don't rule out raw because of a suspected chicken allergy. Rabbit is an excellent "base" protein source you could base her diet on and thankfully in the uk you can do this at a reasonable price.

[Erica]

Chicken is a high-histamine food that can make allergic reactions worse in people...I have horrible allergies myself (allergic to heat, skin irritation, and stress), so I have to watch what I eat or deal with the consequences (mostly it's the latter, to be honest. ). Once I get off of my medications, I'll probably have to follow a low-histamine diet. There are lots of lists around that you can check out; here's one. I'm not sure how much it will help a dog, but I do notice an increase in my hives after high-histamine meals. I feel that since I am able to weigh the consequences, I can eat whatever I want, but since a dog doesn't know that eating ____ will make them feel _____ later, we have to be responsible for that part.

Good luck to you and Sash!

[bendog]

Right, we are switching to raw tonight, have Malaseb (antibacterial/antifungal) shampoo and have been advised to bath her twice a week, and she has a little vest on to try and protect the really bad areas from scratching until they heal.

I never ever thought I'd be putting clothes on a dog, but I have to admit she looks quite sweet in her vest.

[bendog]

Sash having her bath:


Not sure the Malaseb is doing any good - should we still bath twice a week with it? Or can someone recommend anything better - oatmeal, tea tree oil, etc?

The T shirt is certainly working for damage limitation


She can't do as much damage through the tshirt, and it's helping her sores heal up. (Plus it's cute)

Raw diet hasn't made any difference yet, but still early days.

[ClareMarsh]

I've got no idea on the bathing other than anecdotally Ted did flake a bit if I bathed him (I was following incorrect advice about regular bathing , although at least he is used to it if I ever do need to bath him) so I stopped. Also with human skin allergies water can make it worse but that is nothing other than lay persons babble so doesn't help you

Re the raw, I understand it can take up to 6 weeks (maybe longer) to start to see improvement so as you say it's early days. I sincerely hope it helps her as I'm sure if the itching were relieved she would come out of her shell even more

[bendog]

Poppy has never had a bath! Though she tends to watch when Sash has hers, and doesn't mind getting splashed by the shower so I suspect she'd enjoy it!

Ben has baths when he rolls in stinky things. His last bath was probably a year or so ago!

We are bathing Sash regularly with malaseb on advice of the vet, but I know the malaseb makes my hands really dry, and not sure how much it's helping Sash. We've used Malaseb before, but weren't very consistent with it, so I'm trying to at least try it as advised unless anyone knows why I shouldn't, or can suggest something better. The theory is that regular baths will help remove allergens from her skin.

her ear is also bothering her today

[ClareMarsh]

Bless Sash she's a saint, if I itched that much and had a poorly ear I'd be like the devil incarnate

[Nettle]

I know a dog groomer who says malaseb does awful things to her hands. Perhaps go back to your vet or get a referral to a specialist, as Sash's condition might benefit from something less strong. Trouble is that we need to find the cause of skin conditions in order to treat them, otherwise it's a sticking plaster over a fracture kind of treatment. There are so many causes of skin issues.

I expect I suggested a homeopathic vet some time back. Do consider it - my own has huge success with 'untreatable' skin conditions. He says wryly that he makes no money out of it as people come to him having spent literally thousands of pounds and he fixes the problem in a couple of visits.

Looking at Sash's photos, I think it would take more than a couple of visits, but it would be worth it to help her without using harsh chemicals. We can always use chemicals and drugs if gentler treatments fail, but they don't seem to.

[runlikethewind]

I agree 110% with Nettle. research, research, research.. plus follow some of my tips ... I did spend 2 years figuring them all out.

I would not want my dog on malaseb nor steriods. TBH I don't know why you are bathing her with that - it's for bacterial and fungal infections. There are a lot of wonderful gentle shampoos out there but again, if I were you, I would not be bathing her at all. Just using Dermacton on the sore patches. You strip oils out of the skin.. washing two times a day!!!!!!!!!

Bathing a sore dog has never made sense to me. Imagine your hands are sore and you wash them (with a harsh detergent like malaseb)... they would feel awful.

You want to remove allergens?.... use a damp microfibre cloth... or just plain water.... !!

[minkee]

Did you ever find a good vet to visit, Bendog?