# What I learned about allergies



## Dallas Gold (Dec 22, 2007)

We had a special needs rescue Golden named Barkley, originally brought in by his physician owner for euthanasia because of his allergies and skin infections. The veterinarian convinced him to release Barkley to her and she got him into rescue where he spent a year recovering (from severe neglect). He was allergy tested and they identified several pollens as the cause of his issues. When we adopted him we knew he suffered from environmental allergies. He also had hip dysplasia and we started him on acupuncture for that. During the course of the acupuncture treatments I noticed his allergies were improving dramatically. His acupuncture vet told me her treatments also target environmental allergies as well. She gave me several hints along the way, the best being to always keep some unscented Baby Wipes near your door and wipe the dog's coat and paws down after walks to help reduce the number of allergens being carried on the dog into the house. It worked really well!


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## Rango (Feb 24, 2011)

Great info from both of you!

Forgive my ignorance but, what is a "hot spot?"


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## Sally's Mom (Sep 20, 2010)

A hot spot is acute moist dermatitis. Basically a dog gets an itch for whatever reason(flea bite for example), starts chewing it and won't leave it alone. The area gets inflamed and moist and gooey. Some goldens are "prone" to hot spots.


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## Sally's Mom (Sep 20, 2010)

I always use myself to explain to clients how allergies develop. I developed a contact allergy to saddle soap as a kid from all the tack cleaning I did. And, now I am allergic to cats... it started about ten years into being a vet.


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## iansgran (May 29, 2010)

Oh, joy, a vet allergic to cats. Another thing the dermatologist vet said was that blood tests to determine allergies are uselss. You can do the skins tests for environmental allergies where they shave a patch and scratch little bits of allergins into the skin, and that works, but the blood tests are a waste of money. She uses an elimination died to find out about food allergies. Pretty much just like humans.


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## Philbert (Dec 29, 2010)

Love the time-line pictures of your puppy!


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## Loisiana (Jul 29, 2009)

I had great results with VARL's allergy test. I changed his diet and give him injections based on the results of the test and he has gone from a constantly itching, full of hot spot and rashes dog to one who very rarely scratches at all. I tried making just diet changes or doing just the injections, but since he has both food and environmental allergies it takes the combination of both to keep the itching at bay.


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## Dallas Gold (Dec 22, 2007)

I'll throw this out. In January Toby was itching a lot. He doesn't have allergies and I could not figure it out. His vet just got a new product on her desk and she gave it to us as a test case. It's called Allerderm Spot On from Virbac and is basically something you put on topically, on their backs on a schedule (once a week for a month, then monthly after that) and it reduces itching and improves the coat. It's got cermides and fatty acids in it. I was skeptical but the proof is definitely in Toby's coat. About a month later he stopped itching and his coat is really soft and thick now. We're going to keep this up through the summer to see if it works long term. This may be something others might consider using as well for non-specific itching for a dog with no known environmental, flea or food allergies. 

We also use anti-inflammatory levels of Omega 3 fish oils which help with joints and inflammation from allergies.


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## vrmueller (Jun 14, 2008)

Loisiana said:


> I had great results with VARL's allergy test. I changed his diet and give him injections based on the results of the test and he has gone from a constantly itching, full of hot spot and rashes dog to one who very rarely scratches at all. I tried making just diet changes or doing just the injections, but since he has both food and environmental allergies it takes the combination of both to keep the itching at bay.


Just wondering how long has he been on the injections and how often do you administer them?


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## RENEESDOG (Feb 8, 2009)

I also had great results with Crocketts allergy tests . At first the dermatologist thought it was food. When the constant staph infections continued after a year of food elimination we did the skin testing. He had a highly positive test, testing positive to almost all trees common to our area, several molds, weeds and of course fleas.

He is now on allergy shots that I give, once a week. We give Comfortis for fleas. No staph infections for 7 months! 

It was well worth the expense of the test


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## Loisiana (Jul 29, 2009)

vrmueller said:


> Just wondering how long has he been on the injections and how often do you administer them?


 
He's been on them for two years now. I give one every three weeks.


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## iansgran (May 29, 2010)

The injections usually last a dog's lifetime, how often depends on the dog and the time between can lengthen. People over a lifetime can no longer need the shots, but dogs dont' live that long. Thus said the vet--because I asked the same since I had allergy shots for 20 years and then didn't need them as much


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## iansgran (May 29, 2010)

She didn't mention this product, but did say fatty acids and fish oil is good. There is a special food they use for joint problems that seemed to helping with itching as a side effect, and what was being added to that food was the fatty acids and omega 3s (not exactly sure if I remember which things). Bet this is a result of that finding.

And thanks for the comment about the photo. Many of us on the April Puppies thread are making these 3 pic collages.



Dallas Gold said:


> I'll throw this out. In January Toby was itching a lot. He doesn't have allergies and I could not figure it out. His vet just got a new product on her desk and she gave it to us as a test case. It's called Allerderm Spot On from Virbac and is basically something you put on topically, on their backs on a schedule (once a week for a month, then monthly after that) and it reduces itching and improves the coat. It's got cermides and fatty acids in it. I was skeptical but the proof is definitely in Toby's coat. About a month later he stopped itching and his coat is really soft and thick now. We're going to keep this up through the summer to see if it works long term. This may be something others might consider using as well for non-specific itching for a dog with no known environmental, flea or food allergies.
> 
> We also use anti-inflammatory levels of Omega 3 fish oils which help with joints and inflammation from allergies.


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## 3 goldens (Sep 30, 2005)

My KayCee ws allergice to pine and live oak pollen, bermuda grass, mold spores and flease. However, as she got older, they bothered her less and less, which surprised me. 

my irish setter didn't have a problem one in austin but here on the coast, constant itching. believeit or not what helped him was playing in the salt water! or at least we think that is what it was. after he was diagnosed with bone cancer and we knew his time was limited, i took him fishing with me every day and he swam an played in the salt water. This was for 10 weeks and he had totally stopped scratching and chewing by the end of the first week and never did it the rest of the time we had with him. we assumed it was the salt water.


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## Tanyac (Jun 18, 2008)

This is a subject very close to home at the moment!

Our puppy Flo (almost 7 months old) had a severe reaction to "something" a couple of nights ago. Her face swelled up & she was rubbing her face/ears all over, she was chewing her feet/legs/belly/back and going pretty crazy. 

I called the emergency vet who suggested I give a Piriton tablet which I did. I took her into the surgery yesterday morning & the vet just said to carry on the course of treatment and it should subside.

I gave her a bath with special soothing shampoo from the vet in the afternoon, and she's having antibiotics (prescribed for gastro enteritis which she had earlier in the week!) and Piriton.

The upshot is I've got a puppy with really red/itchy skin all over. I was alarmed when I gave her the bath yesterday to see how red and angry her skin looked! I called the vet back, who suggested we take her in this morning to give a steroid injection and then take a course of tablets to try to calm it down.

I've never experienced anything like this in the 19 years I've owned Goldens. My poor puppy has been beside herself & has broken the skin biting and scratching. I can't imagine how terrible it must feel itching like that all over.

I've been wracking my brain trying to think of what could have caused this. My thoughts are: a lone flea bite, a change in fabric conditioner used to wash the dog's beds, she rolled in grass whilst being walked just before, the antibiotics (vets thinks not), her food - she's been on the same food since weaning, but as the OP has said, this can happen, house dust mites?

TBH I'm at a bit of a loss. It's been distressing to see her in so much discomfort and not able to help. I was lying in bed wondering if she maybe could do with a sedative to help her calm down to give her skin time to recover from all the scratching. She's been running around, throwing herself about, crying and generally bouncing off the walls!

Any ideas? I got a wet cold towel and wiped her over last night in desperation.


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## Dallas Gold (Dec 22, 2007)

Tanyac, I'm so sorry she's in such distress. She had surgery? This happened before the surgery? Is it possible it was a spider bite or a bee sting? I'm confused. If she had surgery while she was in allergic distress perhaps the sedative aggravated it? 

With Barkley we had a couple of instances where he got particularly itchy. One was while he was in chemotherapy for hemangiosarcoma. I looked the chemo drug up and discovered it can "sometimes" cause extreme itching and hyperpigmentation. Lucky us. In addition pollens were at record high levels at the time aggravating the issue. Our vet also recommended the soothing shampoo (Epi-Soothe) and it helped, as did wearing child's Tshirts when outside, changing them often, and frequently washing his bedding in non-fragranced laundry detergent. I am fragrance free in the house due to my own allergies so that wasn't hard. We also wipe the dog's fur and paws off with the unscented baby wipes to keep pollens from coming in with them. I also discovered, in reading the patient information, that Rimadyl causes itching in some dogs. Barkley was on it at the time as well. He Insisted on his daily walks so we were extra careful while walking outside with him. I would put him in a coat of armor if I could have. 

Another time he had some extreme itching,and the vet prescribed two different shampoos (one was Malasab, can't remember the other, but it started with a P) that we used every other day, startiing with one, leaving the suds in for 20 minutes, then rinsing, using the other, leaving the suds in for 20 minutes, then rinsing. It helped, but what a pain. 

Our acupuncture vet also recommended epsom salt baths, but to be honest, we never tried them because he did really well otherwise, except those two instances. 

Other things to try: hydroxyzine antihistamine, regular over the counter antihistamines (we used chloraphenamarine), Atopica (sp--this one is very strong and has a lot of possible health consequences) and Temeril P (antihistamine and prednisone combo, to be tapered down over time). Also, allergy testing and injections.


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## Dallas Gold (Dec 22, 2007)

Ian'sgran said:


> The injections usually last a dog's lifetime, how often depends on the dog and the time between can lengthen. People over a lifetime can no longer need the shots, but dogs dont' live that long. Thus said the vet--because I asked the same since I had allergy shots for 20 years and then didn't need them as much


We were very lucky and were able to stop the injections with our Barkley, definitely not the norm. I also stopped allergy shots when I turned 21.


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## Tanyac (Jun 18, 2008)

Dallasgold: Sorry if I confused you, but when I mentioned "surgery" I meant the vets office (we call it Surgery in the UK).

Yes, the shampoo we have used is Epi-soothe but it only helped for a very short time.

we have now taken her back to the vets this morning and she's had a steroid injection. Fingers crossed it works...

Good suggestions on keeping the pollens at bay, I'm beginning to think this could be the cause.

Flo had a dog show to attend this morning. Needless to say she didn't make it, but I went along to watch. She would have won best puppy by default because no others turned up...lol! Still, she was much better off at home where I must say she is looking more relaxed. Fingers crossed the injection has helped.


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## Dallas Gold (Dec 22, 2007)

Tanyac said:


> Dallasgold: Sorry if I confused you, but when I mentioned "surgery" I meant the vets office (we call it Surgery in the UK).
> 
> Yes, the shampoo we have used is Epi-soothe but it only helped for a very short time.
> 
> ...


 
Oh, I'm so glad she had a vet visit and not an operational type of surgery! 

If it's pollens the tshirts, baths and wiping down with baby wipes helps a lot, as does a course of antibiotics during pollen season. The best thing we did though was acupuncture for Barkley. We went in for his hips, but his allergies improved. The acupuncture vet said acupuncture also works with allergies, a double bonus! 

I hope the steroid injection works for now!


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## vrmueller (Jun 14, 2008)

Loisiana said:


> He's been on them for two years now. I give one every three weeks.


Thanks Jodie. The reason I ask is that I have been giving Ruby her injections since last June. I am giving them once a week, she gets weekly baths and after coming in the house from the outside, I wipe her feet off with wipes. She is still a mess. She tested positive for food and environmental. Her food was adjusted also last June and since the change she has had no stomach distress at all. I am just so frustrated over the biting and scratching. I don't want to put her on the Atopica because it may lower her immune system. She already has autoimmune thyroiditis.


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## Titan1 (Jan 19, 2010)

Ian'sgran said:


> The injections usually last a dog's lifetime, how often depends on the dog and the time between can lengthen. People over a lifetime can no longer need the shots, but dogs dont' live that long. Thus said the vet--because I asked the same since I had allergy shots for 20 years and then didn't need them as much


My Tukr had the shaving,test and allergy shots for 11 years. In the last two years of his life we were able to completly stop the shots and he did great with just some OTC meds so not sure I agree with your vet. I went to the U of MN for the initials test and all follow ups. His vet said he was the poster child of how things can work. I lost him at almost 16 years old.


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## Maggies mom (Jan 6, 2006)

I just had Cruiser allergy tested last week, he wasnt scratching, but was chronic with ear infections that wouldnt go away. We went with the intradermal allergen test. His are environmental, grass antihisamines, trees, house flies, black ants, tobacco, house dust, human dander are a few. He starts allergy shots tomorrow.


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