dog allergies... WWYD?

i need to ask a question.. maybe you can help me..

my dog has had allergies for a whole year now.. they never pin pointed what it is from ... so they gave her Prednisone pills for her.. and they work.. she stops itching, licking.. scratching.. everything..

the problem is.. how long should i keep getting these pills re-filled.. i dont know what else to do .. i dont like that she is on this medication for all this time...

should the vet find the reason? or have you heard of dogs being on pills for the rest of their lives for allergies

Re: dog allergies... WWYD?

Posted by MetsGirl07

i need to ask a question.. maybe you can help me..

my dog has had allergies for a whole year now.. they never pin pointed what it is from ... so they gave her Prednisone pills for her.. and they work.. she stops itching, licking.. scratching.. everything..

the problem is.. how long should i keep getting these pills re-filled.. i dont know what else to do .. i dont like that she is on this medication for all this time...

should the vet find the reason? or have you heard of dogs being on pills for the rest of their lives for allergies

Re: dog allergies... WWYD?

thanks cous...

yea i thought that it was only a seasonal thing.. but its definitely not.. its something more..

like, i dont give them to her everyday.. just as needed.. its like she is getting no relief if i stop them all together.. she just goes back to the licking and biting..

and thats why i am so confused.. the vet just keeps refilling her pills... so i have to really talk to him and ask if this is normal.. maybe they can do further testing to find out what exactly she is allergic too..

Re: dog allergies... WWYD?

My dog has allergies very bad.. I have pin pointed chicken.. I only give her lamb.. She also reacts to the enviorment.. Her eyes get itchy gooky and red.. I put cortisone drops in her eyes when that starts to act up.. I would not want to keep my dog on steroids either.. I did get her a shot once when it was bad but only once.. try food elimination.. Or you can do the blood work and find out.. The blood work will not cover everything in the world so thats why i tried the food elimination if that was unsuccessful I would have went for the blood work.. its also expensive.. ask your vet how much he would charge or the blood work and if you can afford it go for it.. It will eliminate many many things but like I said not everything.. Thats what I would do.. Good luck.. I would want her off those steroids also.. Is she over weight from them?? They make you eat like a pig.. I know from personal experience..

Re: dog allergies... WWYD?

Re: dog allergies... WWYD?

I forgot this too.. I give her z/d low allergy dog food from the vet in the morning and at night i give her that mixed with wet lamb so mix it up a bit.. And I also igive her childrens benadryl if she is having a bad night and cant sleep.. You can figure this out just be patient and persistant. if you need ANYTHING please let me know.. I will try to help you as best I can..

Re: dog allergies... WWYD?

Posted by dilb712

I forgot this too.. I give her z/d low allergy dog food from the vet in the morning and at night i give her that mixed with wet lamb so mix it up a bit.. And I also igive her childrens benadryl if she is having a bad night and cant sleep.. You can figure this out just be patient and persistant. if you need ANYTHING please let me know.. I will try to help you as best I can..

Re: dog allergies... WWYD?

Yes its z/d low allergy and you need a prescription.. She actually loves it.. They will know what you are talking about.. You are very welcome.. I know how you feel right now.. Get him off those pills if you can.. I agree 100%

Re: dog allergies... WWYD?

My mom's dog is allergic to gluten (I think that's what it is, maybe wheat?). She has to give him a natural raw foods diet (chicken gizzards & other parts ).

Re: dog allergies... WWYD?

Mia had allergies.
I brought her to Dr. Wen , he is vet that specializes in chinese medicine.
He put her on herbs for 2 months to clean out her system and we changed her diet.
She can no longer have beef, lamb , chicken or grains... which are the most commen sources of allergies.
We feed her wellness Core whitefish and a little grainless can food either white fish, salmon or Venison.
She no longer has allergy symptoms and is not on any meds.
Prednisone is a steroid and should only be used temporaily. I was actually on it myself this past winter for Bronchitis.
Google it.. there are alot of side effects.
IMO... pills just get rid of the sysmptoms not cure the alllergies.
Good luck , I hope you figure out what is causing the problem.

Re: dog allergies... WWYD?

Buddy had allergies so we switched his food and we did an allergy test on him and found out hes allergic to dust mites and ragweed.

Have your doctor check your dog's thyroid levels because it might be a thyroid problem and the symptoms are similar to allergies.

Re: dog allergies... WWYD?

thank you all so much for the advice!

so after talking to DH about this last night.. we are going to bring her to the vet sometime next week and just have them do the testing..
and then we just have to hope that they can find the actual problem, and what she is allergic too..

i cant keep her on these steroids.. it upsets me

Re: dog allergies... WWYD?

I would consider a different vet ... I'm not sure I'd be comfortable with a practice that was content giving meds and not doing the testing.

Re: dog allergies... WWYD?

Posted by Wendy

I would consider a different vet ... I'm not sure I'd be comfortable with a practice that was content giving meds and not doing the testing.

Re: dog allergies... WWYD?

My dog has allergies too - she started with the licking, biting and scratching seasonally, and then it became constant. Our vet gave us a prednisone prescription and that Z/D food as well - I am NOT a fan of the Z/D. It doesn't contain enough quality nutrients, and it's not meant for dogs to be on for a long period of time. After eating it for a while, her fur started to fall out and she looked awful And she was still itching.

We ended up taking her to a veterinary dermatologist who did the allergy testing. Bloodwork, skin reaction test, etc. Turns out it was NOT food related, so we tortured her with un-nutritious food for no good reason at all. She has environmental allergies, and not the seasonal kind. They found that she's allergic to grass, cats, and wool. We don't have cats, we took away anything made of wool, but we can't limit her exposure to grass. It's everywhere.

So now we have to give her shots twice a month, just like a person would get allergy shots. They help, but don't completely make her feel better, so we also supplement with prednisone in small doses as needed. The vets are careful about monitoring her on the steroids and check her bloodwork every few months to make sure her liver is OK.

Dealing with allergies in pets is so hard!

Re: dog allergies... WWYD?

Posted by JessInCA

My dog has allergies too - she started with the licking, biting and scratching seasonally, and then it became constant. Our vet gave us a prednisone prescription and that Z/D food as well - I am NOT a fan of the Z/D. It doesn't contain enough quality nutrients, and it's not meant for dogs to be on for a long period of time. After eating it for a while, her fur started to fall out and she looked awful And she was still itching.

We ended up taking her to a veterinary dermatologist who did the allergy testing. Bloodwork, skin reaction test, etc. Turns out it was NOT food related, so we tortured her with un-nutritious food for no good reason at all. She has environmental allergies, and not the seasonal kind. They found that she's allergic to grass, cats, and wool. We don't have cats, we took away anything made of wool, but we can't limit her exposure to grass. It's everywhere.

So now we have to give her shots twice a month, just like a person would get allergy shots. They help, but don't completely make her feel better, so we also supplement with prednisone in small doses as needed. The vets are careful about monitoring her on the steroids and check her bloodwork every few months to make sure her liver is OK.

Dealing with allergies in pets is so hard!

Re: dog allergies... WWYD?

Posted by MetsGirl07

thank you for sharing your story..
yea i kind of have a feeling my dog's allergies are from the grass and such too..
so we are definitely bringing her to get tested..

but now i am so scared that we did damage to her by giving her the prednisone.. it makes me mad that her vet didnt monitor or anything.. just kept giving her the pills.. i should have stopped this a long time ago

Re: dog allergies... WWYD?

Our dog has been dealing with allergies for the past few years. We had him on medicine that the vet said he might have to be on for the rest of his life. We decided to change his food one more time (Solid Gold Wolf King- no chicken or wheat) and it helped -we thought it did the trick until about 2 weeks ago. I really think it is the seasons. I noticed he started rolling in the grass and since he has been licking his paws and gets little bumps on the back of his neck. We were told to give him benadryl... we'll see how that goes.
Oh... we also stopped with the milk bones. They are just made up of a bunch of "stuff" that does not have anything good to offer them.

Re: dog allergies... WWYD?

Re: dog allergies... WWYD?

benadryl I hated giving Otis Predisone (sp) Go back to the vet have them look into alittle more. Do you bath her yourself? Maybe the shampoo you use also could be causing it. Otis had allergies to the grass one year he had a red rash on his stomach they gave me a special shampoo and a spray and it really helped. If you need the name I can get it for you.

Re: dog allergies... WWYD?

Re: dog allergies... WWYD?

Re: dog allergies... WWYD?

Re: dog allergies... WWYD?

I don't know how I missed this days ago!

We've dealt with stomach rashes, rashes under his front legs, bad poops, and lots of biting and scratching.

First things first, a dog food switch to Natural Balance which has limited ingredients and no grains, which are the most common source of food allergies.

We started with Potato & Venison and switched to Potato & Fish. That cleared up the bad poop situation and helped with the biting and scratching.

Then, upon advice from our vet, kept his stomach and underarms clean with non-alcohol organic baby wipes. If we knew he had been out laying in grass, we would wipe him up.

Also, we bathed him with special shampoo they gave us (it's very mild and special for this type of thing).

We also sprayed his rash with Gentocin which cleared it up in a few days.

Lastly, I researched dry skin because Brinkley got worse with the winter, and we now add (3) fish oil pills and (2) vitamin E pills to his food per day.

All this has pretty much solved our issues, although I expect the rashes in the summer when he's outside more. We still have the Gentocin and wipes for that.

I hope this helps you and I agree, they shouldn't just be throwing meds at you without trying to find the cause of the problem. They can do more thorough testing to identify at least the major, more common allergies. Which will probably help a lot.

Good luck.

Re: dog allergies... WWYD?

Cooper is on Pred. for life. He takes a half tab every morning. He takes it for his stomach but it totally helps with his skin too (which is another problem on the long list). When his skin is really red and irritate, we up the dosage to 1 full pill 1 time a day (we split it between am and pm feedings).

This is what our doctor has recommended and we see Dr. Fondacaro who is one of the top rated internist on the island.

We have also seen a vet. derm. who is at LI Vet Specialists in Plainview. Her name is Dr. Rada Panich... she's excellent. She works in the Plainview office and also out of an office in Brooklyn. She also reccommended the pred.