[amaryl1ia]

Sorry for the delay in my reply as this much information took a bit of time to digest!

Originally Posted by dwerten

i just went to derm yesterday and she said most accurate are VARL, HECKA AND GREER - i had full spectrum ad biomedical and she said neither are any good.

I did a quick search for Varl, Hecka and Greer and didn't come up with anything. Do you know if they have a website or something so I can pass the info on to my dermatologist? Ruby has an appointment this week so I will ask if she has heard of this one, but it would be easier if I could find the information beforehand and have it printed out.

Originally Posted by dwerten

blood cannot determine food allergies only environmental and derm reiterated that yesterday and the only reason you do the allergy blood panel is if you are going to do hyposensitization shots which works in 85% of dogs otherwise a waste of money

85% success rate sounds extremely good! Adding this to the list of items to ask about.

Originally Posted by dwerten

not surprised antihistamines are not working as they did not work in my dog and we did three different ones but people are having success with zyrtec

Is there a canine version of Zyrtec or is it the same that people take?

Originally Posted by dwerten

allergies start from age 6 mos to 3 years of age so how old is your dog?

Ruby is 10 months old now but she started scratching pretty much at exactly 6 months of age.

Originally Posted by dwerten

ear infections are a clear sign there is food allergy going on and I would not give sugary foods like carrots, blueberries, etc as sugar keeps yeast and bacteria alive so the fact that the dog has ear issues that is a clear sign of food allergy along with environmental

Her ears developed a yeast infection right around 5 months of age and her general vet had thought it was because she got water in her ears. Once that went away 2 months ago it hasn't come back and the Mometamax now (every 10 days) is just more of a preventative measure. I will make sure to cut out carrots and blueberries as well though.

Originally Posted by dwerten

yikes revolution every 2 weeks i was told at most every 3 weeks and it is also used to rule out scabies mite as well - do you see fleas on her? are you in a flea area?

I have never seen fleas on her and she has been primarily an indoor dog since her itching started so it is another one of those preventative measures suggested by her dermatologist. However, I don't see any harm is switching it to once every 3 weeks if there are some sort of side effects from using it too often.

Originally Posted by dwerten

she should be bathed weekly with allergies to keep pollen etc off and if she has staph occuring chlorhexedine duoxo is a great shampoo and not as drying as benzoyl but benzoyl is good to as others on here have had success with it

Thank you for this info as I've always been confused about how often to bathe her! She has no visible infections or pinkness so I will stick to her HyLyt shampoo and Virbac Epi-Soothe cream rinse once a week from now on.

Originally Posted by dwerten

the scalp drying again leads me to be food related as dd has no issues on head and head is usually demodex or food allergy related

Interesting...adding demodex to GROWING list of items to ask dermatologist

Originally Posted by dwerten

my dog has lost her hair on back and neck but my friends allergy dog has no hair on her legs they call her chicken legs for that reason --dd has alot of hair on legs but every dog is different so could be grass relate

Haha yep, my boyfriend calls Ruby 'hairy drumstricks' as well. I had thought at the beginning that it might be grass-related so she has been pretty much an indoor-only dog for the last 3 months. She does her business on a fake patch of plastic grass on my deck so she really has almost zero contact with grass. It's also been too rainy and cold out so it hasn't been hard to stay away from the dog parks.

Originally Posted by dwerten

are you cooking the rabbit and potato? If not best to cook a food elimination diet as no other factors in food. If potato is it white or sweet as white is sugary and i believe people who have diabetes can have sweet potato but not white as sugar content is much more in white potato and again sugar is bad for dogs with yeast in ears issue

The prescribed canned rabbit/potato diet she is on is from Royal Canin and contains quite a few ingredients: Water sufficient for processing, rabbit, rabbit by-products, fresh potatoes, dried potatoes, vegetable oil, potato protein, fish oil, calcium sulfate, dicalcium phosphate, sodium tripolyphosphate, natural flavors, potassium chloride, taurine, Vitamins [L-ascorbyl-2-polyphosphate (source of vitamin C), DL-alpha tocopherol acetate (source of vitamin E), niacin supplement, biotin, D-calcium pantothenate, thiamine mononitrate (vitamin B1), riboflavin supplement (vitamin B2), pyridoxine hydrochloride (vitamin B6), vitamin B12 supplement, folic acid, vitamin D3 supplement], choline chloride, carrageenan, Trace Minerals [zinc oxide, iron sulfate, zinc proteinate, copper sulfate, manganous oxide, sodium selenite, calcium iodate], marigold extract (Tagetes erecta L.).

I will sometimes put a whole rabbit in the slow cooker with only water and then shred it along with any organs to mix into her canned food. I have also made baked sweet potato for her before...the only reason why I don't cook 100% of her food is because I feel like I'm not giving her a complete diet with all the vitamins and supplements she needs, especially since she is still so young. What do you think?

Lastly, I bought dust mite covers for my mattress and bedding before Christmas (since she sleeps in bed with me) and have someone scheduled to come out and clean the air ducts in my house tomorrow ($1100!) just to make sure she's not breathing in the common indoor allergens. I'm really crossing my fingers that the air duct cleaning will make a visible difference...

I know this is a long process but it's hard to watch her scratch so much. Thank goodness for this forum and all the support!