good for you as you should have as i only have bc dentist do my dogs dentals and I would furious if my vet did what yours did to me. I have had a hard time as well finding a good vet and tend to go to internal medicine and specialists. I have jean dodds close to me so she does all our blood work and titers and i see dentist for teeth, dermatologist for allergy dog and internal medicine specialist for my ibd pancreatic dog - i have about 3 vets i work with depending on situation -- I know this sounds bad but i tend to like women as they are much more detailed and compassionate - the sad thing is when there is a good vet they are so darn busy they are not that availabe and the problem is you need a vet that is available when you have dogs with health issues

if the food is ultra z/d my non allergy dogs itched like crazy on that stuff and just because a food is hypoallergenic does not mean the dog will not be affected by the protein. I recommend venison and sweet potato by natural balance for 12 weeks. Much less expensive and works well with allergy dogs. Also fish and sweet potato is good as well. Zyrtec has been working well with many allergy dogs but if you are doing antihistamine you need to do with omega 3 (fish oils/vitamine as fish oil depletes the body of vitamin e so you have to add it back in) I like nordic naturals.

Honestly if your dog has allergies save yourself some money in the long run and get to a dermatologist as they have much further education in this and that is all they do so they are good at narrowing things down faster than a vet.

The shot they gave was dexamothesone shot - it is a short term steroid shot for immediate relief.

I have an allergy dog and have done it all 90% is environmental -- if environmental and antihistamines do not work as many times it does not work in dogs then the safest drug if not going to do hyposensitization shots which works 85% of the time is atopica. It is safer than steroids but some dogs cannot tolerate it like my dd. A natural way to do hyposensitation is to get local raw honey from farmers market in your area. 90% of allergies are environmental and this breed has a ton of allergy issues due to poor immune systems due to inbreeding of this breed - allergies are an autoimmune disorder

Make sure to try one thing at a time as to not confuse the situation and take alot of notes to see what is and is not working

steroids will not work if it is food allergy and neither will atopica as they are strictly for environmental - also on allergy blood test blood cannot determine food allergy only environmental allergy so food is done through elimination diet

that is because they do not know anything usually about nutrition

yep i have had that plenty of times -- i went to ims with my dd and i said i think she has colitis to internist and when ims came in room she said to internist i told you this girl could practically be a vet at this point - i laughed and said i really did not want to be i just wanted a cute little dog and due to health issues this spun out of control. She said you are exactly right i looked at poop and it is colitis and we discussed tylan powder, probiotics and metronidazole and went probiotics route. This ims is the best in the county and i trust her completely she saved my dogs life but she is very supportive of me educating myself. I am a control freak and after 20k plus in vet bills i learned real quick you better educate yourself and honestly through yahoo groups and this group you can learn a ton about breed and health issues from other pet owners and the internet is a viable source of information and if you read the same thing over and over it is most likely correct now if it is one off then you know it is probably not true so i get so upset when someone says do not read on internet as it helps alot narrow things down and can save you financially in deciding best care and tests to run as sometimes they spin out of control with the testing costing thousands of dollars when you can narrow things down with less testing like spec cpli for pancreatitis rather than 400 for ultrasounds for example

well i just had an incident with metacam with a new vet i went to for digital xray as my vet did not have digital xray. I had blood work done two days prior and it was perfect. My dog has hypothyroid, mvd and atopica dermatitis - she has been on temarilp a year now and we do blood work twice a year. He did xray and came back no break but acl is not ruled out and he came in with metacam and i said NO METACAM (NSAID) she is on steroids and not safe as i read alot on this stuff - he pressured me saying she was in pain and said it was safer than narcotics which is NOT true and i knew it as i wanted tramadol as tramadol is an anti-inflammatory but it has pain relief and morphine based. The bc dentist told me narcotics are safer than nsaids and they have further education. WE argued a bit and i caved to him thinking he was smarter knowing he WAS WRONG - so then he gave it to her and i said she has not eaten is it safe to give on empty stomach - he said it is ok NO WRONG AGAIN it should be mid meal not on empty stomach as NSAIDS can perforate a human bowel if given on empty stomach as it affects the lining of the stomach - WELL needless to say my dog was sick for 2 months and every specialist and vet i have told this story was shocked as you NEVER EVER MIX STEROIDS WITH NSAIDS WHICH I KNEW -- we are lucky she did not get an ulcer but colitis and colitis lasts a while and comes back and no dogs with IBD should ever have nsaids either and due to allergies she should not have been given this either as allergy dogs tend to have ibd as well. Needless to say we will NEVER EVER go back to this guy who has the latest equipment but does not know the basics sadly - OH and he wanted to do a dental and fix her acl at same time - uh hello bacteria with dental and open leg -- so folks DO YOUR HOMEWORK as i am finding many of these vets are not that great.

yep i agree as many use ket-val which is not as safe as propofol and would not let my dogs get ket-val ever

you never know what kind of vet you have until your dog is sick sadly then you find out real quick. If more serious go to specialist it will cost less in long run.

I am very passionate about this topic can you tell lol but have been through the ringer so learned alot during this whole process and not real impressed with what goes on

100000000% AGREE - if they are confident then they can answer intelligently and if not they are hiding something about their abilities

man i can go on and on on this topic lol

my dd had a bile acid test done then a second one as it was 73.1 then post was 54 and pre both time was 3 so vet wanted me to go get scintigraphy and i freaked so i stayed up all night researching, joined liver shunt yahoo group and went NO WAY am i putting my dog through that since post biles are below 100 - told vet nope she is going on low protein diet and will test in 6 months as she has no symptoms of liver shunt - she test 26 post on last test with jean dodds and he refused to run thyroid panel for me before doing atopica said it was not necessary her thyroid test .78 was fine a year before yet dd lost all the hair on her neck and i said i think her thyroid needs to be checked as she has skin issues and now is losing her hair this year. We argued he refused yet i was willing to pay so the next blood work was done with jean dodds 1 1/2 hrs away and sure enough t4free was .30 she had dropped in half in a year and when i came back he was like oh it usually is lumbar and tail region and i said well i guess dd did not read the text book -- so glad i pursued it as she could have gotten seizures if thyroid gets too low and it dropped in half each year for two years. Now jean does all of our blood work and titers

Rolling eyes !!
 

Gina , I can't belive Vet don't have time to explain to us what's going on with our furbaby, and explain the treatment we should follow , yes I have question so take a seat DR. Lol !!!!
If I get rolling eyes fr a vet that's taking care of my furbaby , and I'm paying, it's time to get a new vet.
I had a vet 5 minutes drive fr my front door, and I choice it wasn't working , so now I drive 1 hr from home to another vet office. She not only ask do u have any questions r u ok with the treatment and has a nurse call me after every visit, every visit. And they ask u questions, I feel her nurse's do care, in the first place this is a business and u as a client, ref other furbaby owner to them. I love my vet , If u don't feel comfortable and confident u need to find someone else.
The first thing I notice when I went to her , she picks up my dogs and talks to her/him first , than ask me questions she is in no rush. One day I walk in without a appt and it was so busy, she would walk from one rm to another and always look at me, and say I'm so sorry for the wait. I would say it's ok I can wait and understand, I didn't have a apt so I didn't mind waiting.
My problem now , we should b in Orlando soon in our forever home, and I can't find a vet there I like . I have visit 3 different offices with my cat , that stays in Fl with the rest of the family, and I'm not happy about that, I mean when Miley ate a big brown frog in Fl, I almost die and who do I call my vet in IL and she told what to do. And call me for two days makeing sure every was ok. After everything turn out ok, she said Miley was just a little pig, she will eat anything Lol .
Good Luck !!
bark@ulater!!!!
manina,miley:aimeeyork,max:animal36

What's Atopica?

Well we saw COUNTRY DOC today!
 

This all makes me feel very lucky to have a vet who listens, and is patient and thorough, and welcomes my input, and makes me feel better about my doggies after we are there.

I love my vet and have been going to him for many, many years with my dogs. BUT - sometimes with Sadie (who is my first Yorkie) - I feel that he's not quite as comfortable with such a small dog. At first I thought maybe he didn't really like small dogs - but he seems to have grown more comfortable treating her over the last three years.

I DO feel that it helps that I'm an RN and he respects my medical knowledge and always speaks to me as a fellow professional.

One thing that I do know - I WOULD NOT continue bringing Sadie to a vet that talked down to me, rolled his eyes when I offered suggestions, etc. They need to understand that YOU are the responsible person for this little furbaby and are doing what you think is best for her/him. Not to mention that YOU are the one paying the bills!!! You should be treated with respect.

ok time out i have been dealing with allergies for 4 1/2 years -- did he do a 6 panel thyroid to test the thyroid before giving meds ???????? please do not give meds like that unless thyroid is tested and hypothyroid or the dog could go hyperthyroid :( also do the natural balance venison and sweet potato for 12 weeks - ultra zd made my NON allergy dogs itch like crazy - the ingredients are horrible rice, chicken etc and just because it is hydrolized does not mean the body will not recognize it. Also the dermatologist we go to uses frontline plus only -- we have seen a dermatologist for 3 years now so we can definitely help you on this stuff -- if you have not ruled out hypothyroid have any vet do full cbc panel and do add on for 6 panel thyroid BUT make sure they sent to michigan state lab or dr jean dodds. We work with jean dodds with all our blood work as she is close to us and has studied blood work for 42 years. My dd is hypothyroid but she had a full thyroid panel before taking soloxine and i would never have given her this drug had her thyroid panels not been done. I will help you as well as some others on here that have gone to dermatologists if cost is a factor but you have to do one thing at a time and you can joine allerdog on yahoogroups.com as well to learn more

atopic is an immune suppressant drug for environmental allergies - it is safer than steroids but many dogs get digestive upset on it but for some it is a miracle drug - my dd was on it a year before she started vomitting each time we gave it to her :(

Atopica - Advanced Skin Allergy Relief - Atopica.com

I agree!! Natural Balance venison and sweet potato and Natural Balance Duck and Potato TOTALLY stopped Sadie\'s food allergies and her constant itching. We\'ve been using them for over a year now.