For those of you who have had blood panels done for allergies...
 

..can you tell me what lab performed the test, what it tested for, and about how much it cost?

With the exception of carrots, celery, and blueberries, Ruby has been on a rabbit and potato canned food prescribed by her dermatologist for almost 12 weeks with only the sliiiightest bit of improvement and she's even been on an antihistamine for over 2 months now.

I'm seriously considering asking for an allergy blood panel to be done even though her dermatologist said they are generally not very accurate (50:50) or reproducible. Before I ask her to do it anyway, can you offer any suggestions as to what type or which lab performed the tests for your babies, what the test included, and how much it cost?

I found Bio-Medical Services - Allergy Testing - Canine, Feline and Equine which seems to be a good option, but I want to make sure I get as much info as I can before persuading her dermatologist for one...on the other hand, if you agree with her that these tests are generally a waste of money, please also let me know.

Thank you! :)

I think that's the one I heard good things about, but imo it is pretty much a waste of money. Ellie has allergies (food for sure and maybe environmental). I would not put money into it. Her nutritionist doesn't go with this type of testing either the last I knew. She is one of the most well known in the country. Looked at very highly... Elimination diet is the way to go. Were these ingredients novel to her? Who is guessing food allergies? It is very likely something else.

Thanks for your help, Ellie May!

When I first took her to a dermatologist in mid-December, they checked for flea bites, did skin scrapings to check for fungal infections, and said that they wanted to "rule out the easy ones". She was then put on Clindamycin (antibiotics) for inflamed areas of her skin and Mometamax for the yeast infection in her ear. They started her on canned Rabbit & potato as well since she's so young (6mo at the time) and I've only ever fed her Honest Kitchen Embark, Blue Buffalo Chicken/Rice for Puppy, and cooked ground turkey.

After a month without improvements, she was prescribed Clemastine (anti-histamine). I know the plan was to start her on a dietary trial/elimination diet once her itchiness reduced but it's been 2 months now of anti-histamine and I can't really say there's a noticeable improvement...although I guess she hasn't lost any more hair so that's good.

Here's a quick outline of what she's currently on:
* Canned Rabbit & Potato by Royal Canin (sometimes mixed in with plain boiled rabbit)
* Carrots, Celery, Blueberries
* 1 tablet/1.34mg Clemastine (anti-histamine) per day - she is 6lbs
* Mometamax every 10 days (to control/prevent yeast infection in her ears)
* Bath every 1-3 weeks with some combination of HyLyt shampoo, Virbac Epi-Soothe cream rinse (prescribed by general vet), EQyss Micro-Tek shampoo, and EQyss Mega-Tek Rebuilder (for her balding back legs).
* Revolution every 2 weeks (just in case it's fleas)
* She does not have any redness or infections in her skin, but around 3 weeks after a bath, small dandruff-looking flakes appear near her scalp.

At this point, I agree with you that it doesn't seem like her allergy is food-related, which is a relief actually. But if it isn't food, then is my only option to pay for the blood test? Are there any other way to figure out environmental sensitivities?

Thanks again for any advice you can give me (and sorry for this novel I'm writing). I was pretty optimistic when I found a recommended dermatologist for her but after 3 months without results and almost $1000, I'm hesitant to just keep scheduling follow-up appointments without finding out more info on my own and being prepared to make some suggestions.

Is it possible to post pics of any areas that she is losing hair? I am just about cluless when it comes to derm pics, but I think maybe some other YT'ers could take a look :)

Have you tried Atopica? This would be for envir allergies. If it works, then you pretty much have your answer. Not the healthiest drug in the world, but a very good choice. You could do the bloodwork. Personally I'd try the drug first. A bit backwards I suppose, but that's what I'd do.

It sounds like rabbit and potato were novel to her when you started the 12 week diet, so that really makes me think it's not food. But I don't have a list of all the ingredients in that food in front of me.

If antihistamines aren't doing much good after 2 or 3 weeks, I don't see a reason to keep giving them (unless they are helping slightly). You can try steroids and they may work, but that is really covering up the problem.

She actually doesn't have anything interesting to look at, just minor hair loss on her back legs that look like a bad haircut :) Her stomach was a bit pink when we first went to see the derm but it has since cleared up with antibiotics.

This sounds like a fantastic idea, will definitely ask about it. Do you know if it will also suppress food allergies? I guess if she is still itchy on Atopica then I'll know she's allergic to environmental stuff AND food? Ugh, so many variables!

I agree, being on antihistamines for 2 months straight seems excessive, especially when it doesn't seem to improving the situation.

Atopica works for envir., not food. So if it takes care of the problem, it isn't food.

Now where in the world is Ann when we need her.
Gong to PM somebody for you. :)

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. If you have a dog with allergies i would strongly recommend you work with a dermatologist it will save you alot of frustration and money in the long run and they will get to the heart of the problem much faster

just saw you are going to derm PERFECT that is where you want to be and remember food is only 10% of the time allergy and 90% of the time it is environmental and antihistamines usually do not work in dogs but zyrtec is one they have seen more success with

correct 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 and derm told me she prefers blood testing in toy breeds as they have to shave both sides of dog and the blood is pretty accurate and dog has to be off steroids for 4 weeks with skin testing and no way could i do that with dd but for a dog not on steroids yet could be a possibility - it is the one thing i have not done for dd as was scared it would make her worse but it is the most natural way to treat it so may be worth a shot to try it before going to drugs as sometimes i regret not at least trying it at 5 1/2 years of treating allergies with drugs such as atopica and steroids and now that she is older she is getting worse :(

usually if they have allergies they have a combination food, flea, and environmental and atopica will only prevent environmental so if dog is still itching while on atopica then food is also a problem but usually they have all 3 very rarely they have just food so the only way to know if food is to do a 12 week elimination diet which sounds like you are doing with the rabbit food but you CANNOT give anything but that food for 12 weeks or you will not know what is going on so you have to be very strict and treat with that food as well if you need to treat. The dog cannot have had that protein or carb ever to rule out food allergy.

our dermatologist did antihistamine trials for 3 weeks on each antihistamine but usually they do not work in dogs unless combined with omega 3 which i like Welcome to Nordic Naturals as the omega 3 acts as an anti-inflammatory but first you need to rule out food allergy that is the first step so 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 and we did not try that one as part of our antihistamine trial

all of the foods you listed have poultry and usually if the dog is allergic to one poultry they are to all

sounds like your dog had a staph infection as my dog has staph now and we are using clindamycin as well for a second round

how old is your dog and has her thyroid been tested as dogs with skin issues need to have a full thyroid panel and loss of hair is a sign of hypothyroidism and my dog with allergies is also hypothyroid as well so it is very common and that is one of the first thing they need to check along with food elimination diet. It is a full 6 panel thyroid test

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

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

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?

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

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 and they scraped for demodex already so probably not that

I disagree i think it is food related is well as the ears are your source of food allergy - my dog has never had ear issues in 6 years not one infection and on food elimination diet of pinto beans and white potato she still itched so hers is mostly environmental but she is still on limited ingredient diet

my guess is your dog has both and in 12 weeks you should see improvement on food diet but you have to ditch the carrots, blueberries too sugary

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 related so when you bring her in from outside wash her legs or have a pan and put water in it place her in it and use a towel and dry her paws off real well

allergies are very frustrating so hang in there, take lots of notes and make one change at a time

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 and there are debates on this whether sugar in food contributes to yeast and bacteria issues in dogs but it makes alot of sense since yeast and bacteria live in sugar so when you get probiotics which i use for my allergy dog there is fos in it and fos is the sugar that keeps the acidopholus and biffidus active.

Wow thank you, dwerten!
 

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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!

here is varl

Home

GREER

Greer: In touch. Within reach.

could not find hecka but if i do it i will be doing VARL

my dd is in doors as well on wee wee pads - sad :(

zyrtec is for humans as many human meds are used in dogs but consult dermatologist on that

12 weeks will not be harmful to minimize ingredients and home cook - you can give a baby multivitamin from whole foods as derm had us do that but i opted not to as i wanted to be very limited and see if food

yep dd was 6 mos right after all her shots spun out of control

the ear thing yeah i would not use drugs as preventative as she can become immune to antibiotics and meds so i would only use if necessary so discuss with vet

make sure no oatmeal in those shampoos as i believe epi soothe has oatmeal and oatmeal can make them itchy as i use hypoallergenic and oatmeal can be drying - i like dr bronners mild unscented baby shampoo it has all organic ingredients and nothing allergy related

if she is only indoors i really would not do flea meds if you ruled out flea issue and sarcoptic mange with revolution as that is one more chemical agitating her system

we use costco perfume and dye free soap to wash everything in, clean with vinegar and water, have oreck purifiers in two rooms she is in and hypoallergenic filters in both ac units

Just got back from a visit to the dermatologist and sent off some blood to Heska for testing. I also asked the dermatologist about VARL but she thinks Heska has more repeatable results.

For anyone who's curious about pricing, going with either VARL or Heska would cost around $315.

In the meantime, Ruby's is switching to a home-cooked vegetarian diet for 3 weeks (along with half tablet of Zyrtec twice a day) to see if she responds any better so she can restart her food challege. I'd be happy to post the recipe if anyone is interested but it does not look like it will be at all tasty...

Thanks again for all the information, everyone! I feel like Ruby's finally on the right track to getting better :)

yes please post it as curious to see what other dermatologists recommend as going back to ours on 4/1

The following is replicated in the exact format as my printout...I can't explain why certain things are underline or in caps.

Home Cooked Vegetarian Diet (no cooked meats, potato, soy/tofu, rice, corn, pasta or wheat)

ANY FLAVORED PET SUPPLEMENT (LIKE GLUCOSAMINE OR HEARTWORM PREVENTIVE) HAS TO BE SUBSTITUTED WITH A NON-FLAVORED PRODUCT.

The RATIO of food should be:
* 1 cup cooked beans (navy, white, Mung) - smash these before mixing with the other ingredients (they are hard to digest!)
* 1 cup cooked barley, lentil, or millet (if not in the current diet)
* NO MEAT
* 1 cup cooked vegetables (BUTTERNUT squash, green beans, spinach, etc. - NO starchy vegetables like corn and nothing that is in the current diet)
* A dash of salt and a tablespoon of fresh onion for flavor
* 1 - 2 tsp of olive oil

Feed 1/2 - 1 cup of the mixture a day. The guideline is that your pet should neither gain or lose weight with this diet. Be sure to switch to this diet over a few days so as to avoid soft stool or vomiting. IF HE/SHE IS HUNGRY, FEED HER MORE.

If your pet is on the diet for more than 8 weeks, we will want to add a multiple vitamin (Vitaline Hypoallergenic) daily.

thanks just did not like the onion flavor yikes as onions can make dogs anemic so i would avoid that

we used pinto beans, white potato and safflower oil or canola and they wanted her on multivitamin as we did for 12 weeks but i did without as i wanted to rule out food. She would not eat after a while so we added in ground almonds a little to add flavor as i went to whole foods and they ground them up fresh and added a little.

I hope you get some answers on this as my girl still itched while on it while not as bad she still itched :( and 90% of the time it is environmental :(

I had the allergy testing done on Cali and it was about 300.00 a few years ago. That was for food and environmental and the tests showed that she wasn't allergic to anything they tested for. Vet said with environmental it could be anything and they can't test for everything. We finally put her on Atopica and she has been fine since. She had scratched so much of her front hair out and her nose was scabby. The Atopica has been a miracle for her.

Quick Update
 

So Ruby had her blood sent off to Heska for allergy testing on April 1st but it only came back with strong positives on (1) storage mites, (2) flea saliva, (3) pigweed, (4) timothy grass, and (5) American sycamore trees out of the 48 allergens tested for. Her dermatologist was still a bit skeptical about the accuracy of these results and wanted to do an intradermal test just to be sure we had as much info as we needed before formulating the cocktail of allergens for her allergy shots that'll last 6 months ~ 1 year.

Well, that happened today and Ruby is not happy (see picture). However, we did find out that she is EXTREMELY allergic to storage mites (just like Heska's results), dust mites, yeast infections (which are caused by her allergies so it turns into a vicious cycle), and human dander! :( I guess I will need to cover myself up in long sleeves and pants as much as I can (Atlanta is at least 95 degrees daily right now) and stop letting her sleep with me...but who of us wouldn't do ANYthing for our babies to be itch-free and happier.

awe poor baby but at least you have answers and hopefully can make her better. I have an allergy baby too and it is a NIGHTMARE :( keep me posted on the hyposensitization shots as I may just bite the bullet and try it as that and full time home cooking are the only two things I have not done and they say in dry kibble food there are dust mites so you may want to try homecooking as well :)

I too need to bite the bullet. Even though Marcel does well on Atopica, I really don't want him on it the rest of his life and want to see if shots are an option, depending on the allergy testing results. I just can't bring myself to make that appointment and put him thru the testing...but I should...

yeah you can do skin testing done on yours too whereas I cannot as dd cannot be off the steroids for 60 days to do that testing so we will have to do the VARL testing. I think on atopica they can still do the skin testing unlike with temarilp - YOU GO FIRST LOLLLL

Yup, exactly - he doesn't have to be off of the Atopica, like they do w/ steroids, so that is really lucky. YOU go first :p! Ack...I just need to *do* it...just hate anesthesia etc :(.

It looks like they may be able to do it with just sedation...
Sounds like it may be worth it for him. :)

I think Atopica is a good drug, but there is way too much talk about compromised immune system and cancer surrounding it. :( Since it can lead to the development of cancer, it really would concern me long term. :(

yeah with her just have to do the blood test :( just scared she will get worse is my biggest fear and uh giving SHOTS ughhhh that will be a first for me

yes this is why i stopped the atopica because of the big C along with her vomitting as she was on both steroids and atopica so two drugs was another reason.

My vet told me he had an owner who had a bull dog with allergies and the dog was on cyclosporine same as atopica but generic and he got cancer. Then she got another bulldog and it had allergies and it was on cyclosporine and got cancer. He said I do not know if it was just coincidence or not but he wanted me to be aware of this when i started dee dee on atopica. It was always on my mind and since it did not work real well for her I just said forget it.

If it had worked alone without steroids though I might have just kept going with it and taken the risk of cancer though as steroids have their issues too :( NO drug goes without risks sadly