Allergy issues- any one's advice/viewpoints
 

After waiting a week AFTER her allergy results, the doc called me today and dropped a bombshell on us. I feel as if I was hit with a pillow case a thousand times. If that makes sense. Like a soft bomb was dropped on us.

she's allergic- these are the highlights only.

Timothy grass (all over az)
Sage bush
mosquitoes, honey bees
wool (all of this is positive, not borderline)

Cotton blends and quite a few other things borderline

Foods
Chicken. That one gets us. We eliminated everything from her diet and she showed POSITIVE and encouraging signs with chicken.
Cows milk.
Salmon
Turkey
eggs (borderline)
Rabbit
Potatoes
Carrots (again, oh my god)

She can have lamb, beef, venison, sweet potatoes, rice, green beans, green peas, apples, bananas. More, but she heard some of what we add to her diet, and gave us the highlights

we'll get the full report in the morning. I'm.. tired, like I said, I was full of energy and this news just sobered us right up.

I've read, but I don't understand fully how desensitizing her won't help. Timothy grass is ALL they have here. We've been making her sick on her daily walks, and I feel horrible! Our carpet IS a wool blend! I don't know what to do from here. Yes, we are making an appointment, and the doc gave us a list of what we can feed her right away. Currently boiling bison and getting rid of the carrots. Thank god we don't feed her potatoes.

I have heard the blood test aren't always that reliable with food. Is your vet going to put her on allergy meds or shots?

That's what we'll discuss for the addisons test in a week. We have a report as a stop gap measure- all commercial and homemade "safe" foods, and then we discuss our next step. She's already being treated for allergies; Apoquel. We just need to see if we want to try the desensitizing, or treat the symptoms. I've read from Ann something against the desensitizing, but I'm not sure which post and what it entails, so I posted on here.

Thankfully, I was mixing up bermuda and timothy, so that's a relief.

I wish I could say "do the desensitizing, it works like a dream!"....but, unforch, it just doesn't work that great for many dogs. Your vet should be able to tell you the stats on % of dogs for whom it works - it's not the most encouraging stat.

That said, Chewie *could* be one of those kiddos where, for whatever reasons, it works. That's what makes this decision a tough one.

If I were you, and had the financial means -- I'd probably go ahead and give the therapy a try. Bc if it worked, it'd be fantastic.

For our Marcel...we first tried injections (and OMG if a 4lb dog does NOT want a shot from you, um, you will not be able to give it, trust!)(we literally tried everything to give that shot). So then we moved to the Allerdrops, which was a billion times easier.

We did this for about 3 years, and really saw pretty much no difference at all. Bummer.

So now, we do just the Apoquel (he also does great on Atopica) to mitigate the immune response.

Allergies are horrible! My girl is allergic to all kinds of inhalants (trees, grasses). We tried several different OTC meds and RX meds after blood testing combined with allergy injections. Nothing worked. It was awful! Constant scratching, mutilating herself. 24/7 in clothes should would eventually scratch holes in, thin hair. Pitiful.

Decided to head to a dermatologist at UT. Amazing difference after they did under the skin allergy testing and we started new injections. She is now well controlled on bi-weekly allergy shots, 1/2 a zyrtec daily and RC potato & white fish food. She hasn't been challenged on food for allergies since her current diet has been working well for her. No more clothes and her coat is beautiful!

Thank you to both Ann and Chena. This is great information. I'm sorry, I get the apoquel confused, because she was on that first. But, the Tameril-P is what she's on. The steroid is needed; So we'll be commencing with the other testing as well.

Yeah, I can see what you're saying.. we'll go ahead and try desensitizing. HOPEFULLY it'll work on some of it, if not all. It can't hurt, you're right.

I'm already guessing that giving a shot to a strong autistic boy is easier than my 4.5 pounder (as you know it goes from 4 to just under 5 so lol, lets say 4.5)

...and giving a shot to my boy wasn't easy. So, I'm going to say I'm already anticipating the shots a no go.

Chewie has always done this cute little rubbing brows from her eyes. We realize that she's doing it when the tameril is needed, as right now it's every other day. I THINK the dose needs to be adjusted. She's great, but always the night before her next dose is when the itchy, licking my feet frantically and gulping, etc, starts.

I'm glad your girl is doing so much better! That has to be heartbreaking to watch. I'm glad she was able to get the right help!!

I recommend the prescription royal canin hypoallergenic. It has a man made protein in it so they can not be allergic to it. My girl has IBD which is from food allergies and this food has made an amazing deference in her life. The have it in small breed which the pieces are a little smaller and that's what i have to get because Callie will only eat small pieces.

I looked at the ingredients- although it sounded fantastic, there is chicken in it; and she's most allergic to chicken and cows milk. There are a ton of other things that she's allergic to, carrots, corn, barley, beets, to name a few.

No there is no Chicken in it all all. Like I said its a man made protein. The blood testing for allergies is not necessarily very right I have heard this from many vets. The only real way to test food allergies is a food trial. All dogs are lactose intolerant so cows milk is bad for them all. Its actually called the hydrolyzed not hypoallergenic now. You might want to talk to your vet about trying it and seeing how it goes. I would post a link but the Royal Canin website is not playing nice with my computer for some reason.

I meant to say the vets told me the only way to really no true food allergy's is an elimination diet. Sometimes blood tests are wrong with the food. If I could make the darn website work I would look at the others but my computer is not liking it. I did see it had chicken fat but that's not really the same thing as chicken.

there are several here to look at. I'm lacking sleep so ignore my other posts lol
https://www.royalcanin.com/products/...od-sensitivity
hills and purina may have different ones to but Royal Canin is supposed to taste a bit better.

I'm definitely not calling you a liar; I just wanted to show you the ingredient list, and I also looked on her eating list.. while I show you I'm grabbing the page of listed appropriate kibble. I don't see it on there, (posting the ingredients) but it did say it didn't have everything approved. yes, I also saw the pet smart person say no animal traces, but it does say it. beets, too. Here:

Brewers rice, hydrolyzed soy protein, chicken fat, dried plain beet pulp, natural flavors, monocalcium phosphate, sodium silico aluminate, vegetable oil, calcium carbonate, fish oil, fructooligosaccharides, potassium chloride, L-tyrosine, salt, taurine, vitamins [DL-alpha tocopherol acetate (source of vitamin E), inositol, niacin supplement, L-ascorbyl-2-polyphosphate (source of vitamin C), D-calcium pantothenate, biotin, pyridoxine hydrochloride (vitamin B6), riboflavin supplement, thiamine mononitrate (vitamin B1), vitamin A acetate, folic acid, vitamin B12 supplement, vitamin D3 supplement], choline chloride, marigold extract (Tagetes erecta L.), trace minerals (zinc proteinate, zinc oxide, ferrous sulfate, manganese proteinate, copper proteinate, copper sulfate, manganous oxide, calcium iodate, sodium selenite), rosemary extract, preserved with mixed tocopherols and citric acid.

I tried to edit my post after I reread and it was to late I didn't mean to come off as kinda nasty, my mind is jumbled a bit today. I looked at some of the other allergy formulas and they seemed better if you wanted to look at them. Mine doesn't have the brewers rice maybe because it's the small breed version it's a bit different. I donno. If you go to Royal Canin's website they have a veterinary diet spot and you can look at the allergy formulas. I saw at least two that I don't think have any of the stuff she can't have but I couldn't see them all because they wouldn't load. They seem to have more available then when Callie went on hers.