Just letting you know greenies are really bad for the little ones and they have I believe corn in them and the most allergic things for dogs is corn, soy, chicken, beef, wheat that i can think of right now. Also, lunch meat is really high in sodium. Food allergy is usually not as common as environmental allergies per my dermatologist. I have a very allergic girl yorkie since she was 6 mos old and a pancreatic and ibd boy yorkie so have read a lot and about these things. My girl yorkie is on atopica and has been for about 2 1/2 months along with temaril p, hypoallergenic food diet salmon and potato by prescription hills, and suppose to be doing frontline every 3 weeks which I have a hard time with that one as never see fleas and the dermatologist said you have to have frontline plus on an allergy dog every 3 weeks as flea allergy is the number one cause of itchiness in dogs.
The derm says if you cut a dog in half and the front half is itch it could be environmental or food, if the bite the back half mostly it is flea allergy but if they itch all over it is mostly atopic dermatitis or can be a combination of all three so doing flea protection, hypoallergenic diet, bathing 1-2 weeks to wash of allergens, hardwood floors, air purification system, all will help.
I have tried everything holistic vet with herbs and staph lysate injections weekly along with raw food diet for 3-4 months to avoid any steroids. Dr. Pasternak in santa monica, ca.
This all started at 6 months and she will be 3 July 3rd. It has been horrible. We took out our carpet and bought an air purification system in the room she is in. Wash her bedding weekly. She wears a tshirt always as that keeps the allergents from getting on her skin. We keep her hair longer as it is very thin and the hair protects the skin. She wears a sock around her neck as she has a bald neck from skin infections and itching so i had to protect it as it will swell up from itching.
I did the prednisone which i hated and her belly swelled up, she got cumidomes which are brown spots all over her body, and she started showing signs of cushings as that is side effect of pred as well as pancreatitis can come from taking pred which my other dog has and is horrible. I took her off it when my boy got pancreatitis.
Then I did a food elimination diet with pinto beans, safflower oil, and potato to rule out food allergy advised by dermatologist. It helped a little not being on processed food but she hated it and they cannot stay on that diet forever.
My last resort was atopica so i researched alot and it has only been out a little over 2 years and is a human drug for transplant patients to not reject the organs and it does affect the immune system but much safer than steroids as steroids affects all the organs and this mostly liver and kidneys as it is processed through the body. The side effects are much less severe. No bloating or signs of cushings. No weight gain like steroids cause. No excessive thirst and hungriness like steroids.
She is 6lbs and we started at 10mg for 30 days and was not really working as doing it with temaril p to give her relief until drug kicks in as it takes 60 days to kick in. She is now on 20 mg and only for about 3 weeks. She is still itchy but derm says takes 60 days on increased dose for us to tell. This drug works in 80% of dogs:( hoping mine will be one of 80%. She is not as bad as she was before though she has bouts and we bath her and i put pure aloe on her belly, neck elbows and under arms when she gets itchy for relief but the tshirt protects her
I will keep posting on this but read all my responses under my name too
This is not fun and in reading the book allergy solutions for dogs by shawn messonnier, dvm I have learned a lot that atopic dermatitis is not curable but you can try to manage it so they are not miserable
I hate drugs too but do you want to live 10 miserable years or 5 happy years and that is where i came to . I am still searching for answers and talking with
Doniasea@aol.com who is a nutritionist and she had eczema and has educated me a lot on nutrition in animals so if your dog is young and just starting with the allergy stuff before steroids i would do what she says. I just got to her late in the game and started the vicious cycle of steroids and needed immediate relief- she is great though and can help. Another person i am going to call is marina zaccarias who is an herbalist I have heard is great. I am constantly searching for answers and help for my little one and will continue but i needed to get immediate relief and then work backwords as i searched for 2 years trying to avoid steroids and she was miserable.
Also i did 2 allergy blood tests costing $400 each from two different labs which showed slightly different results. I learned blood cannot determine food allergy but it can dertermine environmental allegies. Only elimination diet can determine food allergy. Proteins are the cause of allergies- pollen is a protein as well as proteins in foods and those are the cause of itchiness in dogs so you have to be careful to not try a bunch of different dog foods before doing an elimination diet as then it will be harded to find a novel protein like i had to use pinto beans
Get to the specialist - dermatologist as they have to go to further education than a vet by 2 years, and then do an internship, then take board exam to be certified. They will start with flea protection and elimination diet first. They do not like going to drugs. They like to do immuno therapy - allergy shots - i did not do it those as heard they do not work in all dogs but may at a future date. My vet said the problem with that is they can be allergic to 100 things and can only fit 12 things in a vile :( so that is why it is hard to get good results with allergy shots but worth the shot when they are young.
