Any tips for a dog with skin allergy?

[blueST]

Our Basset has developed a skin allergy that manifests as a red rash all along his underside and his paws must get itchy as we catch him trying to lick/nibble them. We suspect it s related to grass or some other vegetation as it really flares up when we walk him off road. We've been studiously following the vets diagnostic process to try to eliminate any cause at home, so different food, bedding, no air fresheners etc etc. but no improvement. We've some form of of medicated shampoo and he's been on steroids for a while which alleviate it to some extent. Next step is skin and blood tests n a week or so.

We would really like to get on top of this as we live in the countryside so keeping him away from vegetation is not easy. Plus, he loves snuffling around in the weeds and I like going exploring with him. Does anyone have any advise that might be useful? Failing that I guess we just see what the vet turns up and stick to the roads.

[s2rv]

I hope your dog is insured, as one of my dogs has a grass allergy plus possibly other undiagnosed allergies. He was allergy tested at the vets, which wasn’t cheap. Once he was diagnosed as being allergic to various pollen types he was put on tablets called atopica (circa 200 quid a month off internet vet suppliers) which calmed his allergy somewhat. He is also on human hayfever tablets and hayfever liquid.

This has been going on for 6 years and probably 100+ vets visits, but originally he was on steroid tablets and steroid cream too (I wouldn't use steroids again as it caused more problems than it solved). They were possibly a contributing factor to him getting an infection in his spine which cost around 6k to sort out after having an mri and being on high power antibiotics and 2 types of painkiller, one was really expensive.

Now he is an old boy and has arthritis, he goes to a treadmill in a pool for muscle exercise, as a side benefit to this we have found his paws etc are better now he goes in chlorinated water once a week.

Also a spray called cortavance helps too.

We also found switching him from dry food to frozen raw minced meat has helped too.

It has been a long and hard journey, which took us years of vets trips and possibly more that 20k to get to where we are now (ws each year we max his insurance out) Hopefully you don't have the same journey as we did with Bunjo. It's been hard, but,I know we have really improved his quality of life and he is now manageable, for which he thanks us in the ways he knows best.

One final note, we also found that damp/wet footpaths caused issues with his paws getting infected and we used to have to clean them after every walk with a medicated product called hibiscrub, then dry them.

Hopefully your dog hasn't got anything similar or as involved as Bunjo, but, if so, hopefully you can save yourself lots of trial and error. I'm no vet, just telling you our journey. Also, different vet practices have different ideas of what is wrong and different methods of treating and easing the symptoms.

Edited by s2rv on Wednesday 15th July 13:57

[LordHaveMurci]

Believe my OH gives her Westie Piriton when he shows symptoms. Food can make a difference too, we changed ours to Burns Fish & Brown rice which helped.

[Jasandjules]

If you are willing to look at alternatives message me, may know something that could help.

[smn159]

Our Lab has this. Countless vets visits and allergy tests and never anything conclusive being turned up. Moving to a higher quality food without the ingredients that he's allergic to helped, but that's about it. It goes away completely in the winter and doesn't seem to bother him too much in the summer, so we live with it.

[bexVN]

Has your vet discussed Apoquel,if not ask them about it. The only problem is they had such a massively good response to this new medication that it is in very short supply, vets get a monthly allocation!!

Bassetts and skin not great.

Use limited protein Hills Z/D ultra uses protein molecules that are unique so the animal won't have been exposed before. Maybe worth looking into initially then after 8 weeks slowly introduce other foods (again discuss with your vet)

[blueST]

bexVN said:

Has your vet discussed Apoquel,if not ask them about it. The only problem is they had such a massively good response to this new medication that it is in very short supply, vets get a monthly allocation!!

Bassetts and skin not great.

Use limited protein Hills Z/D ultra uses protein molecules that are unique so the animal won't have been exposed before. Maybe worth looking into initially then after 8 weeks slowly introduce other foods (again discuss with your vet)

Thanks all for you advise. The rash doesn't seem to bother him, he doesn't scratch, just his paws seem to be an annoyance.

I will speak to the vet about Apoquel at the next visit. A switch to hills Z/D has got to be worth a try too. He is insured so hopefully that will soften the financial blow sure to follow!

[rambo19]

I have a 3 yr old JRT who did have bad rash problems.

After a bit of digging on the net, ive started using this;
http://www.monsterpetsupplies.co.uk/p-21121-yumega...

With this;
http://www.aromesse.com/skin-problem/petnat-dermac...

The difference has been amazing!
Well worth trying.

[S800VXR]

Our British Bulldog got this allot worse this year than before. Previously some medicated shampoo and a regular wash would control things enough but not this year so off to the vets and we ended up on steroids. She is now like a 2 year old and much much happier bearing in mind she is coming up to 8 in November. Once we finished the original course we have slowly cut the dose back to the lowest which still works and alls well. No 2s are firm which is a good sign that she is tolerating the drug well and hopefully after the summer we can come off then as winter time is not an issue.

Worth considering drugs as they do have their uses.....

[Mexican cuties]

Defo get the blood tests done asap, not cheap but at least you will know what you are dealing with, our nali is allergic to storage and dust mites so everything washed in hot wash, toys, bedding etc, just ordered some injection course that should help, due in next week, quite frustrating, but some good tips and advice on here, good luck

[blueST]

Just realised I never updated this. On the vets advice, we didn't have any blood tests done as it seemed pretty obvious it's a grass allergy. So instead we're now on a course of some tablets called Atopic. They seem to relieve the symptoms, and help them clear up more quickly, but it isn't 100% effective.

I think my Wife asked about Apoquel, I wasn't there, and apparently it was not available to the vet at present. But she isn't sure as she couldn't remember the name so they may been talking about something totally different!

However, since Autumn seems to have arrived, the allergy appears to have gone of its own accord so we'll probably not worry about it and see if it returns.