Anyone w/a dog w/allergies?

[yessisan]

My poor Bear has allergies that won’t go away. He won’t stop scratching, and he’s losing a lot of his coat underneath his front legs. I took him to the vet and we got some allergy pills and some corn-free food. Bear devoured the food in 3 weeks (he usually takes longer to eat a 20 lb bag of dry food since he hates dry food - just so you know, he’s a 70 lb dog). The pills were only for 2 wks, and now that he ran out of his food and the pills, the symptoms are back. Poor baby! He won’t stop biting his front feet, or his sides. He bites so much, he has scabs on his sides. The vet did say they were allergies because of where the itching and irritation occur.

Has anyone had this problem with your dog? How did you get it treated? Do you recommend anything? I hate having my poor dog scratching away all day, I get so desperate, I try to stay away since I don’t know how to help him. He cries to me looking at me like “please do something to make it stop!”. It’s so bad it breaks my heart! Anyone???

 

[kage_ar]

Yep - our shiba inu, every year it was shots and special food and chewing and bleeding bald spots.

We have found that if we committ to grooming her, a brush that gets right down through the undercoat to the skin, and we do it every single day - we have NO MORE CHEWING/SCRATCHING.

It is worth a try!

 

[yessisan]

Yep - our shiba inu, every year it was shots and special food and chewing and bleeding bald spots.

We have found that if we committ to grooming her, a brush that gets right down through the undercoat to the skin, and we do it every single day - we have NO MORE CHEWING/SCRATCHING.

It is worth a try!

The only thing is that Bear would look very funny w/short hair… but it might be worth the try, however, my dad had a dog just like mine and used to shave her during the summer and the vet reprimanded us… he said dogs like these need their coat during the hot weather to keep them cool… You see, he’s like a golden retriever in black… my poor pooch!

(Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)

 

[sandraladeda]

My dear dog Beau had some problems, I switched him to a partial BARF (bones and raw food) diet. He gets a raw meat patty, and I also feed him a kibble made from halibut and sweet potatoes. His coat is gorgeous, and no problems.

The patties I give him are made by Urban Carnivore. I get them at a specialty pet food store. We have several to choose from here is Calgary.

we joke that our dog is better fed than we are! However, if you consider the cost of endless vet visits, and the stress of an uncomfortale dog, open wounds, wearing one of those dog bonnets to keep from licking the wounds, it’s worth it to me. I also lost my last golden to cancer at 5 years old, so I am only too happy to do everything I can to keep my beautiful meathead healthy

Good luck!

 

[Wolseley]

Our dog (4-yr old Black Lab/English Pointer mix) gets the same thing every year. It’s a seasonal thing, and this is just about the right time of year for it----late summer, early fall, when the goldenrod starts to pop. The poor thing scratches and digs at himself constantly and chews the hair off the inside fronts of his legs.

The only thing that’s ever helped him is Cephalexin, which is actually usually prescribed for mange, even though he doesn’t have mange. The vet says it’s something he’s picking up by running around outside this time of year; some plant or other. We take him in and he gets (usually) a couple courses of 500mg tablets, two capsules every 12 hours with food.

It’s worth it to have him settle down and not being so miserable with the itch.

 

[maryjk]

Benadryl…

Yes, those little pink pills.

12.5 mg per 10lbs of dog.

My 40lb dog can get two 50mg pills up to every 8 hours. We had to do this last weekend, when she ate a bee.

No, its not great for long term. But my previous dog was allergic to the grass at our new home. So, every morning during the spring, she would get Benadryl. Just once a day was enough to stop all of the itching.

 

[yessisan]

I had given him claritin once and it didn’t seem to work, but I didn’t dare to give them to him more than twice. When the vet gave him the prescription meds, they worked, but they are expensive.

My poor dog has had this ever since we moved to our new home which is since March 9th. Gosh, I wish I knew what in the house he’s allergic to!!! The vet said maybe pollen from the fruit trees, maybe the grass? But when my parents kept him for me he didn’t have any allergies…

 

[Feanaro_s_Wife]

**Raw food diet. I also posted on the cat allergy thread…

Our dog suffered for years before we switched him to a species appropriate diet. Made a world of difference!

malia

ps our dog is named bear too:thumbsup:
**

 

[yessisan]

Raw food diet. I also posted on the cat allergy thread…

Our dog suffered for years before we switched him to a species appropriate diet. Made a world of difference!

malia

ps our dog is named bear too:thumbsup:

I wonder how many dogs out there are named “Bear”?? So, what kind of food is this raw food diet? I don’t want to sound like a blond (which I am ), but I don’t think you mean raw meat out of the fridge, do you??

I had purchased prescription kibble food for Bear and he LOVED it, it was duck and potatoes. Now, he’s on lamb and rice by nature’s choice. He eats it, but it’s not his favorite. It takes him 1.5 days to eat 2 cups of it, and for a big dog like him, that’s not enough food!!! And because he’s so big, I cannot keep him indoors, he’d destroy the house in a second, he’s too playful, and absolutely loooooves to follow DH around (traitor, we got him for me ).

I hate to see him scratching so much. My sister’s Shi-Tzu (Pepper) has the same thing. Pepper is on the same meds Bear was on, and now my sister got him some powder vitamin supplements. She says it should take about 2-3 wks to see a difference in the scratching, and if it works, I will get some for Bear too. I think it’s called Dinovite?? Yup, I just called her and she said it is… dinovite. I found another brand called Biotin online today. I wonder if I should buy it anyway, animals do need vitamins too…

Have you tried anything like this on Bear?

 

[SMHW]

Our previous terriers had terrible skin problems.
naturalbalanceinc.com/

We feed our current dog Natural Balance and have had very few problems (except during the worst part of flea season). They have a duck and potato kind of kibble which is available without prescription for dogs prone to allergies. Although I haven’t seen it locally they are evidently coming out with a raw food line.

(They also make food for cats.)

We can get it at either our specialty pet store or at any of the chain stores like Petco or Petsmart.

 

[yessisan]

Our previous terriers had terrible skin problems.
naturalbalanceinc.com/

We feed our current dog Natural Balance and have had very few problems (except during the worst part of flea season). They have a duck and potato kind of kibble which is available without prescription for dogs prone to allergies. Although I haven’t seen it locally they are evidently coming out with a raw food line.

(They also make food for cats.)

We can get it at either our specialty pet store or at any of the chain stores like Petco or Petsmart.

Natural Balance! That’s the brand I meant to say Bear is eating. I wonder if they sell the raw formula in northern California. I know someone in my Retrouvaille group who works for this company. I’ll ask him tonight!

 

[nobody]

Benadryl helped my dog too - she would bite and lick her legs and paws raw in September. Now I start giving her the Benadryl (generic version) in August. It helps.

 

[Feanaro_s_Wife]

I wonder how many dogs out there are named “Bear”??

LOL, we really wanted something more unique but every time a new person saw him they would say “oh my, he looks just like a little bear!!!”. So it just kinda stuck.

So, what kind of food is this raw food diet? I don’t want to sound like a blond (which I am ), but I don’t think you mean raw meat out of the fridge, do you??
**
Yes, raw meat but with the right ratio of muscle to bone. If you google raw food for dogs you’ll get more info than you could ever go through. If you go to Urban Carnivore’s website they break it down pretty well for a beginner to understand (or at least it did years ago…). There are also tons of groups (I belong to a few on Yahoo) that can help. It basically boils down to what a dog was designed to eat. It sure wasn’t grain or cooked meat. Raw meat and a few veggies is all they need.

malia
**

 

[sandraladeda]

I wonder how many dogs out there are named “Bear”?? So, what kind of food is this raw food diet? I don’t want to sound like a blond (which I am ), but I don’t think you mean raw meat out of the fridge, do you??

Definitely NOT the raw food out of your fridge. The meat we humans eat is prepared with the expecation of cooking, thus the elimination of bacteria is not as thorough as with raw pet food.

Here is a link to the company I use, not to promote them to you, but because they have an education section to learn more about raw food.

urbancarnivore.com/

I think the whole idea is that if a dog was once a wild animal, and in the wild, it ate what it killed, that diet should still be ideal for the dog. A wolf kills, say, a rabbit, and eats nearly the whole rabiit - entrails, bones, organs, stomach contents, marrow, etc. Don’t worry about the bones, they are not a danger to pets because they have not been made brittle and hard through cooking.

My Beau gets rabbit, elk, bison, beef, chicken, goose, lamb. He loves his patty! He gets one a day, I pull it from the freezer, defrost in the microwave for about 2-3 minutes, and he is ready to dine.

 

[kage_ar]

BTW, grooming for us is not cutting/shaving hair, just a good deep brushing every day with a brush that is designed for her fur type.

 

[Zooey]

Generic benadryl is going to work better & cost less than any other allergy med.
But I would check out the diet very closely. I just posted this over on the cats with allergies thread, but my best friend had a Sheltie for many years, who had terrible allergies. He was a rescue, she was trying to give him the best food to build him back up, & the food she was giving him was based on lamb…He was, logically enough for a sheepdog, allergic to lamb, probably because that is the one food no shepherd would ever feed to his dog…

And I had a pug, 35 years ago, who ate “people food”. Lots of brown rice, vegetables & fruit, and a lot of meat. (Cooked). Cleared up allergies, and it made him a very happy boy, too…

All the grains that animals get…When is the last time you saw a dog (or a cat!) pulling ears of sweet corn off the stalks?? And yet most foods are based on corn because it is cheaper & readily available.

 

[Eliza10]

I don’t have a dog, but I once told a friend about how MSM helped me not have my annual fall allergies, and she tried it for her dog, and it worked!

I suggest you reseasrch allergies-MSM-dog on the internet and see what you come up with. MSM is cheap, and safe as vitamin C. It is great for hair/skin/nails as well as allergies and arthritis.

Also try researching alternative-pet-health-allergies and see what you come up with. Because there might be a less expensive/less invasive options than what your vet has to offer.

(if you want to try the MSM, price it. It might be cheaper to add people-MSM to the dogfood rather than buy a special formulated pet supplement.)