Accidental new vet and alergy testing

[SaranBear]

Sorry long.... as usual..

I just really noticed yesterday that in the past week or so Bear's eye boogies have slowly stopped. So far so good on the ear infections, and he is much less itchy ( as far as I can tell).

At our last vet appointment our vet was out and we ended up getting a different vet. WELL this vet looked at Bear's chart and ALL the ear infections and she said, this dog has allergies. So due to the seasonal aspect of the ear infections she thought it was inhalant allergies, but also because of his eye boogies and armpit and paw itchiness/licking she thought he might have food allergies too.
Apparently dogs with one type of allergy are prone to other types..I have also read that many of the symptoms are the same for both allergies.

So she prescribed him temaril-p. In addition I felt it was a good idea to start getting rid of grain in his diet as it's a pretty common allergen. We switched him to Innova Evo. Things looked better, but it seemed like he was still itchy. I really had a feeling it was grain and so I looked at the ingredients of the "pill pockets" we used to give him his temaril and that had wheat in it. About 2 weeks ago we stopped using the pill pockets. SOoooo...... now with no grains, temaril every other day as needed, and Evo he is having eye boogie free days!! yay! He is still licking his paws, and armpits, but with less frequency. Face rubbing has recently stopped as well. We are hoping that as he is on this food longer the symptoms will completely stop. (it has only been about 3-4 weeks)

So I think we might be keeping our new "accidental" vet, because she was at least willing to address the allergy issue. It seems the changes we made have made an improvement, but I have been wondering if we should have skin/blood tests done to really determine what he is allergic to. I have read that some of the tests aren't very definitive. I have also read that if they do figure out what allergens are causing this they can give him a series of shots.... so has anyone had this done? The literature I've read is a little confusing.

I am also a little concerned because I know temaril-p is a steroid and I have read that there are negative effects if you keep a dog on this for a prolonged period of time. I don't want him to be itchy, but I am not sure that temaril is a safe way to manage this....Thoughts, advice..... all welcomed.

[hmeadq]

Our dog had similar symptoms, although the vet said allergies at visit 2. We switched to EVO, what a great choice for us. We found we needed to supplement with green beans though, because to keep his weight stable he only gets 2 cups a day.

This spring we got face rubbing, paw licking, and a couple small hot spots again. We put him on Clemastine. Great success. The vet assures us it is seasonal, and in a couple more weeks we'll pull him off those and we should be good until fall (when he reacted last year).

So you may have some success with non-steroid medications...

Personally I'd wait and see if I could manage them before I started testing, many of the likely culprates are inhaled and you cannot avoid them...

Good luck

[tuckersmum]

Tucker was scratching so badly when i first got him, he got Frontline, and a bath before i could get him in to his appt w/ the vet. She immediately recognized it as inhalant allergies (EVERYBODY has allergies here in N. Texas) and prescribed temaril-p for a week, and that did the trick, since he's been off of it his scratching is only once in awhile, thank goodness, cause my poor baby was miserable.

[2rotties2luv]

My rottie Jazz had allergy symptoms for several years which I tried to treat by repeatedly changing his food. He had eye irritation and infections, ear infections, skin infections and face rubbing and paw licking and chewing. The symptoms would come and go, generally getting worse in the winter and better in the spring.

The skin infections got so bad that they formed cysts which had to be surgically removed. One of the cysts was biopsied and showed to be loaded with eosinophils which is characteristic of an allergic reaction. My vet then suggested a blood test for allergies called a RAST test. It showed that he had a severe allergy to dust mites.

For the remainder of his life he received allergy shots. The vet showed me how to give the shots (subcutaneous - very easy) and I gave them monthly. I had to purchase a vial of the allergen solution once a year, and the vet supplied me with the syringes.

The allergy shots made a dramatic difference in his allergy symptoms. After a few months, they had pretty much disappeared.

I know that the RAST test isn't very reliable for picking up food allergies - but - you CAN use it to rule out the presence of other types of environmental allergies and go from there.