Gum Scratching And Eye Rubbing

[Guest mpayzant]

We adopted Margot about 3 months ago and she started to rub her eyes and scratch her gums shortly after we adopted her (she may have been doing this before that, but we’re not sure). Her eyes began to look a little raw and she would sometimes scratch her gums until they bled. Upon seeing this, we took her to the vet and he put her on antibiotics for her gums (he thought it could be inflamed salivary glands) and said her eyes could be cause by allergies and to give her benadryl for that.

 

Well, it’s been about 4-5 weeks and both problems still exist. She is still rubbing her eyes and she is still scratching her gums until they bleed (if she can get that far, because we now stop her and rub them for her so she doesn’t do anymore damage to herself). I am making a vet appointment today, but I just wanted to see if anyone has experienced this before and, if so, what was the problem(s).

 

When we took her to the vet, he said her teeth looked great, so I don't know if that's it. We also switched her food to a lamb and rice formula thinking it might be food allergies... no luck there either.)

 

 

 

[Guest Cris_M]

Sounds to me like both problems could be allergy related -- perhaps some form of contact dermatitis. It could come from any number of sources -- fertilizer on the lawn, new carpets, the detergent you use to wash her bedding, etc. Did the benedryl help at all?

[Guest mpayzant]

Sounds to me like both problems could be allergy related -- perhaps some form of contact dermatitis. It could come from any number of sources -- fertilizer on the lawn, new carpets, the detergent you use to wash her bedding, etc. Did the benedryl help at all?

 

 

It just seems like the benadryl makes her a little drowsy. She still wakes up scratching like crazy every morning no matter what, but by the afternoon it's usually not as bad. That is a good point about the detergent though. Since she does scratch more in the morning so maybe I'll look into switching the detergent.

 

Thank you for the input!

[ahicks51]

Howdy from Chandler! Any chance you know Margot's racing name?

 

Coco was the same way when we first got him; he eventually got to scratching his eye so bad it would bleed. We tried a few things, and nothing really worked. While on "vacation," one of the good people with the adoption group took him to the adoption group's vet (we should have taken him ourselves, but we were so new to greyhound), and he was put on prednisone. He immediately responded- partly by stopping the scratching, but also by peeing the floor a lot!

 

We tapered him down to 5 mg every other day, and I eventually got him to the point where I could give him half of a 5 mg tab every other day. We started feeding raw food, and I later stopped the pills entirely. That was several months ago. We occasionally feed Kirkland brand dog food, and he doesn't itch appreciably more when fed that.

 

So- it may be environmental, in which case it seems to have diminished quickly. Or it could be a dietary allergy- in which case whatever allergen we were feeding has gone away.

 

You can run allergy tests until you're broke and blue in the face, but quick-and-dirty elimination seems to be the route of least resistance; take out ALL corn and wheat, and see what happens. It gets trickier from there.

[Guest mpayzant]

Howdy from Chandler! Any chance you know Margot's racing name?

 

Coco was the same way when we first got him; he eventually got to scratching his eye so bad it would bleed. We tried a few things, and nothing really worked. While on "vacation," one of the good people with the adoption group took him to the adoption group's vet (we should have taken him ourselves, but we were so new to greyhound), and he was put on prednisone. He immediately responded- partly by stopping the scratching, but also by peeing the floor a lot!

 

We tapered him down to 5 mg every other day, and I eventually got him to the point where I could give him half of a 5 mg tab every other day. We started feeding raw food, and I later stopped the pills entirely. That was several months ago. We occasionally feed Kirkland brand dog food, and he doesn't itch appreciably more when fed that.

 

So- it may be environmental, in which case it seems to have diminished quickly. Or it could be a dietary allergy- in which case whatever allergen we were feeding has gone away.

 

You can run allergy tests until you're broke and blue in the face, but quick-and-dirty elimination seems to be the route of least resistance; take out ALL corn and wheat, and see what happens. It gets trickier from there.

 

Hello!! It's great to hear from someone in my own backyard! Margot's racing name was TNJ Crossfire and was brought to us from Tucson.

 

I went through the ingredients of the lamb and rice formula, and it seems like it's wheat and corn free (unless rice and flaxseed are considered a wheat), but it hasn't made anything better, so I'll be looking into something else. Before long, I'm guessing that we'll be looking into the raw diet.

 

Thank you for the advice!

[GeorgeofNE]

Here's a link to a good vet's office web site that has a library on all kinds of things--this link relates to food allergies.

 

Marvista Vet

 

Lamb is now so common it is no longer used as a food allergy trial food.

[ahicks51]

Hello!! It's great to hear from someone in my own backyard! Margot's racing name was TNJ Crossfire and was brought to us from Tucson.

 

I went through the ingredients of the lamb and rice formula, and it seems like it's wheat and corn free (unless rice and flaxseed are considered a wheat), but it hasn't made anything better, so I'll be looking into something else. Before long, I'm guessing that we'll be looking into the raw diet.

 

Thank you for the advice!

 

Well, raw isn't a solution to everything- it *is* a good way to help isolate potential allergens, in the sense that a bag of kibble can have 20-30 or more ingredients. Compare with raw food which can be 5-6 components a week, or less. Sometimes it's as simple as changing foods, be it to raw or to another brand of kibble.

 

You might consider consulting with Dr. Gary Yocham over at Southside Animal Hospital. They don't take appointments- it's walk-in only, and they take a long lunch. Dr. Yocham used to be the track vet for Phoenix Greyhound Park, and he is the "go-to" guy for cryptic greyhound problems. At the very least, a tiny dose of pred might make all the difference until you can determine the nature of the problem.

 

If you do decide to go with raw, I highly recommend von Hanson's Meats in Chandler, on Alma School.

 

http://www.yellowbot.com/von-hansons-meats...handler-az.html

 

I am still working on a 40-pound case of chicken carcasses I got from there, and between that and the 60-pound case of beef heart I carved up a few weeks ago, it's an effective way to feed if you can store that much meat. von Hanson's also gets in chicken necks, turkey necks (which are pretty expensive in relative terms), that sort of thing. Call first to see if they have what you want in stock. Last I checked, they had 5 cases of the chicken I mention above (chicken frames or something like that), which are largely de-fleshed bits of bone that still have considerable meat on them.

[Guest Cris_M]

You should be able to rule out food allergies pretty easily for Margot since she started developing a problem AFTER she got to your house. Simply call the adoption agency and find out what she was fed. Feed that and absolutely nothing else. If the problem clears up, then she has a food related allergy. If the problem persists, she probably does not.

 

And, I agree with Ahicks51. Allergy tests can cost you a lot and not give any working results. If an allergy doesn't show up, all you'll get out of it is that they didn't test for every possible allergan.

 

Let us know how Margot does.

[Guest mpayzant]

Thank you to everyone who gave their advice! I took her to the vet tonight and he seems pretty baffled by her gums. He said the area that she's scratching (on both sides)isn't what he typically sees in dogs with allergies. So, we didn't figure anything out, but I will be switching food again until we can make some headway.

 

Hopefully I'll have another post in a couple of weeks that is good news!

 

Thanks again!