Food Allergies Vs Environmantal Allergies

[Guest ms3569]

I adopted a male greyhound in December. He was on Costco brand food when we got him. We have no Costco's in our area. We switched his food to Nutro Natural Choice chicken, brown rice and oatmeal for sensitive skin and stomach. After having him 1 month we noticed loss of hair and a rash on his rear right leg. He was treated with a steroid/antibiotic ointment with fast resolution of symptoms. Unfortunately that only lasted and the symptoms reoccurred in March. He saw a different vet. in the group who felt it might be food allergies. She put him on Hill's Z/D formula with no other treats or kibble of any kind for 2 months. He also was given generic Zyrtec to take twice daily. He did have some resolution of symptoms. He had good hair re-growth and the rash improved. He did have some odd skin changes after being on the food about 5 weeks. The skin areas were irregularly shaped and had a rim of hair loss but broken off hair in the middle of the area. The area was checked for fungal infections and mange and was negative for both. My dog doesn't lick or scratch at these areas. Now for my question his vet. has recommended re-introducing pet store quality dog food but has suggested staying away from kibble with chicken or beef. She also has recommended getting food for sensitive skin. Can anyone give me some suggestions where to start? He's also being continued on Zyrtec in case the allergies are environmental. Thank You I appreciate anyone's comments that has experience with a dog with skin allergies.

[XTRAWLD]

Sounds very similar to what we went through with Kasey. He is allergic to chicken, pork, kelp, oatmeal and grass. These are his majors and as you are learning, these are commonly found in many kibbles on the shelves, very hard to get away from all of these even on an LTD. After literally DOZENS of different kibbles, one that worked best was Natural Balance Salmon and Sweet Potato. BUT we were only able to narrow down to this after doing a blood test to rule out his major allergies. If you don't go through some type of testing (blood and/or skin) to see what he's sensitive with, you will just be running around in circles trying to resolve this problem, if indeed it is related to allergies. The trick with a lot of this, is getting him on a food he has NEVER been exposed to before....meaning more exotic - like kangaroo, elk, etc. Obviously, these foods aren't cheap, but you can go that route if the LTD's you are on aren't working. You also must be diligent to not giving him anything else - no human scraps, no cookies or treats. Food trials are usually 6 weeks in duration to really determine if your switch is making a difference - has it been that long for you to move onto another food?

 

To aid in strengthening the skin and trying to do some hair re-growth, try Dermoscent, available through your vet. It's a capsule that's administered between the shoulder blades much like a heartworm med. We tried to beef up a barrier between his skin and the environment with this. Medically we then moved onto prednisone to deal with it, because he just had too many allergies to food and environments to have a good quality of life. Knowing results could still be better for him, we got him off kibble completely and moved to raw. Best decision ever. That really should have been the first move after the blood testing. It's a shame we didn't do that route earlier. Would have saved a lot of time, effort and grief. Very little flare ups with the raw and pred combination and he's been on it for the past 6 years. Feel free to PM me if you are interested. We spent years on resolving his problems. If you are committed, it's a long road but it doesn't have to be too difficult.

[cleptogrey]

Having allergies myself, both food and environmental I might suggest eliminating everything but white rice. Then add one protein source at a time and see what he reacts to. This is not an over night process. Also a round of predispose might be necessary to halt the allergic reactions. You should be able to avoid costly tests and slowly figure out what he is reacting to, food/environmental or both.it'sa matter of being strict with food and also a battle with the environment. Give his bedding an extra rinse with vinegar to get the soap out.

Edited July 3, 2015 by cleptogrey

[DesiRayMom]

Here's my 2 cents..... I had an allergy dog years ago, and as I am more of an "instant gratification" kind of girl,

rather than months of "trial & error" I bit the bullet, coughed up a credit card & had him allergy tested. In that case,

he was allergic to anything green, grass, weeds, trees, etc. but his highest numbers of all were dust & storage mites.

I wound up managing him quite well by wiping him down with a wet towel when he'd come in from outside, and becoming a

much better housekeeper; frequent vacuuming and religiously washing his bedding (and furniture throws) weekly.

 

The moral to the story is....once you know what you're dealing with, then you can get on with the dealing.

Otherwise, months of trial/error may drive you crazy. Good luck, hope you find an easy fix.

[tbhounds]

Here's my 2 cents..... I had an allergy dog years ago, and as I am more of an "instant gratification" kind of girl,rather than months of "trial & error" I bit the bullet, coughed up a credit card & had him allergy tested. In that case,he was allergic to anything green, grass, weeds, trees, etc. but his highest numbers of all were dust & storage mites.I wound up managing him quite well by wiping him down with a wet towel when he'd come in from outside, and becoming amuch better housekeeper; frequent vacuuming and religiously washing his bedding (and furniture throws) weekly.The moral to the story is....once you know what you're dealing with, then you can get on with the dealing.Otherwise, months of trial/error may drive you crazy. Good luck, hope you find an easy fix.

Was my same approach too. I would seek out a derm vet otherwise you are just chasing assumptions.