Contact Dermatitis/allergies?

[Guest aequoreus]

Hello, everyone! I am very new to this forum and very new to owning a greyhound. We adopted our Emerson last September with a broken leg. Ever since he arrived in our home he started to develop a small inflamed and balding patch on his back, inside paw (non-broken leg). Initially we thought it was just the bandage from his broken leg irritating the area as he layed down. We and Emerson had a very rough go at getting his leg healed (his incision site turned necrotic & he had months of an open wound to heal) but the bone is solid & he can run again. However this irritation on his paws has coninued to grow and spread. He was on Pro Pac Ultra Grain Free food (chicken) until we started to have some pretty severy stomach problems. Per our vet's suggestion he is now feeding Hill's Science Diet Sensitive Stomach & Skin, which helped tremendously (he also has dandruff) - but his feet are getting worse. He now licks/bites at his feet - I presume because they are itchy. They alternate between bright red to a light skin tone with tremoundous flaking/light scabbing and then back to a bright red (sometimes dry, sometimes wet looking like the skin is stretched). We wipe his paws with unscented/undyed baby wipes after we come in from walks - sometimes walks seem to trigger the red (grass allergy?) sometime they are red when we get home (inside all day - we have 2 cats, could they be a source of allergy?) - we also wash all his bedding with unscented, undyed detergent. I have tried a topical steroid & antibiotic spray (vet rx betagen) to no avail. We are also currently supplementing him with Omega 3,6,9 (liquid) and chondroitin tablets. We are trying with our vet to fix this for him, but so far it is not working. I have also tried giving him anti-histamines (chlorpheniramine 12 mg/day) and they help a little, but not always. I have tried rubbing his feet with udder-balm, aloe and coconut oil (individually at different times) and putting sock on him to help moisturize and help with the flaking (not really working). His skin is just so thin on his paws now, that he get little knicks & cuts on walks and starts bleeding. His feet are the ONLY affected area. I apologize for the lengthy post, but I just want to give a much information as possible - I need to get my puppy healed. Thank you all in advance for your help & advice. The photos are from a less red and very dry flaky/scabby phase (2 days ago).

p.s. on a side note, he still seems to have a big crusty scab on a portion of his incision site (skin healed in november) - has anyone else seen anything like this? I am making an appointment to discuss this & to have another paw discussion with my vet this week.

[tbhounds]

Allergies can be so difficult to treat. There are so many factors and so many type of allergies (environmental, seasonal, food...). I would recommend you make an appointment with a veterinary dermatologist.

Congrats on your recent adoption! (Sorry I couldn't see the pics you posted).

[Guest aequoreus]

thanks for the suggestion! i will try to re-attempt the photos - i don't know why they didnt work the first time...

 

 

 

 

[tbhounds]

Oy--you need to see a derm vet ASAP. I do think this is beyond what your GP can handle. Are you near the U of FL? They may have a derm vet on staff.

Looks like they do!

http://smallanimal.vethospital.ufl.edu/clinical-services/dermatology/dermatology-faqs/

Edited July 10, 2015 by tbhounds

[Guest aequoreus]

I thought I should give a quick update on Emerson's feet. We saw UF's veterinary dermatologists and decided to begin treatment for vasculitis. Emerson's feet got way worse for a time (hair loss up to his metatarsals) but with a pentoxyfilline and prednisone course his grew back & he stopped itching & biting. Now he maintains on just pentoxyfilline. He did start to flare again this March and started biting his paws leading to hair loss, so I think there is some allergy component (in Gainesville,FL a lot of pollen started releasing around that time) so we restarted the prednisone with some antihistamines & it has helped. Thank you tbhounds for your help/response.

[tbhounds]

Glad you found a derm vet that was able to provide proper treatment. One of my dogs was on pentoxyfilline also (for another condition-SLO) and I found it very inexpensive. Sure sounds like you have a very allergic hound--thankfully, you know now how to treat the symptoms.

One other thing I could recommend--if the itching doesn't let up give your vet a ring and ask if starting a medication called apoquel may be beneficial. It can be used with other medications--it essentially just stops the itch. The hound I have now has environmental allergies and despite his allergy drops and antihistamines the only thing that takes the itch away is daily apoquel. The starting dose is twice a day for a week then its given daily.

So, glad to hear theres be improvement with your hound--allergies are so difficult to manage.

[greysmom]

I second the apoquel pills. It stopped our Lilly's itching within an hour of giving it to her the first time. Not cheap, but very worth it, IMO.

[XTRAWLD]

My goodness! Glad there is progress. For what it's worth, I put Kasey on Dermoscent (liquid capsules between shoulder blades) to help his skin "toughen up" and be able to resist environmental allergies. It also helped grow hair back extremely well. Just thought I'd mention it for your arsenal.

[GeorgeofNE]

Yikes!! I see you've already been, but no way in heck that's "normal" allergies. That's just horrible looking!

 

I've had two dogs with seasonal allergies and even at their worst, they were no where near that bad.