itching/allegeries?
Barb |
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| Poor girl! I would ask your vet for a referral to a dermatologist at this point. Maybe it is allergies (chicken is often a culprit). Our two year old started itching and food allergy was the first thing the vet suggested. But we were not convinced. We did stop giving treats with lots of preservatives and that seemed to help. This was a few months ago. Just recently, the itching started again, so I am wondering about seasonal allergies. I am in Canada and it is almost fall here. Her last bout of itching was in the spring, then she was fine all summer. Has the vet suggested benedryl or anything like that, just to give her a break from the itchiness? |
| Thank you for replying so quickly. We did try Benadry but it only made her sleepy and pant quite a bit. Still didn't stop the itching. Vet then suggested Zyrtec but haven't tried it yet. I too am thinking its seasonal allegeries. Her food is chicken based maybe I will try to switch her to a fish based one. This morning she started biting her front paws and several of our neighbors have Lawn King and Tru Green services. Maybe its something in the spray they put on the lawns. I ordered Curaseb spray from Amazon its coming today. Going to call vet again and see what else he might recommend. Read good things about a diluted apple cider vinegar spray to calm the itching, have you tried it? Feel so bad for her. I brush her everyday, maybe its to much brushing for her sensitive skin? Right now, I am grabbing at straws trying to figure out the cause. Perhaps a vet dermatologist might be the way to go. Please keep the suggestions coming. Thank you. |
Bap6953 wrote: Thank you for replying so quickly. We did try Benadry but it only made her sleepy and pant quite a bit. Still didn't stop the itching. Vet then suggested Zyrtec but haven't tried it yet. I too am thinking its seasonal allegeries. Her food is chicken based maybe I will try to switch her to a fish based one. This morning she started biting her front paws and several of our neighbors have Lawn King and Tru Green services. Maybe its something in the spray they put on the lawns. I ordered Curaseb spray from Amazon its coming today. Going to call vet again and see what else he might recommend. Read good things about a diluted apple cider vinegar spray to calm the itching, have you tried it? Feel so bad for her. I brush her everyday, maybe its to much brushing for her sensitive skin? Right now, I am grabbing at straws trying to figure out the cause. Perhaps a vet dermatologist might be the way to go. Please keep the suggestions coming. Thank you. I know what you mean about grabbing at straws. We are the same way. The foot chewing started yesterday. I am in Canada, so spraying lawns is against the law-one less thing to worry about. In terms of food allergies, it is almost always chicken, it seems. But if you are going to remove chicken from her diet, then you have to make sure that none of her treats have chicken. I don't want to go the medication route, if I can avoid it. Right now, when I see her scratching or chewing her feet, I distract her with a massage or a cuddle. I really don't think that normal brushing can make it worse. So I am in the same boat as you right now! I first thought it was preservatives in her treats, so I switched treats and things got better. But coincidentally, at the same time, we moved from spring into summer. She was fine all summer, so we thought we had solved it. Now we are into fall in Canada, and she is back to scratching. I am going to wait a few weeks to see if, once fall is over, she stops scratching. If that happens, then I will know that it is indeed seasonal allergies. Then I will cry, because I would rather it be chicken, to be honest. I can control her food, but I can't control the seasons. I really was hoping that it was those darn treats. We have two sheepdogs, and we free feed, so food in the bowls all the time, so if we switch the food for one girl, we are switching for both. On the plus side, we feed Purina Pro Plan (as per our breeder's recommendation) and they make a salmon version that the girls love. Of course, it is more expensive. But anything to help her not be miserable! |
| Mady's Mom, Hi. Just wanted to give you an update on Millie's scratching. Went back to our vet, and they couldn't find anything, on Sunday, 10/4, Millie broke out in hives on her stomach and was really scratching. Took her as an emergency to a totally different vet practice and they told me she was having an allergic reaction to one of the medicines she was put on for the cut. Vet took her off all medication and we developed a game plan of sorts. First, she gave Millie a Cytopoint shot to stop the itching. It was under the skin, and lasts supposedly for 4-8 weeks. Needed to stop itching to see if inflammation decreased. It has totally stopped and redness on chest/stomach area going away. Then they put her on Nexgard for flea, tick, and mites. She is not biting at the cut area or her sides/feet now. I had her on a topical for flea and tick, Advantix, but it didn't work very well. Vet told me that sometimes on a dog with a full, dense, coat it is hard to get the medication exactly where it is needed. Have to bathe her 2x a week for 2 weeks with medicated shampoo, and keep the shampoo on for 10 minutes before rinsing her. The first time was quite comical as both my husband and I were in the tub with her. Keeping her still for 10 minutes was a real feat! I googled online about the Cytopoint shot and was concerned about some of the side effects but was willing to do anything to try and help her. She had no reaction at all to the shot. We are hoping this works and she will be fine, but the next step will be to determine if it is a food allergy. Not looking forward to that one. If all else fails, she said it is possibly environmental and will need to go to a vet allergist for tests. So for now, she has stopped scratching/itching, cut area has healed and is back to her normal happy self. Will keep you updated on her progress. Thanks for the support and advice. Barb |
Guest wrote: Mady's Mom, Hi. Just wanted to give you an update on Millie's scratching. Went back to our vet, and they couldn't find anything, on Sunday, 10/4, Millie broke out in hives on her stomach and was really scratching. Took her as an emergency to a totally different vet practice and they told me she was having an allergic reaction to one of the medicines she was put on for the cut. Vet took her off all medication and we developed a game plan of sorts. First, she gave Millie a Cytopoint shot to stop the itching. It was under the skin, and lasts supposedly for 4-8 weeks. Needed to stop itching to see if inflammation decreased. It has totally stopped and redness on chest/stomach area going away. Then they put her on Nexgard for flea, tick, and mites. She is not biting at the cut area or her sides/feet now. I had her on a topical for flea and tick, Advantix, but it didn't work very well. Vet told me that sometimes on a dog with a full, dense, coat it is hard to get the medication exactly where it is needed. Have to bathe her 2x a week for 2 weeks with medicated shampoo, and keep the shampoo on for 10 minutes before rinsing her. The first time was quite comical as both my husband and I were in the tub with her. Keeping her still for 10 minutes was a real feat! I googled online about the Cytopoint shot and was concerned about some of the side effects but was willing to do anything to try and help her. She had no reaction at all to the shot. We are hoping this works and she will be fine, but the next step will be to determine if it is a food allergy. Not looking forward to that one. If all else fails, she said it is possibly environmental and will need to go to a vet allergist for tests. So for now, she has stopped scratching/itching, cut area has healed and is back to her normal happy self. Will keep you updated on her progress. Thanks for the support and advice. Barb Thank you for the update! I hope Millie is on the mend soon, as it really is distressing to watch them go crazy scratching. I am half convinced with my girl that it is seasonal allergies, as Kasse was itchy in the spring, was fine all summer, and is now itchy again in the fall. I am in Canada, so those two seasons do tend to be the itchiest. The long Canadian winter will tell me if my hunch is correct. Like you, I am dreading the thought of food allergies. We free feed and have two dogs, so just keep the bowls filled with chicken or salmon. And thanks for the bath visual! That made me giggle. I can only imagine the challenge of keeping a sheepdog still when they are soaking wet!  |
| Hello Mamas of Millie and Kasse I am wondering about your girls issues with itching? We had a similar issue with our Libby, who we just recently lost.(she was a Blueshire baby too) About age 5, she started picking at her feet until the nail beds got infected. She was treated but the licking and scratching continued. I was told it might be a food allergy but I was reluctant to believe this. Eventually it seemed to be the case so she was put on a diet of kangaroo meat as it is a novel protein not found in usual dog food. After several months, it became apparent that there was something else at play so allergy testing was done by a simple blood test. It turned out that she had several environmental allergies. The worst culprits were birch and poplar trees which both our home and cottage are surrounded by, living in Northern Ontario. We were referred to Dr Anthony Yu, a dermatologist who is from Guelph, Ontario with offices in Guelph and Oakville. He started her on allergy injections. Similar to people, you start out with low frequent doses and increase dosage and time interval. As a registered nurse this was something I could do at home and until we lost her just short of 11, she received a dose once every 2 weeks. She was also put on 2 oral medications, Ketaconazole and Atopica, which I gave anywhere from daily to every 4 days depending on allergy season. But, it wasn't until the medications started to work, did we realize just how much she had been scratching. With the treatment, she wasn't scratching at all. I wanted to share our experience because it took a lot of preserverance to get to the bottom of this and a lot of anxiety for us and much discomfort for Libby. I hope you have had success treating your girls. |
We have gone through the same. Did the kangaroo food thing (that stuff smells horrible!). But it was not food. So we did the full allergy skin test (they shaved a big rectangle on her side  ). She is allergic mostly to yeast, which is in everyone's skin. So we have started giving her the shots. We are up to ten days apart now. So far so good. And I agree with you, until you see them NOT scratching, you don't realize just how miserable they were. Insurance (Trupanion) has been great and we have had most of it covered, thankfully. Glad to hear things are going better with your pup! |
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