zayda_asher

You should get a referral to a dermatologist straight away. Until you actually know what she is allergic to you will only be suppressing and treating the symptoms not the cause. Salmon oil capsules you can get at any health food store - you want ones with EPA 180 miligrams. And you give them according to weight. Both my dogs have allergies Atopic (airborne) are the most common Flea allergy is also common Food allergies not so common Contact quite rare as are bacterial allergies. Dan ETA: steriods ets. only give reliefe from symptoms. They are very addictive and have severe consequences when used in the long term, esp. for such a young dog. Good luck

Great news! So glad to hear that it is "only" stones!! Hopefully the rest will be relatively easy from now on! Dan

Good Luck!!! Dan

Hope Ollie is feeling better!!! ;) Dan

Take care.... You looked after Molly so well and you were very lucky to have each other.... My thoughts are with you... Dan XO

I'm veg too... have been for 16 years or more.... My dogs get Raw food diet! If you do your research I'm sure you could manage it.... but I know there are a lot of things to avoid as mentioned like soy and certain veg. Dogs are also often allergic to grains and flax seed is the omega 3 alternative to fish oil, however, many dogs are allergic to this too. Dogs find it hard to convert carbs and this can lead to fat... it is also thought that this can contribute to build up of tartar on the teeth as it is carbs that convert into sugars - so you may need to brush your dogs teeth.... This is the sort of stuff I would be doing a lot of research into before I converted my dogs.... Go to the B-naturals site (someone above gave the link). Lew is really good and has a lot of info on raw diets... she has a PhD in natural health so she knows what she is talking about. Personally for Glen and myself: we are Veg without a doubt... but the dogs are omnivouris... they eat meat and some veg...... very happy and healthy. With Zayda's allergies raw works best.... Prepping their meat only confirms that we would never eat it!! Good luck in whatever you choose... Dan

Try getting a copy of Carina MacDonald's "Raw Dog Food" - very easy guide to follow... http://www.raw-dogs.com/ Dan

If it is a true allergy they will not grow out of it. A lot of skin conditions & other diseases (such as puppy staff, mange, hypothiroidism...) get miss labled as allergies. A true allergy is for life Dan

My Stafy X Kelpie has food and atopic allergies.... if you do a search in the health section with the term "allergies" you can find posts from me on what we do for Zayda.... Asher (AmStaff) has a contact allergy.... and he is very sensitive to chemicals and preservatives... *sigh* Staffies... gota love em, but hate their sensitivities!!!! Good luck... Dan

Lots of hugs and love to you and your family today Tybrax.... Take care Dan

Not sure about disease.... I feed cooked pig as a treat.... but too much is too rich and makes Zayda throw up... so we don't feed it as a bone..... Apparently a lot of dogs find it too rich and this is a common response!! Scared me at the time though! Dan

Yep: Tested on and allergic to both raw and cooked forms...... I have always fed RMB and naturally started with lamb and beef (most available)...... Dan

Been on a few BARF lists - have found them to be highly intolerant of anything but what they see as "the one true way" (which is different depending on which list it is).... The only cereal Zayda has problems with is corn.... she actually is fine with others.... she has more problems with meat sources.... She is currently in prime condition and does well on her diet... I'm not looking at swapping diets to get rid of allergy sources per. se... I'm looking for alternatives to comercial food that are full of preservatives and suspect / unknown ingredients... If I'm feeding her homecooked then I know exactly what she is getting.... that's more what I am after, her allergies are well controlled. Glad she's doing well on the z/d.... Zayda did well in the sense that she lost her allergen sources, she just stopped gaining weight on it... You can't just feed Zayda more - she's one of those rare creatures that gets full and stops eating - she'd leave food in the bowl if she wasn't hungry any more Thanks to everyone for info.... Dan

Yeah.... you could say that!! We certainly have had a big time sorting it all out! Oh... I forgot flatulence - the eggs particularly give that to Zayda.... and she gets terrible Colitis too... How's Gypsy go with keeping in condition on the z/d? This is what we had Zayda on whilst doing the elimination diet... The reason why it is good for allergy diet is that the protiens have been hydrogenised to such a point that they are almost completely broken down... means they don't actually get too much out of it ... When Zayda was on it she wouldn't gain any weight (the dermatologists will tell you that they may, in fact, loose a lot of weight)- we though she was going to stay a skinny 18 kilo dog for a while until we found a puppy food she could have!! At the moment they are actually on Supercoat Special Care (chicken and rice) and Advance Turkey and Rice... they are doing well on it, but I'm looking at options to take them off comercial foods.... I do know that she can have the Salmon & Rice and the Duck & Rice... but they are expensive and hard to get (even the vets have problems)..... We can't use the Eukanuba Fish & Potato because they list "Animal fat" which normally is beef tallow.... Zayda will react to the smallest amount of her allergens..... Thanks for sharing your story and good luck with your girl! Cheers, Dan

Here's a couple of links to other posts on Zayda's allergies: http://forums.dogzonline.com.au/index.php?...15entry337955 http://forums.dogzonline.com.au/index.php?...=0entry320374 We work with a dermatologist and have been through all the testing for allergies including a full and on going elimination diet. She has a range of reactions depending on the allergen including: 1) Itchy skin (at its worst resulting in her ripping herself apart) 2) Yeast infection in ears and on skin (which also makes them smelly) 3) Lip fold pyoderma 4) congestion resulting in runny nose / eyes & snoring 5) Lack of concentration / ADD type symptoms 6) Vulvitis 7) Extreme motion sickness 8) When she is bad she makes people with sensitive skin very itchy That's a quick list of the top of my head... now that we have her under control we see very few of these symptoms or they are in a very mild form... She was also a Demodetic mange pup...... She is also on immunotherapy for an atopy (alternaria mould)..... Cheers, Dan

Hello all I know BARF has just about been done to death.... but I'm researching at the moment and I would like to hear from people who: 1) Use BARF diets and their good experiences 2) People who have tried BARF and not stuck with it - why? 3) Any people who have had bad experiences - what were they? What I'd like to know from people who do use BARF are: 1) What do you typically feed, when, how, why? 2) What suppliments do you put in and why? 3) Do you find / think you feed them more or less than on other diets to keep their condition? Zayda has severe allergies (as you are probablly all sick of hearing about by now ) This means for us NO: Beef Lamb Corn Sardines Tuna Eggs So I am also looking at what alternatives we can use for some of these foods as I know beef, lamb & eggs are often a large part of BARF diets..... Roo, herring, mackeral, chicken, turkey are all used on a regular basis (I also know she is fine with donkey and goat, although they don't get these very often). They are also on omega 3s. I'm still at the research / learning / thinking stage so any info at the moment is useful.... Cheers, Dan

So sorry to hear of your loss..... Amy has lived and died in the best way: loved, cared for and protected.... So glad that you got to spend this last time with her. Take care of your self.... find comfort in the love of your family and the warmth of your other dogs... Best wishes, Dan

I have one of each and they just need different training methods: 1) Zayda is laid back, but by no means a slow dog or a slow learner.... she picks things up quickly and is extremely fast when motivated. I had to learn how to make things fun for her and hyper her up... Agility improved her confidence 1000 fold... 2) Asher has just started and he will be fast.... Glen is learning to rein him in so he pays attention... This will improve as he gets older with the work that is put in.... He will be a good dog and now we just have to get Glen coordinated as a handler!!! I like both and you just have to change menthods for motivating each to do the right thing... I wouldn't like a dog that was soooo laid back it didn't want to do it and I wouldn't want a dog that is so hyped that it wants to run off and eat the competition.... But again I think a lot of this comes down to the type of training you put in! Dan

Mine have weatherbetas too - cloth and rain proof.... Same as some one earlier said: lean, short coated dogs = cold dogs in winter..... We have the heater on inside for them in winter, so its mostly for training / walking etc. You can tell when its getting cold - that's when Asher starts to try and sneak on the sofa (which he never looks at any other time).... time to warm the place up for him! Also the warmer we keep Zayda the less she reacts to her mould allergy.... and her fur is a bit longer and denser (that's the kelpie) so she takes forever to dry if she gets wet.... Dan

Asher is allergic to the proplyene glycol in Epi Otic (burns his skin!!).... we use the bayer to..... Dan

Love and hugs to both of you..... hope that your remianing time together is full of love and joy. The end comes too soon with our fur kids.... but the joy they bring us is beyond comparison We will be thinking of you. Dan

Sorry to hear this sad news Good luck and hugs to both of you Let us know what happens...... Dan

As a person that has trigger point therapy I can vouch for its effacacy in dealing with my poor muscles!!! It really does help loosen and ease the pain. I understand from the research I have done that the Vit C works to help the glucosamine and chondroiton be absorbed fully and do their job.... this is why it is included in a lot of joint suppliments..... ?? Good luck Dan

That's great news!! Hopefully it will all be easy to treat then.... Let us know how you go... Hugs to you both Dan

Glad I could help.... its really hard to keep perspective sometimes... we've cried lots over our problems in this area too... You learn to laugh a lot at bad things too because sometimes its like "laugh or fall in a heap" and its better in the end to laugh 3 months is a very short time for this sort of treatment... he'll still be adjusting and you'll be fine tuning and working out what else helps him be comfortable... feel free to PM me if you want to talk again as I know what its like: long, hard work, frustration and a million other emotions!! They're great - my dogs love it there too!! I don't think they'd be able to work without that whiteboard Ask all the questions you can think of - they like that! I used to go in with reams of notes on my observations and questions... now I email a lot!!! Ugh - we used to call Zayda "Puppy inabubble"!!! I think the Atopic allergies are much harder to deal with - most of them are just there in the environment!! Give me food allergies any day - so much easier to control!!! Perhaps his breeder or someone around his mother / him smoked?? or they had a tobacco plant around them? Yep, give Mandy a call and check this all out... Zayda has been on all the medicated shampoos at different stages depending on what she needed.... Make sure you let them know about the build up of itch in the days before the next injection too.... This is the hardest part with food allergies.... training other people. We had one moron that we even had to threaten with calling the rangers on.... we were depriving our dog apparently and he was sneaking her stuff (like pretending to drop it in front of her and stuff) :D :D He's on kangaroo... get roo steaks from city farmers and chop it into strips... boil lightly... cut into small cubes - this makes a good training treat!! When you know what he can have food wise let me know - I have investigated and come up with lots of alternatives *sigh* poor lad... with that much atopy I suppose he does need the cortisone to help keep him comfortable... hopefully you can wean him off as he improves!! And that is a far better dosage than what the vets gave - .5mg twice a day is just scary Good onya He's lucky to have you!! Chin up - you'll get there Dan