Homer's mummy

My dog has allergy problems too and his specialist has asked me to shampoo him no more than once a week as excessive shampoo can apparently further dry already dry skin by washing away natural oils. Your products sound good. I know Malaseb although Homer uses (with some help from me LOL) Pyohex first only on affected areas (mainly belly, chest and legs) and then Episoothe shampoo all over followed by conditioner. the dermatologist did mention that the Pyohex/malaseb type shampoos are pretty strong and can aggrevate the itchiness if used too much or too often. The calamine will definitely help and you could also try rubbing ice cubes on the itchy areas to calm it down and provide relief from the heat. Hope it gets better. I know how you feel

Yes my dog eats raw roo meat and the cats eat it too, although not as enthusiastically about Homer. I would not worry too much about the worms bit if my dog/cat is wormed regularly but yes it could be an issue I guess. I usually buy the Ecopet roo mince from the pet shops so hopefully Ecopet has taken care of the worms aspect? It costs about $4.50 a kilo. The smell is not too appetising but the meat is lean and most of the dogs I know eat it readily although some dogs obviously might not like it. The poo can be a bit scary though if they are fed too much of it

Thanks Guys, You have been enormous help and support for Homer and have taken a big load off my heart. My OH and me had almost started to believe that we have failed our little boy! I wanted to thank you all and let you know that you all (of course Dan takes the cake) seem to know a lot more about atopy and allergies than the hoity toity dermatologist. Hope he's not on this forum or I'll be dead! As Dan said there are good ones and bad ones and although I am trying not to be too judgemental, it is true though that they haven't been able to provide much more help than frequent doses of cortisone. Dan, are you in Melbourne? If yes, I might be interested in organising a referral to your dermatologist. Thanks again to all you good people and kisses to your pooches. Hope they all feel more comfortable. Risha

Homer uses Episoothe shampoo and conditioner available from vets. It has oatmeal extract to soothe dry flaky skin. A very similar product to Aloveen actually.

Thanks L.B.- especially for Pyohex leave on.. will look out for it. Will let Homer know that there are lots of other doggies who are sufferers too and that he has no excuse to be a naughty boy any more. His food treats are out so Homer's on a bit of a holiday from training as he is very responsive to food. BTW....anyone knows where Camel Jerky is available in melbourne? I'm searching high and low for them as they are the only treats he is allowed. It is good to be on this forum with like minded people. I don't tell people how much his treatment is costing us. A few so called 'well wishers' have suggested I give him up and I don't want to lose many more 'friends' LOL. Thank God I haven't had any PTS suggestions or I'd probably kill them

Thanks guys for your replies! Homer sends you a hug for caring enough Inspector Rex, they did a intardermal test at six months. is the blood test any good and should I talk to the dermatologist about it? Yes I thought that the food trial is pretty long too! Personally I am losing trust in them pretty fast as all they have managed to do so far is making us poorer by a few thousands but I do realise that these things can take time. As zayda Asher says, finding out the allergen is half the battle won! I will PM you once I figure out how to do it. Thanks! Zayda Asher, Thank you for all the info. You have been great help too and I just can't believe how many things they can be allergic to! I thought it could be only one or two agents affecting each dog but obviously not necessarily so! One question.... how did you find out about each and every allergy that they have? Was it apparent in the allergy test or by observation. Also, how long did it take you to identify the causes? Here's one of Homer on a good allergy day (6 m.o.) with his little brother, Yoda who was 11 weeks then.

I would love to hear from you if your dog is suffering or has suffered from either of these conditions. Atopy is apparently like a canine hayfever where dogs are often allergic to something that they breathe in or touch on a regular basis which could be something inside the house (like dust mites) or outside (pollens, grass etc). We are not sure if this is what he has as he is too young to respond to an allergy test (did one at six months only to get a negative result. The specialist has also not ruled out food allergy so he is on a special diet for the next six weeks or so. My boy definitely does not have any flea, mite or mange problem as we've crossed those paths already. He is only 7 months old and it seems like a long journey, poor fella! It does not seem like a contact allergy either although his main itchy areas are his contact areas such as the chest, tummy and legs so who knows. But generally he is very itchy all over and has been on cortisone and antibiotics to help prevent the allergy from exploding. I was interested in finding out what are some of the most established allergies that dog owners have experienced and what you do to soothe your dog. I use omega 3 oil in food, Pyohex (for spot shampooing) and Episoothe shampoo and conditioner and also calamine lotion and cubes of ice to calm the affected areas. I'm so worried as he is a gorgeous and happy boy but he suffers a lot and pulls huge amounts of fur off from his hindquarters and underbelly. would love to exchage notes with other allergy sufferers who might have had similar experiences as I'm sure you know how helpless I feel.

Thank you, excellent read! I am a big BARF fan although I do use dry food too so that my dog is not totally dependant on eating raw in case I ever get sick or he has to spend a day at a friends as kibble is very easy to feed, store etc although I have concerns about the different digestion rates of raw meat an kibble, kibble being slower. I need to read more till I decide if I really need to go one way or the other. I agree with everything except feeding raw fish. I have read in a few places that some raw fish can contain deficiency of the vitamin thiamine. Raw eggs are alleged to cause deficiency of the vitamin biotin (can lead to dermatitis hair loss and poor development) and too much raw liver can cause vitamin A toxicity. As a rule, I always boil and shell eggs and also cook liver/giblets etc but meat be it mince of any kind or meaty bones my dog is more than happy to gobble down raw. Oh... no grapes or raisins either and no onions. They are apprantly very toxic to dogs although i am sure most BARF feeders observe this.

I would love to learn more about this type of allergy test. Who does it, how much it costs and so on. My dog is allergic too and we have done an intradermal allergy test which he has not responded to as he could be too young or a non Ig-E (the allergen identifying hormone) producer. He is on cortisone too when it gets really bad plus a pulse treatment (only two days a week) of antibiotics. Your dogs symptoms sound just like his although mine even scratches and bites his arms and legs all across and underarms and chest too. You might want to do a food elimination trial too by after speaking to your vet. It is important that we rule out any chance of a food allergen causing her the grief. Other than that, to soothe his allergies we use Episoothe shampoo and conditioner and Pyohex shampoo which we only use on the affected areas every week-10 days. When it gets really bad we use calamine lotion (available from chemists) and cubes of ice to calm him down.

Yes, that goes without saying but thank you.... I guess I did not clarify that bit in my message so it did sound like I was going to introduce him to Eagle Pack straightaway. I meant I had almost a full bag of the Science Diet puppy which is Homer's normal dry food LOL. You are right about the money part, it has already cost us a FORTUNE not that I regret spending any of it. Anything for my boy. Homer will not eat anything else for the next 6 weeks or so till the time the dermatologist gives the okay to go back to his normal diet. Sadly, neither him nor we think that it is a food allergy as food allergy is relatively uncommon in dogs. Sadly because it is so easy to eliminate unlike a lifelong chronic allergy like atopy. Do you know what your dog is allergic to? In Homer's case, it is still hard to tell as he has responded negative to an allergy test probably due to his young age (7 months). he is also on ongoing medication to prevent the allergy from exploding. There is a Eukanuba fish and potato prescrption formula available here which we were also asked to try first but Homer hated it. Yeah he's a bit of a spoilt boy So we went onto the Z/D and he has been eating it okay.. not all that excited but he does eat it thank God. Haven't tried the low allergen one but I guess we'll stick to Ultra as Homer has kind of got used to eat. We also tried the z/d canned variety and it's this slimy jelly like mush.... Homer would try to eat it but it would keep falling out of his mouth and it smelled disgusting (actually not that bad, I'm just exaggerating). Apart from that, the dermatologist has also okayed us to boil 3/4 good quality fresh fish and 1/4 potato or sweet potato as a supplement diet just for taste. He had tried neither of the two foods ever till we started the trial. It's just for a bit of taste as I feel awefully sorry that my boy who was raised on a BARF diet (well more than half of his daily intake was BARF) cannot eat anything other than kibble now. I'm a stay at home mum (canine and feline- I don't have kids yet hehe) at the moment so can afford to do these little extras for him. The dermatologist asked us to give him camel jerky as a training treat but no idea where I might find them in Melbourne. Does anyone know? Staffordsrule thank you for the excellent description of the ZD. I had a vague idea about it but now I know how exactly they remove the allergen. My husband will be impressed when I enlighten him, thanks to you I feel so much better that there are other people there also with pruritic dogs (much that I want them all to be cured). I had started feeling that we are the only ones who had to go through this heartache.

Homer was on Science Diet large puppy(50 percent and 50 percent BARF) until he was switched to Science Diet ZD hypoallergenic which we have to feed him for the next six weeks during his food allergy trial. I still have almost a full bag of it but I might just give Eagle Pack a shot now that I have heard such good feedback about it. My kittens are on Eaglepack dry food which they seem to prefer way over Royal canin. So I'm sure Homer will love it too!