11yo Maltese - Very Allergic...help!

[luvs_mutts]

I have a 11 yo Maltese named Ruby. Since birth she has had continual skin problems and I have tried literally EVERYTHING! She has had tests at the Animal Skin and Allergy clinic, and they discovered she was allergic to pollen amongst many other things. We have tried just about every kind of medication known to man...nothing with any great success. I bath her twice a week in Malasab (the vet's recommedation but if anyone has any suggestions I would appreciate it). She is currently Cephallexin quarter of a tablet twice a day, and prednil every second day. She has also been on Nizoral quite recently but it didn't seem to work on her this time, in the past I have had some minor success with it. Her skin is very red particularly her paws and back legs, and she almost constantly itches and scratches even on meds. Apart from spending several thousand dollars (which although I'm not rich I do because I love the dog and she is part of our family), I am really at the end of my tether here and was even wondering if anyone had any success with any natural animal doctors and if there were any other recommendations. I last took her to the vet two weeks ago in which he gave her repeat scripts of the medication I was already using and all he recommended was some new drug I've never heard of which costs approx $1000 a year! I wouldn't care if he could guarantee it worked! So guys can anyone help me with any new recommedations...I'll try (literally!) anything at this stage! Thanks in anticipation.

[Rappie]

How long ago were the tests (I assume this was the intradermal skin tests?) done by the dermatologists? Did you pursue the allergy vaccine therapy?

Was the Nizoral commenced after an actual diagnosis of a yeast / dermatophyte infection?

Have you done a food trial of any sort? Antihistamine trial? I suspect that the expensive drug is cyclosporin (Atopica) and it is a very successful, cost prohibitive treatment.

With atopic dogs, a multifaceted approach is usually the only way to get long term relief - at the very least I would try adding some kind of omega oil supplement to her diet.

Malaseb is an excellent product, but only if there is a yeast infection present (ditto previous question). If she's not currently yeasty, then something soothing like Aloveen would probably be a better choice.

[cowanbree]

Unfortunately I have quite a lot of experience in this. I have tried everything with my Mac but nothing works long term so I now just manage it. I personally found bathing made him worse and Malasab in particular burnt his skin. When Mac has an outbreak I put him straight onto pred, 15mgs a day (he is 9kgs), up the Nizoral to twice daily and put him on a course of Ceph If I catch it before it gets bad I can clear it up in under a week. I also put teabags on any sores which seems to clear them up really quickly.

Have you done skin scrapings to determine if it is a yeast infection? Honestly the best thing I ever did was take Mac to see a skin specialist. I really wish I had done it years ago as I spent thousand mucking round with different things when he ran tests and was able to eliminate a lot of the possibilities.

Once I get Mac clear he stays on a maintenance dose of nizoral every second to third day and last time I had 4 blissful mths without problems. Horrible isn’t it.

Rappie, can you use Nizoral on cats?

[Rappie]

Ketoconazole can be used it cats - but it's not without side effects so only with good reason.

[dogcop]

Could this be caused by some kind of hormone problem. Don't know much about it personally but someone else may well be able to shed some light on the subject. I have noticed that using malaseb too long actually exasperates the problem rather than cure. What I used to do in that case was try T-GEL shampoo with good results.

Cheers Chris

[Poppy's mum]

Have had reasonable luck with malaseb and malasezia (sp?), a yeast infection type skin. The radio vet suggests Pinetarsol (a liquid) but this does not seem to help with yeast infections. Cured the dog round the corner from mum - a doodle with itchy skin from birth.

In the past I had some luck with stuff from the herbalist - Robyn Kherby, Kherby's Herbs.

[Her Majesty Dogmad]

I really, really sympathise with you. I've just lost my foxy x boy after 3 years to a brain tumour but throughout the 3 years I had him, he suffered dreadfully with his skin. I spent $1000s too, inc natural therapies - tried everything, all to no avail. It was contact grass allergy and always worse if the grass was wet. His little legs were often red and sore, very distressing.

Other dogs I've had with skin issues have been sorted out with diet/med combination.

Wishing you some success in relieving the symptoms at last.

[Muttaburra]

At this point a homeopathic remedy might be worth trying. You could try both the Arnica drops or pilules.

Another idea might be to eliminate all foods containing grains & cereals, that would include a lot of manufactured dog foods, both dried, packaged and tinned. Try a diet of lean boiled chicken for a few days. Then for a bit longer if that improves. If she is sensible with eating and bones, you could also try her on a raw chicken wing or neck. See how she is after a week on that diet. New things could be added gradually, try whole root vegetables, well cooked (steamed grated carrot for example).

Aside from allergies, sometimes these little dogs just have very fine and tender skin, (like my dog) so being rubbed against wet and rough vegetation like some of the grasses would cause some damage along with any underlying allergies. So, you could try a barrier cream on the legs when she goes out in the grass, simple creams like Curash can both protect and sooth, make sure you never use any Lanolin based products (has traces of plants and pollens in it from the sheeps fleece). Most things with zinc for humans and dogs are ok for skin complaints, the human creams tending to be cheaper.

[shmoo]

Interested to know what her diet is.

And i would take it easy on the Malaseb and medication. Dogs can build up a tolerance just as humans can.

[Loraine]

I have a similar problem with my Wire Fox. I find that he is worse after using Malaseb Right now he is on cortisone and a diet of roo meat and boiled spuds, this diet is for 3 weeks, and then we start looking at introducing other foods. My boy is nearly 4 and apparently has had this problem all of his life, but it is not thought to be caused by seeds and grasses. I have just been given some Neem soap to try on him.

[luvs_mutts]

Thanks for all your responses so far. I have had skin scrapings done and they said she is allergic to pollen amongst other things. The Vet said it was airborne pollen so it didn't matter if she was outside in the garden or kept inside (she is basically inside anyway except to do her business). I have also been down the diet probe; we feed her boiled roo meat (she won't eat raw meat) and put a little fresh veggies eg carrot, beans and peas in it and maybe a little rice. I never feed her canned dog food or any processed stuff. She was on Nizoral after a yeast infection. I've nearly run out of Malasab so I think I will try something else. In my pet food shop the guy suggested a camomile shampoo (I can't remember the name though) ~ if you guys have any other suggestions I would really appreciate it. I might up the prenil too and see if makes any difference; maybe just for a week giving her one tablet a day instead of every second day.

[*Avanti*]

I sympathise with you, I have an atopic dog and so far have only been able to manage it. It is much worse in summer and heartbreaking for me not being able to 'cure' it. I'd check with the vet before altering her cortisone dosage. It has to be very carefully administered.

[Lowchenlove]

Hi there,

my lhasa x has skin allergies, she is allergic to seeding grass, lots of plants, has a terrible flea allergy and even her own fur irritates her.

I have tried different things but find neotopic-h lotion works fairly well but the best thing seems to be sea water, strangely enough.

She is prone to eye infections and I was spending a fortune on eye drops etc but when I noticed how quickly her skin cleard up after being in the sea I started to bathe her eyes with tap water and salt and found it worked almost imediately.

Don`t know if it would work on your dog but anything is worth a try

[JulesP]

Try wiping doggie over with a damp cloth when she comes inside, to get the pollen off. Avoid putting her out at around 6-7.30 in the morning and around the same at night as that is when the pollen goes up and then comes back down. Honey that is made in your area is supposed to help! You eat it everyday and it is supposed to fix hayfever, might be worth a try. Has to be local honey though. A lot of DOLers are using polaramine, a human hayfever tablet, which will probably work out cheaper than the doggie one.

[Staffyluv]

It is very hard when trying to deal with skin itches...

Have you tried to add fish oil to the diet - it does work wonders. If malaseb is doing more harm than good, maybe a good oatmeal shampoo like Aloveen would be better...

Antihistmines only mask the problem but they do give relief from the itch while you try other things - we use polaramine from the chemist (but for a different purpose).

Hills science diet does a dry food that is for allergic dogs. I use the Hills Science UD for Ollie as he has an issue with bladder stones and he has not had any recurring since starting on the hills.

Roo meat is very high in protein, have you tried any oily fish like tuna in the diet. It is expensive but in spring time we give Ollie fresh tuna and salmon (not tinned) with veg (usually only sweet potato and zucchini now) - he loves it and it does help with his itches. (He only gets itchy when we go to the park in spring/summer and they have put down fertiliser and weed sprays).

Good luck

Jodie

[luvs_mutts]

Thanks again for all your help guys, sorry for the late response, my mother in law passed away during the week so i haven't been online and don't expect to be back for a week or two so thanks again everyone and I'll keep you posted on Ruby's allergy problem.