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Allergy - My Poor Dog Is Getting Really Cranky!


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In all this has your vet actually given the poor dog anything to ease the discomfort? We gave up looking for the allergens after 3 and just treat the symptoms to keep him comfortable. You can try phenergan or telfast 24hr (non drowsey). We use telfast as it appears to work better on our boy.

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  Staranais said:
  SmoothieGirl said:
Interestingly the Dermatologist said that contrary to popular belief the larger percentage of allergic reactions are not food related, but are in fact atopic.

Yes.

The veterinary dermatologist that lectured us at vet school reckoned that allergies occur in dogs, in descending order from very common to rare, were:

Flea saliva allergy

Atopy (allergy to inhaled or absorbed allergens)

Food allergy

Contact allergy

From what I've seen in practice so far, that definitely seems about right to me.

He also noted that dogs with one type of allergy were far more likely than your average dog to develop a second type as well. :wave:

Yes, I agree. Hence why I hate the commercial food vs raw/barf. The itchy skin and allergies is commonly used as a reason for people not to feed commercial when it simply isn;t true. This debate then seemed to extend to mainly kibble and the number of times I have read people stating that the grains in kibble cause itchy skin is too many in number to even think about.

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Allergies with kibble are generally put down to the preservatives used in the mix. Some breeds experience difficulty with high protien diets. The protein increases the body temp and causes them to be itchy. Polish Lowlands and "red" coated breeds suffer from this. Most of those can be controled with low protein diets - below 18%

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  AmandaJ said:
Allergies with kibble are generally put down to the preservatives used in the mix.

Actually we now know its far more likely to be the storage mites that live in dried foods... they test for these now on the Intradermal allergy test :laugh:

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Yes, I agree. Hence why I hate the commercial food vs raw/barf. The itchy skin and allergies is commonly used as a reason for people not to feed commercial when it simply isn;t true. This debate then seemed to extend to mainly kibble and the number of times I have read people stating that the grains in kibble cause itchy skin is too many in number to even think about.

Yeah, pees me off too... people just don't understand how allergies and intolerances work. Raw / home preped is not a cure all.. it can be a great part of over all health, help you limit access to allergens and limit exposure to storage mites, but it will not cure the dog because there is no cure!

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Bit frustrated today. I have seen two different vets about his condition, one I was really not happy with at all and won't be going back to :laugh: and the other was really nice and understanding but... it turns out she's left :( . Now to get a referral I have to go back and see another vet and have the tests re-done. I can understand that they can't write a referral for a dog they personally haven't seen but it is just a bit of a pain that it will now take longer to get on the waiting list for a specialist. I had a great vet in Sydney but where I live now in Brisbane they seem to change them all the time. Oh well, off to the vet next week again.

Also, he doesn't seem to scratch that much. :laugh: I just assumed the reason he was getting cranky was he was itchy as his skin looks quite raw in some places and thick in others but I spent three hours with him sleeping near me while I did the ironing yesterday and he didn't scratch once. So I have been watching him really closely since yesterday morning and I only saw him bite at his tail once. I went over and couldn't see anything there.

Maybe he's not itchy at all? Could it still be an allergy if he's not that itchy? Maybe I need to look at something else that could be causing the bad skin and hair loss?

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  sas said:
  AmandaJ said:
Allergies with kibble are generally put down to the preservatives used in the mix.

Says who?

Exactly. Never heard this and I've listened to 4 different Dermatologists speak on food allergies.

Agree with Zayder - the storage mites are problem.

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  Crazy Daisy said:
Maybe he's not itchy at all? Could it still be an allergy if he's not that itchy? Maybe I need to look at something else that could be causing the bad skin and hair loss?

Definitely could still be allergies... not all allergy dogs scratch a lot. My boy hardly ever scratches unless he is really having problems, and even then it is minimal compared to other allergy dogs. How much exposure they are currently having to allergens can also make a difference to itch factor. My other allergy dog, who is an itcher, I can tell how much of her allergens are out and about according to how much she itches on a given day...

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  ~Anne~ said:
Yes, I agree. Hence why I hate the commercial food vs raw/barf. The itchy skin and allergies is commonly used as a reason for people not to feed commercial when it simply isn;t true. This debate then seemed to extend to mainly kibble and the number of times I have read people stating that the grains in kibble cause itchy skin is too many in number to even think about.

*sigh* I hate this too.

Zero is on artemis (grain free) because it gives him weepy eyes if he has wheat. That being said, any wheat gives him the same problem. He stole a bread roll off another doler and the next morning I had to wash the hair around the eyes because it was covered with green gunk. Everyone was so quick to blame the preservatives/wheat without properly testing what their dog was allergic to. We did Zero's with an elimination diet - it took about 5-6 months to realise what it was and it was done under vet supervision.

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  ~*Shell*~ said:
Everyone was so quick to blame the preservatives/wheat without properly testing what their dog was allergic to.

And act like this will solve everything for every dog and then act like its some how the persons fault when it doesn't resolve their dogs true allergies! :laugh:

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  Crazy Daisy said:
Bit frustrated today. I have seen two different vets about his condition, one I was really not happy with at all and won't be going back to :laugh: and the other was really nice and understanding but... it turns out she's left :( . Now to get a referral I have to go back and see another vet and have the tests re-done. I can understand that they can't write a referral for a dog they personally haven't seen but it is just a bit of a pain that it will now take longer to get on the waiting list for a specialist. I had a great vet in Sydney but where I live now in Brisbane they seem to change them all the time. Oh well, off to the vet next week again.

Also, he doesn't seem to scratch that much. :laugh: I just assumed the reason he was getting cranky was he was itchy as his skin looks quite raw in some places and thick in others but I spent three hours with him sleeping near me while I did the ironing yesterday and he didn't scratch once. So I have been watching him really closely since yesterday morning and I only saw him bite at his tail once. I went over and couldn't see anything there.

Maybe he's not itchy at all? Could it still be an allergy if he's not that itchy? Maybe I need to look at something else that could be causing the bad skin and hair loss?

Why would you need the tets re-done?? Is it the same clinic? Regardless of which clinic, the Vet MUST have records of the consults and what the results of the test were. Tell your Vet you insist they wirte the referral. It is illogical that they want to see the dog yet again before writing the referrla when they have already seen him.

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  zayda_asher said:
  ~*Shell*~ said:
Everyone was so quick to blame the preservatives/wheat without properly testing what their dog was allergic to.

And act like this will solve everything for every dog and then act like its some how the persons fault when it doesn't resolve their dogs true allergies! :laugh:

Does my head in too. Seems there's a new allergy topic started atleast weekly, with the same replies of people insisting they get off commercial and switch to raw, because this will fix everything :laugh:

Crazy Daisy - you do NOT need to have the same tests re done!! The clinic that the vet worked in should have all your consult details like Anne said and another vte can write a referral. Even if you went to a different clinic, I don't believe you have to have any tests done at a general clinic - you could just have a consult and say you want a referral and have the Derm do all your scrapings etc.

Edited by stormie
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  stormie said:
Crazy Daisy - you do NOT need to have the same tests re done!! The clinic that the vet worked in should have all your consult details like Anne said and another vte can write a referral. Even if you went to a different clinic, I don't believe you have to have any tests done at a general clinic - you could just have a consult and say you want a referral and have the Derm do all your scrapings etc.

That's very true they will have the records of what was done...

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They said because the last tests were done in early January they want to test again. I will go to the consult and see if they can just give me the referral as maybe the derm would want to do tests anyway and maybe even test for different things. Seems silly to test for the same things for a third time even though when I go next week it will be nearly three months ago.

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  Crazy Daisy said:
They said because the last tests were done in early January they want to test again. I will go to the consult and see if they can just give me the referral as maybe the derm would want to do tests anyway and maybe even test for different things. Seems silly to test for the same things for a third time even though when I go next week it will be nearly three months ago.

I'd push them pretty hard for the referral CD. January wasn't that long ago and really its not fair of them to suggest that approach as its just another out of pocket expense to you and it should be your decision to escalate the diagnosis options. I'm pretty sure that I just rang the specialist clinic and made the appointment myself, then advised my vet clinic to fax a summary of her records to them. My vet was fully supportive, but I didn't need them to arrange a referral as such. Maybe its different in Vic though.

Good luck, hope you have some success soon.

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I'll be the first to bite the bullet and say - no one dog has the same allergies as the next they are as different as we are...however - my first comment still stands - has the vet provided any level of relief for the dog or is he/she still siphoning the wallet of the the owner with tests?

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Seriously Daisy, you shouldn't have to go back there. I can't believe they are implying you need to! The Derm will probably want to do their own scrapes anyway, so it's pointless having your regular vet do them.

It seems ridiculous and unfair for your vet to say you need to go back there for another consult. It may, however, be the requirements of the Dermatologist they refer to, to have the regular vet to a certain amount and type of tests before they will see people. Seems weird to me and I can say without a doubt that if one of our clients wanted a referral to a specialist (obviously within reason), we wouldnt say no.

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