Increase In Allergens

[harryviolet]

I can get roo tail and she will not eat it! Leaves it lying around. I have to be careful here with the bush rats and it was just too hard with her being fussy (for a retriever!!) and not eating it for a day or two or three and the rats. I run a B&B here so have to be careful about the rodents. But she generally will eat a lamb shank although has been known to bury them although I can usually see where she has buried it and retrieve it for the next day. I figure if she buries it she is not that hungry.

[Mas1981]

I can get roo tail and she will not eat it! Leaves it lying around. I have to be careful here with the bush rats and it was just too hard with her being fussy (for a retriever!!) and not eating it for a day or two or three and the rats. I run a B&B here so have to be careful about the rodents. But she generally will eat a lamb shank although has been known to bury them although I can usually see where she has buried it and retrieve it for the next day. I figure if she buries it she is not that hungry.

My dog is crazy over any bones, I tend to only give him roo though but once we have done our elimination diet I may try some other 'game' type bones if i can get them. I dont like to give him beef he tends to itch on that.

[harryviolet]

so u are doing the roo and potato elimination diet? Drove me crazy. Are you seeing a dermatologist? I havent been able to get there as my pup was too young for the elimination diet when she would not eat roo tail.

Have you tried cyclosporin yet? It is amazing to have all the problems simply fade away. No more redness all over her.

[lillim]

Thanks, did you do the rush treatment yourself, or is there anyone who has done it?

Both my guys had the RUSH therapy, Rhino back in December & Electra just last week.

I'm not sure what you mean, did I do it myself? They both went into the Derm clinic/Uni for a day to get it done.

They now have an injection every 3 weeks, which I give myself.

Edited for grammar

I meant go down that path yourself . Can I ask why you chose to do the rush treatment instead of building up the vaccine dosage over time?

[SparkyTansy]

Harryviolet your girl has similar symptoms to what my English Setter did... he showed symptoms early on though, when i got him from 8 weeks he had issues. Turns out he not only suffered from Atopy but also from an allergy to chicken.

Even now he cannot manage any raw meat, just a single kibble which I found for him which is lamb based... he can have lamb flaps every now and then however these can cause an outbreak if given too often... recently he had camel,which he had no issues with. We also had some success with him with turkey and rabbit, but again, all the meats are given to him rarely due to the time it takes to show a reaction in his skin.

When we did the elimination diet, spartan was on fish and potato... however due to his atopy we struggled to diagnose his food allergy but after a very strong and bad reaction after having chicken one day, we managed to figure out that chicken was his worst enemy, and realised that his most difficult time as a baby was when we had him on straight chicken mince and rice (which many vets recommend to help dogs with upset tummies!)

In addition to this, we had the intradermal testing done and found high reactions to moulds, some insects and grasses. We started the immunotherapy and he was on it for maybe a year and a half before he no longer showed any symptoms of itchiness. So long as he got his normal diet, there were no issues with his other skin reactions either (i can tell the difference between a food reaction and an atopic one). The only time now we have issues with his atopy are seasonal changes... usually a course of antibiotics and antihistamine help him through it.

Spartan is one of the success stories from intradermal testing and immunotherapy and I am extremely happy to be able to say that. He is not symptom free, but he is symptom free for most of the time which is huge for us. Spartan was so bad he couldn't be without cortisone, weekly baths, supplements, and would have to constantly wear a t-shirt to stop his scratching. He has been cortisone free for at least 4 years.

Skin allergies are awful... it takes a lot of time and unfortunatley money to get on top of it and I am so grateful that i am lucky enough that i had success.

[Mas1981]

so u are doing the roo and potato elimination diet? Drove me crazy. Are you seeing a dermatologist? I havent been able to get there as my pup was too young for the elimination diet when she would not eat roo tail.

Have you tried cyclosporin yet? It is amazing to have all the problems simply fade away. No more redness all over her.

No we are not doing an elimination diet, we were given Hills ZD and told to feed that for 8 weeks but it made his tummy run and his butt itch like mad so we had to stop. I recon there is something in kibble which makes him itch but I cant figure out what it is, I gave him a brisket bone last week and lo and behold he scratched like mad for 3 days, I only fed roo and chicken this week and he is much better. I am seeing the dermatologist next week friday, we wont be doing the tests that day as he has only been off cortisone less than a week, he has to be off for 30 days I believe for them to test. The cortisone does not agree with my dog so lucky he can go without it with the new anti-histamines.

Edited to say that we also only fed a fish kibble diet for 4 weeks and I saw no difference to him at all. He can only eat Holistic Select kibble, the rest make him ill.

Edited June 1, 2010 by Mas1981

[lillim]

I'd certainly talk with your derm about it... but it may give you an idea of what you are seeing. Did you keep a symptom diary so that you could track her symptoms / improvement with treatment?

no, but I am kicking myself for not doing so . I'm presently going through all her medical history to try and remember what has been done and what has stopped.

Perhaps you need to wait until you have found what level and duration between injections works for her before you can make a call on its efficacy?

I'll to check this as I can't remember the exact dosage, but she was built up to a point where she was getting a high dosage fortnightly, then it was dropped down twice (I think) due to her itching more and getting flare ups and she is now on 35 units weekly. I'll have to check that though as my brain is a bit scrambled today.

ETA - I've had my coffee now, she was built up to 100 units every 3 weeks, then dropped to 100 units fortnightly , then 50 units weekly, then 35 units weekly. The dosage was brought down due to itchiness.

Do you feed dry food to your dog? This is a major source of exposure for storage mites and you may consider swapping to home prepared if you have the time to do so (made massive difference for my guys).

yes I feed dry food and it didn't occur to me that it would me a major source of exposure for storage mites . Think I might have to do research on feeding raw, can you suggest any good books?

If you find you are still getting a lot of itching, you may consider trialing different antihistamines. Some will suit some dogs better than others and you will also find that the dog can develop a tolerance with long term use of one particular type, so swapping can sometimes help if you see a flare.

Misha has been trialled on a variety on anti-histamines, iramine which she is on currently seems to be the most effective, but she still itches and gets mild flareups ( though they could be worse, but I use cortisone cream and spray as soon as they start to appear)

Pyoben

whats this?

scurf

unless you misspelled smurf , could you please explain what this is?

What do you get skin infection wise?

early on before it was known she had allergies, she had a really nasty series of ear infections, though they did clear up before she was started on the vaccine , so it is unclear whether these were related to her allergies. But she does scratch her ears and "shake them" sometimes, so I'm thinking they still can cause her discomfort.

ETA: Ok so my memory is not that up to scratch, she continued to have yeasty ear infections in the beginning of the allergy vaccine buildup.

Other than generally itchiness and the newly started constant licking of paws and front legs, its mainly discolouration, inflammation, sometimes sores ( thought I think this is due to Misha licking and itching herself) on her stomach and inside of her haunches and sometimes under her armpits ( and by this I mean her front legs). She lost all the fur on her tummy and a lot off her inner haunches, which has over time grown back but I am noticing that the fur on her inner haunches & tummy is starting to thin out again.

If there are fleas or flea dirt present and if they bite her on the stomach, the bites turn into large red sores.

I think she is lucky that her reactions are milder than some dogs, the worst of it is watching her itch, she can be asleep on her bed and wake up with a jump and start scratching and the constant scratching and general discomfort she seems to be in is not fun to watch.

There's some stuff coming out now that is looking at Tumeric and yucca for inflamation as well, I haven't researched this a lot yet, but that may be something you can follow up.

I've heard in brief detail that scientist are investigating Tumeric as a "super spice" to combat and prevent a lot of problems, but I have not really looked into it.

I assume you did an elimination diet?

yes, for 6 weeks before we did the initial Intradermal test.

Edited June 1, 2010 by lillim

[sas]

No you don't see what I'm saying, that is why I'm saying forget about it.

I don't care of you agree with me or not, it's not what I was putting across.

If its easier for you to assume that I don't see or don't want to see, then whatever, ok...

Play School much! Come on now!

[sas]

Hi all. I am new here. Looking for advice to buy cyclosporin cheaper. My vet advised me to get online and look. I am now buying Atopica at $7 a tablet which I am using 1 per day.

You may like to contact Stormie, she was getting it from a compounding chemist for much cheaper.

[raffikki]

I meant go down that path yourself . Can I ask why you chose to do the rush treatment instead of building up the vaccine dosage over time?

I actually wasn't offered to build up the dosage.

I guess/assume the RUSH therapy either makes it easier for the client OR they find it works better??

I will ask about it all when we go back in, in a fortnight, and let you know if you like

[harryviolet]

My vet has ordered me some cyclosporin @ $5 a tablet if I order 100 and I have agreed to this.

Sparky Tansy you say "just a single kibble which I found for him which is lamb based... " - I would love to know what this is. Is it Eagle Pack? That was the second to last kibble I tried on Olivia and it may have been OK but there were other variables.

I may try going back to that. Tonight Livvie looked at Lamb 4 Legs and some lamb forequarter and said "No ... not that hungry". Sigh ....

[lillim]

I meant go down that path yourself . Can I ask why you chose to do the rush treatment instead of building up the vaccine dosage over time?

I actually wasn't offered to build up the dosage.

I guess/assume the RUSH therapy either makes it easier for the client OR they find it works better??

I will ask about it all when we go back in, in a fortnight, and let you know if you like

hmm intriguing, I'd never heard of the RUSH treatment before this thread, I'm going to ask my Dermatologist tomorrow about it. That would be great if you let me know why your Dermatologist chose to go with it from the get go.