Demodex Vs. Skin Allergies?

[Rappie]

It's not impossible but it's not something I've seen before.

I would be a bit suspicious that there was an underlying immune issue that made the dog more susceptible to a having a food sensitivity, particularly since there also seems to be a seasonal component. When having a flare up with secondary infections then the additional stress can allow a jump in the numbers of demodex mites. Demodex in an adult dog nearly always has an underlying cause (usually resulting in immunosuppression), it's just sometimes hard to identify it.

[~Anne~]

Thanks Rappie. As always, I appreciate your advice.

[Guest Labradork]

Wow, thanks everyone - really appreciate all of your feedback and advice!

It sounds like I may have been jumping to conclusions by settling on demodex - from what everyone has mentioned, I don't think the areas affected, and the nature of the symptoms, are really consistent with typical demodicosis. I have to wonder if the Wandering Jew isn't causing a more serious reaction than I thought. Can allergies cause hair loss? Also, does anyone know of antihistamenes that are safe for dogs? (Mine is approx 30kg).

Though this wouldn't seem to be a problem directly caused by food, I am wondering whether swapping to a sensitive/BARF/holistic diet might help in reducing the severity of the symptoms. This is something I have been considering anyway. We have just started incorporating some canned sardines into the dogs' diets; too early to tell if this is having a positive effect, but boy do they love it!

Since my initial post, it appears that the itching/licking has really calmed down within my eldest dog, so something's worked! I think we'll now focus on prevention; looking at diet and environmental factors; so it doesn't flare up again.

As a final point, a number of people mentioned that seeing a skin specialist/dermatologist would be a good option in the case that we couldn't resolve the issue. Any particular recommendations in Melbourne?

[Staranais]

as I think pretty much all dogs would react like all humans would react to stinging nettle.

except that the stinging nettle has tiny hollow hairs and a toxin , causing pain/burning...not really an allergic response . The wandering dew leaves do NOT have such things... (afaik)

I asked a dermatologist this question a few months back, since I was interested too. He said it is a hypersensitivity, but not an allergy (technically it's a type 4/cell mediated hypersensitivity, not a type 1/IgE mediated allergy).

When he does intradermal allergen testing, he usually also does an additional test where he breaks a stem of wandering jew & gently scratches the dog's inner thigh with it, then takes a look 1 - 2 days later to see if the dog shows irritation at the site. Apparently many dogs react to the juice from the plant, but some don't.

[~Anne~]

Sorry, answering via phone and I can't figure out how to highlight just one point of your pst re: allergies causing hair loss. Yes, most definitely they cause hair loss. When I am back online at home I will show you a few pix of hair loss.