Do You Have A Pet With A Allergy?

[Summersaint]

When one of our dogs Harry was diagnosed with enviromental allergies, I was taken back as I never knew the extent of allergies within pets and from what I have read on here it's apparently quite common.

Harry is back looking beautiful and healthy again on his medication but I am curious to see how allergies have effected other DOLer's?

also we always planned on desexing Harry but have allergies effected you decision to desex your pet?

[aussielover]

My labrador has Atopy and Food allergy. I can tell you that atopy in particular is a particularly widespread problem in dogs and often can be hard to control/manage.

Food allergy is not as common and much easy to manage.

There is a breed predisposition in:

- Lab & Golden retrievers

-Terriers (WHWT, Scottish, Fox, Aust silky)

-Min Schnauzers, Boxer, Staffordshire BT

-Dalmation, Rhodesian ridgeback, Great Dane

There is also a genetic predisposition so any dog with atopy should absolutely not be bred from!

and should therefore be desexed.

My dog is currently doing desensitization injections, but is not on any other meds.

[SmoothieGirl]

I haven't voted but my girl kind of fits into this conversation, although none of the survey categories.

Bronte is not allergic to anything, however her conditions presents as severe atopic dermatitis. After time spent with canine dermotologists she has been diagnosed and successfully responding to life time treatment of Skin Barrier Dysfunction. Basically SBD is when the skin cells are not properly formed and allow all sorts of environmental irritants in through the skin, which her immune system then attack unsuccessfully, which results in high levels of itching and finally bacterial infections.

She's been on her current treatment which is an immuno suppressant, but not from the cortisone family, for about 12 months now and has only had one minor infection and only scratches occasionally. She also gets washed in an anti bacterial shampoo weekly to help her skin battle any infiltration of nasties. Very impressive response given that she used to be constantly itching, had lost about half of her coat and was on cortisone and antibiotics for about a year.

Morale to the story, stop guessing. Don't trust your vet to guess either, they only have limited training in this space. It was my vet that suggested the referral after she didn't 'grow out' of her allergy syptoms. Stop spending money changing diets, shampoos and enviromental conditions - all guess work. If your dog has a seemingly allergic response, go and see a canine dermatologist. They are highly skilled, yes a bit expensive, but in the long run, it will save you money and save your dog a lot of distress.

Edited - Bronte is desexed and was always going to be desexed, so her condition never factored into the decision.

Edited August 7, 2011 by SmoothieGirl

[aussielover]

A bit Ot sorry but Smoothiegirl- how did they differentiate atopy from skin barrier dysfunction?

[Summersaint]

There is also a genetic predisposition so any dog with atopy should absolutely not be bred from!

and should therefore be desexed.

My dog is currently doing desensitization injections, but is not on any other meds.

Harry's allergies are enviromental and mostly dust and grasses 3yrs on he is still in still on 3 zyrtec daily and his desensitization injecttions bimonthly - if only he could live in a bubble

I agree 100% with desexing so the genetic aren't passed on but you would fall over at the discussions I had with a staffy owner in the waiting room on one of harry's recents check-ups - she was a few cans short of a 6 pack and said that the vet couldn't prove that the gene wouldn't be passed on and why should she loose a bitch over it

[Summersaint]

Morale to the story, stop guessing. Don't trust your vet to guess either, they only have limited training in this space. It was my vet that suggested the referral after she didn't 'grow out' of her allergy syptoms. Stop spending money changing diets, shampoos and enviromental conditions - all guess work. If your dog has a seemingly allergic response, go and see a canine dermatologist. They are highly skilled, yes a bit expensive, but in the long run, it will save you money and save your dog a lot of distress.

Edited - Bronte is desexed and was always going to be desexed, so her condition never factored into the decision.

I agree SmoothieGirl vets do have limited training in this field - we have been seeing a Caine Dermatologist since he was 6 months old..very $$ but how can you put a price on your pets health and wellbeing? to us he is worth every cent

[Fynesse]

My BC has food allergies. I have never before in all my years of having dogs, had a dog with a allergy, so it has been a very steep learning curve for us. From what we have learnt, he is allergic to beef and preservatives. Always had dogs that could eat anything, cheaper food, leftover scraps from the table etc. I have to watch everything Angus eats, I can't throw a bit of fat from a rump steak to him unless I want to spend the next 3 days stopping him ripping himself to pieces. The only dry food he can have are super premium brands made with chicken, and I have to read the back of the pack of any treats I buy him (but I solved that by buying a food dehydrator and drying my own lamb liver). As for the desexing, I always planned on having him desexed as soon as possible, so never came up as an allergy solver (and has made no difference anyway)

[TerraNik]

Jedi has environmental allergies (house dust, dust mites, food mites) and a food allergy (chicken).

He has been through immunotherapy injections and is now on life-long pulse therapy antibiotics which keeps his chronic staph infection at bay.

[Mason_Gibbs]

Didnt vote as my dog is atopic and has food allergies. I desexed him because he is not show quality ( his allergies had not shown up by the timd he was desexed so it had no bearing on our decision). To me if you are not going to show your dog or become a reg breeder the dog should be desexed.

[Kavik]

Mine has environmental allergies. Had him desexed but not because of the allergies (they surfaced later).

[Staranais]

Allergies are very, very common in dogs (and lots of other animals too).

We are taught that flea allergy dermatitis is the most common by far, followed by atopy, then food allergies, then contact allergies. This has been borne out by what I've seen so far in practice. But it's also true that dogs with one type of allergy are much more likely than your average dog to suffer from a second type of allergy. I've seen intradermal skin testing done on lots of dogs, and in almost every case the dog was inappropriately reactive to multiple substances, not just one.

I think there is rarely a valid reason to breed a dog with allergies. They often, if not always, have a heritable component, and they're not a minor problem - allergies cause owners a whole lot of expense and cause dogs a whole lot of discomfort.

Edited August 7, 2011 by Staranais

[Summersaint]

I think there is rarely a valid reason to breed a dog with allergies. They often, if not always, have a heritable component, and they're not a minor problem - allergies cause owners a whole lot of expense and cause dogs a whole lot of discomfort.

well said staranais

[OSoSwift]

Ours was desexed for other reasons than his allergies.

He was tested and was allergic to 38 environmental allergies, which also includes horse hair, bacteria that naturally occur in the environment, horse hair and flys, mozzies etc. He is also allergic to eggs, beef, has an intolerance to lamb and chicken, wheat, any dry food containing artificial colourins and preservatives but luckily does well on Roo.

One biscuit from a bag or Pal dog food and he will rip his hair off in hours. He has also gone out to the toilet been out of my sight for literally 30 seconds and come back covered in hives with a swelling face.

He is allergic to most of our trees, weeds and grasses. He improves at my mums which is 500kms away.

He is now on every second day cortisone for his arthritic spine so his skin is not too bad but he is still a little itchy from time to time.

[Polgara's Shadow]

Vulcan is allergic to lamb and sardines. Has been since we got him at two months old. I think he's also allergic to kykuyu grass, could be allergic to other environmentals - we havent had the test. All in all is pretty easy to manage. He gets yeasty itchy paws every now and then due to licking them a lot. We manage him by avoiding sardines (and fish oil in general), lamb and kykuyu grass and occasionally giving him a wash in calendula tea or malseb (depending on the level on severity) when he starts getting the itches.

I was surprised about how many dry foods had lamb, sardines or fish oil in it.

We were desexing anyway so the allergy factor didn't enter into the decision.

Edited August 7, 2011 by Polgara's Shadow

[Bjelkier]

Misty has allergies and although I'm not desexing him only due to this it is a major factor in my decision not to breed with him.

[Polgara's Shadow]

I think there is rarely a valid reason to breed a dog with allergies. They often, if not always, have a heritable component, and they're not a minor problem - allergies cause owners a whole lot of expense and cause dogs a whole lot of discomfort.

well said staranais

*Nods head vigorously*

That said our breeder tells us allergies are not in his family...

Edited August 7, 2011 by Polgara's Shadow

[Staranais]

I think there is rarely a valid reason to breed a dog with allergies. They often, if not always, have a heritable component, and they're not a minor problem - allergies cause owners a whole lot of expense and cause dogs a whole lot of discomfort.

well said staranais

*Nods head vigorously*

That said our breeder tells us allergies are not in his family...

They are now.

[Summersaint]

Vulcan is allergic to lamb and sardines. Has been since we got him at two months old. I think he's also allergic to kykuyu grass, could be allergic to other environmentals - we havent had the test. All in all is pretty easy to manage. He gets yeasty itchy paws every now and then due to licking them a lot. We manage him by avoiding sardines (and fish oil in general), lamb and kykuyu grass and occasionally giving him a wash in calendula tea or malseb (depending on the level on severity) when he starts getting the itches.

I was surprised about how many dry foods had lamb, sardines or fish oil in it.

We were desexing anyway so the allergy factor didn't enter into the decision.

try dipping his feet in QV oil & warm water - its helps us with harry's feet it was recommended by our Derm Vet

[Erny]

There is also a genetic predisposition so any dog with atopy should absolutely not be bred from!

and should therefore be desexed.

Owning an entire dog shouldn't automatically be assumed that breeding is intended or is going to occur. What if the decision to not desex had something to do with being 'whole' possibly being beneficial to the dog's health? Hypothetically speaking.

[SmoothieGirl]

A bit Ot sorry but Smoothiegirl- how did they differentiate atopy from skin barrier dysfunction?

Hey there, I assume you mean the process we went through?

Firstly we undertook a VERY strict and supervised 6 week (actually it may have been 8 week?) food elimination diet to rule out food allergies, with no change whatsoever. Then they did skin allergy testing, can't remember the technical name, but basically the skin scratch test for about 75 allergens. No reactions to any of the irritants used, she was fine.

Based on that, because Skin Barrier Dysfunction has only recently been recognised in dogs (and only in the last five years in humans) they decided to treat her as if she had it. Its much better recognised and understood in the US. Her positive response to treatment has essentially confirmed the diagnosis, although the three dermos at the specialist centre all had the same conclusion based upon her history, syptoms and response to allergy treatment to date. She is on Cyclosporin three times a week, and gets wash in a prescription shampoo once a week, that's it. Within three weeks she was a changed dog, it was remarkable. Cyclosporin is used in humans to manage organ rejection in transplants, and its a pretty safe immuno suppressant, but she does have bloods every six months to monitor her ongoing response to the drugs. Last check she was perfect.

The whole process of diagnosis with the canine dermatologists probably took about 6 months, as between the elimination diet and the allergy testing they were trying to reboot her immune system by completely getting rid of her infections, hoping to get a couple of months off cortisone without infection and crossing their fingers that her system would just kick in and she would improve on her own. However she never went more than two weeks without infection. This helped them realise that her skin condition and her immune system were working against each other essentially, hence SBD.

I hope my layman description helps.

Edited August 7, 2011 by SmoothieGirl