Allergy? (head shaking) - Page 1

I had my dogs ears scoped and the vet saw nothing and they were clear. The problem is he has been shaking his head lately and I am very concerned and don't know what it is. He doesn't do it all the time but... It has been suggested to me it might be allergy related as when he gets "worked up" more blood flows to the ears and the allergy come into to play? Benadryl has been suggested but I hesitate because I am not sure it is correct. Please advise! Thanks!

I might have the vet take a second look. Especially if the dog does not cooperate and a good look is not taken, the vet could miss an infection, or foreign body etc. It is also possible that there is a beginning problem with some mites which tickle the hair in his ear. You did not say how old the dog is, but there are neurological conditions that would cause this behavior. If if is not frequent, I would not worry too much. If it is still happening a lot, I would suggest a recheck. The ears are too important and missed problems could result in loss of hearing. Good luck.

He might get headaches...I had a dog that shook his head everyonce in awhile...but enough for me to notice...and took him in and ended up with doggie cat scan...and they found migraine type patterns....weird...I felt bad but there is meds for it..

Baxter, What are you feeding your dog? Alot of allergies are food related. I have known many dogs whose ear infections were a result of food allergies. Changed food and problem gone. I am NOT saying ALL ear infections come from food, but MANY do. Let us know what ou are feeding, I can help further.

I have been feeding him Eukanuba. He is three years old long coat and the problem is recent. When he was scoped I saw how clear he was on the screen myself. On the other side, maybe the vet did miss it (mites). He has never had them. I have had him since he was eight weeks. The idea of food causing this is quite interesting and certainly worth a try. I really appreciate the response. When he is happy I am happy and when he is not......

I'm sorry It took me a bit to reply, I haven't had a spare minute. Eukanuba is one of the worst foods on the market!!! As far as your vet, when it comes to nutrition they get kick backs, and also they know very little about nutrition! Here is a web-site Caninesincrisis.org go todiet and find the ALLMAN REPORT learn what goes into our dogs it will DISGUST you! I can reccomend a few premium foods that I KNOW are PREMIUM Canadei, Innova Evo, California natural(great for dogs w/allergies) Wellness, Solid gold, Eagle pack, some friends love Timberwolf organics, understand although these are all great foods, the best one is the one YOUR dog does best on! General rule, if you can buy it in petsmart, petco...no good! Some of these food are a bit more expensiive but you will have to feed less (less POOP!) because your dog will be "using" more of the food. PLEASE get your dog off Eukanuba! It's among the worst! Go to that site and read, read, read!!!! please keep me posted!

We had him on nutro green bag and was told Eukanuba was better. We gave him some rice, carrots and a small amount of liver for the first time ever last nite.....of course he loved it. What are you using?

Hello, I'm essentially repeating what I said for someone else here: He indeed may have allergies; they simply cause itchiness and it's worst when it's in the ears, because they are very delicate and easily damaged by the dog's nails, leading to real infections and a never-ending cycle. Hopefully if it's allergies, it's only food, but the odds are against that. About only 10% of dog allergy problems are due to diet; most are respiratory which is far more difficult to nail down AND treat. And then, you may find you have all of the above. VERY EXPENSIVE not just in transparent dollars, but in EFFORT. (BTW, I would suggest going for the throat and trying VEGETARIAN food 1st for a while; if that seems to steady it, maybe pick some duck or rabbit or venison formulas with potatoe or rice and see if you can still get away with it.) See if you have a DERMATOLOGICAL vet in your region; they are MUCH better at this than plain general vets. Do you have a Euro dog? I am highly suspicious by now that Euros have an allergy problem - and that it is "the defect that (dog fanciers) dare not speaketh its name". It is never discussed although vets say GS have quite high incidence of it. It NEEDS to be addressed. Ask me about allergies; I and my sister have dealt with it all in our Euro dogs.

Baxter, As I have said, I don't believe all allergies are food related. However I do believe they are higher than 10%. I hope you went to that site, there is an awful lot of info there, it's extremely valuable. As for me, I was feeding canadei, I changed because this dog did not do as well as my other on it. It's still a great food, but not for this dog. I changed to Innova's Evo, he seems to be doing better on this food, it's only been about a month, so we'll see. As for the carrots, dog's do not digest them, so it's a waste unless you put them in a blender, then they can absorb the nutrients from them. As far as Eukanuba being better than Nutro....no way, Nutro isn't a bad food, but the one's I stated earlier are premium. FYI, I had a friend who spent thousands on her dog trying to figure out where the allergies were coming from, several vet (least one was a derm.)she switched her dog's food (to California natural) and NO MORE allergies. NOT saying this is your problem, but food can play a MAJOR factor, the hard part is figuring out what the dog is allergic to. California natural, has less ingredients than the others, which eliminates quite a few possibilities. Anyway, good luck and keep us posted....please visit that site!

Specific estimates: http://www.merckvetmanual.com/mvm/index.jsp?cfile=htm/bc/70400.htm http://vetmedicine.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?zi=1/XJ&sdn=vetmedicine&zu=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.lbah.com%2Fallergy.htm http://www.labbies.com/foodreactions.htm (mentions that most dogs w/food allergies will have aspiration allergies, too – just like mine) General statements: http://www.priory.com/vet/vetatop1.htm http://vetmedicine.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?zi=1/XJ&sdn=vetmedicine&zu=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dog.com%2Fvet%2Fdermatology%2F01.asp