GSD with severe allergies - Page 3

I would  never keep a dog on steroids for life, that would be unwise.  But if it would help her, in combination with her antibiotics.. it is worth a try.  If atopy will work for her, it will be done, nothing is too pricey for our babies, they are priceless! 

=)

o.o it's late, I meant to say atopica... oye....

What do you feed your dog.  What you are describing is very similar to something I had years ago with my old boy.  I spent hundreds at the vets and got no where other than spending more money and watching the problem escalate.  They changed his feed 3 or 4 times and I was spending about £50 on a sack - remember this was 10 or so years ago!

We solved it all so easily - by keeping the protein content of his food below 20%.  He cannot cope on raw food, or the good/expensive kibbles.  He is currently on a feed that is promoted for maintaining greyhounds but it only has a max protein of 19% - he is fully coated and looks about 8 despite being 12.

I too have a dog with severe allergies, he is allergic to chicken, white fish, turkey (which he has severe adverse reactions to these 3, within 1/2 hr of eating he will literally rip his fur out causing open wounds) other foods he is allergic to are lamb, sheep, beef and rabbit. He was raw fed but is now on a Duck and Rice kibble, his allergies were pretty well controlled with Atopica at a cost of £2,000 for a 9mth period. Recently he was attacked by a Rottweiler which triggered his immune system into overdrive again. Currently he is now back onto antibiotics and is undergoing further tests, which I am awaiting news of, although so far another allergan as shown up we know it is some thing within the house and hopefully in the next week it will be pin pointed. We are also awaiting full biochemistry results, as so far he has been on various medications since he was 2yrs old hes now 3 1/2yrs, hopefully no long term organ damage.

Re Cefalexin; not sure if any one has had any problems with this antibiotic ,Rilexine, but over the years I have had 3 GSDs react badly to this causing severe ulceration of the stomache, so bad that they pass fresh blood in the feaces.

 Skin testing can identify the allergens. Desensitizing works in about 65% of allergic dogs;

Samson had the skin testing done when he was younger. Auburn University made up the antigens so that I could give him the desensitizing shots weekly. We tried this for about a year, one step ahead and 2 or 3 back.  My boy was in the percentage of dogs that the shots wouldn't help.  Certain times of the year things get worse, seems like he is always scratching. I normally switch out between Frontline Plus and K9 Advantix, lately been sticking to the K9, not happy with results from Frontline. Or should I say lack of results.

Sorry the desensitizing didn't work for your dog. It sounds like you are doing all anyone can possibly do for an allergic dog. So far I'm batting 1000 with this breed. I've already mentioned all the issues I had with my first and my current GSD is also mildy atopic. Fortunately I am able to keep him under control with antihistamines and small doses of prednisone, 15 - 20 mg 2 or 3 times a month. He's 6 1/2 now and I haven't had him skin tested since it's a minor problem with him and he has not had a secondary bacterial infection for over 3 years.

It seems as if there are an awful lot of atopic GSD's, doesn't it?

Gracie was constantly licking her paws and the skin between her toes was always red and yeasty. I had the HESKA/ELISA blood panel run. She is highly allergic to dust mites and storage mites. I cleaned my house from top to bottom, going through 4 vacuum bags getting up every strand of dog hair. I vacuum more often now. I also notice that she has some contact dermatitis to the wet morning grass so I solved it by using fragrance free baby wipes on her paws when she would come in. I have not had the skin testing done for food (only the blood panel which is not very accurate - most came up with a zero; barley came up with a 5 so I thought it was okay....NOT). She is on a veterinary diet for her SIBO but I tried to switch to a commercially available food. After 3 weeks she was scratching her ears so hard they were bleeding -- the food has barley and alfalfa in it, two allergens that many dogs react to. She was on temeril-p (antihistamine & steroid combo) for 7 days and is on tresaderm drops fro 14. What an amazing change - her ears are flesh colored and cool to the touch!! She is not licking or biting herself like she used to so I will continue to wipe her feet when she comes in. When things get really bad, I give her 50 mg of bendaryl. Sorry this is so long -- I could go on and on .... and on about allergies and digestive issues LOL

Allergies................the dirty little secret of the dog world.

I have had to use Keflex(Cephalexin) repeatedly for my girl.  I always give it with food and have never had an issue with it.  The biggest problem seemed to be not having her on it for long enough to truly clear the infection up.  A deep seated infection of the skin needs to be treated longer than a slight localized infection. 

Silhouettes,  I have never seen anything that bad before.... wow.  Poor girl, she must be horribly uncomfortable.

Darcy