Allergies in dogs

[Miggimeggi]

This message is not exactly France specific so may be thrown out, however, having seen several mentions (especially Possemgirl, re Maggie) of allergies I thought I would put in my twopennorth. 

When we got our present Dane as a puppy he soon became an itching, scratching mess.  We tried all the usual things offered by the vet then moved on to the homeopathic products but by six months old, nothing had worked at all and he was almost hairless,  constantly scratching and often bleeding and was about pretty as Dick's Dog.  His temper was suffering and we were at our wits end. Eventually we called his breeder in Johannesburg (also a vet) and  she suggested a de-sensitizing treatment.  For this we had to first have a blood test and the blood was sent to the States as the treatment was not available in S A.  We then received a report on the items to which he was allergic and the list was huge.  It included almost everything that we were feeding him and externally, it seemed that almost any organic bedding was a problem, fleas of course, and, of all things, most of the varieties of grass that he may lie on.  The treatment comprised a long course of injections made in the US labs for him specifically, containing minute amounts of the allergenic substances and was (by South African standards) horrifically expensive, but we went for it.  It began with daily injections which the vet taught me to do, the frequency of the injections reduced as time went on but the whole thing took about nine months.  We changed his diet to a product made from catfish and potatoes(all meats but lamb were on his sh*t list as were maize, wheat, oats etc.) The improvement became noticable after about six weeks and he just got better and better. 

 You should see him now,  he looks fantastic, sleeps on anything that takes his fancy and although we play safe now and feed him on a lamb and rice croquette he gets such things as roast chicken skin, bread  and great big cow shin bones, once a big "no,no".  His coat  is just gorgeous, thick (now for winter) and shiney(sp)  and unscratched.

Anne

[PossumGirl]

It's great to hear that this worked for you guys.

I definitely see an improvement in Maggie since we've been living here (as long as we avoid the dreaded brewer's yeast), which leads me to believe that some of her allergens were L.A. specific, i.e., certain grasses, pollens, etc.  She used to spend a lot of time in "her" backyard, whereas here, we don't have a garden, so she has limited exposure to grass and usually is only walking in it, not lying on it.  I also wonder if the fact that she's exposed to fewer pollutants in the air hasn't helped...

PG

[Teamedup]

Our dog too was an itchy scratchy mess and the vet suggested and did all sorts. A lady we know who runs a kennel said that it was probably a beef allergy and to try changing the diet to lamb and rice and we gave that a try and have had no problems since.

Our friend's dog had same problem for years, poor thing and we kept suggesting that she stopped giving the dog beef, but her vet said it wasn't that. Eventually in desparation she did just that and no more beef and the problem cleared up.

 

So who knows what these things are. I just know that for the last 11 years we have had a very healthy dog and for all Eukanuba is expensive, those vets bills were too and I don't like our dog suffering.

[Miggimeggi]

Before we undertook the de-sensitization treatment it was suggested to us by one vet that the SA flora may be the problem but when his sh*t list came back from the states, it included quite a number of American and European plant species as well as a number of African ones.   For the first 4 years we were here we also had no garden so his exposure to grass etc. was low and we had wondered if we would have a recurrence however, we now have had a garden for about 6 months and have had no problems.  I hadn't thought of pollution but we were not then nor are now in an area of any significant pollution.

His list also included beef and that in the "high" category but also there were chicken, turkey and pork along with just about all the carbo ingredients found in commercial diets.  I have heard of several dogs with a beef allergy, I would guess that it is quite common.  Cutting the beef was also one of the first things we tried but without any improvement.  We even let our local homeopath persuade us to try her recipe for vegetarian dog food - he (the dog) was not impressed with a mix of beans, lentils, wheat etc.and he would steal from the other dogs.  When we finally saw the lab.results we could see that it had not been good for him.

Happily, the treatment we used worked for us.  Now all we have to watch are the caterpillars.

Anne