Allergies in dogs

[Bugs_s_Mom]

My youngest dog, a mix of who knows what (we know some shepherd and lab in mom) has always been an itchy dog. I know he doesn’t have fleas or ticks and gets periodic baths but not daily or weekly. He is two and has been on fish oil for most of his life but this does not seem to help. I recently switched him to poultry free food (Earthborn Ocean) and added a probiotic in hopes of eliminating the constant scratching and licking. He doesn’t have sores or rashes and doesn’t scratch or lick to the point his skin is inflamed but it is not only annoying to hear, it is obviously bothersome to him.

Have any of you experienced this with your dogs? If so what helped? I am sure I could have him allergy tested at the vet and if that is my last resort I will, but he HATES the vet. He is very leery of strangers and the vet is terrifying for him. I will take this route if needed as I want him to be comfortable but if I can avoid it I would like to.

Thanks!

[stargzng386]

Food allergy testing is useless and a complete waste of time unless they do skin prick testing. The blood testing has such a high rate of false positives that it’s not worth it. I have a dog with both seasonal allergies and food allergies. To test food allergies I would go to a specialty store and find a protein he’s never eaten before with very limited ingredients, no potatoes or peas those can be triggers too and feed that full bag and see if there is a difference. Regardless of it being food or seasonal allergies you can safely give your dog zyrtec once a day as a long term low level antihistamine so you could also add that or try that if the food testing doesn’t work.

[rockonxox]

Food testing was ABSOLUTELY useful for my dog. There is no way I would have ever figured things out with an elimination diet… he’s allergic to wheat, oats, potatoes, turkey, eggs, peas etc etc. Also some weird ones (like plantains) If you take out one thing almost all the other foods have another. There is only one kibble brand I’ve found that he can eat (that isn’t $100+ a month) and I don’t give him any treats that aren’t freeze dried chicken because almost everything has some type of binder that he can’t have. Hell, I was giving him oatmeal baths to soothe his skin and surprise he’s allergic and that is causing more hives.

I think getting a skin prick test to know what the allergies are and what to avoid, both food and environmental, was a huge help and in the grand scheme much less expensive than trying out new foods, going to the vet, etc. Allergy test was maybe $150 (so long ago I don’t remember) and added up the “I’ll figure it out myself” was in the $500+ range

The only thing that works on my guy is apoquel and I also use chlorhexidine shampoo for baths and in between baths I use chlorhexidine wipes on his paws. Yours may be luckier and get away with some benadryl or zyrtec. My vet also gave me a spray (GentaSpray) that is amazing when he has bad flare ups. I only recently added it (about 6 months ago) and it works great. Might be another thing to consider especially if yours is more environmental than food allergies. Zyrtec and benadryl aren’t effective for mine, but if they were it’d be cheaper!

[animaldoc]

What are you using for flea control? Even if you don’t see fleas, if he’s flea allergic (which is more common than food/environmental allergies) it only takes ONE bite (from ONE flea) to set them off.

It looks like the Earthborn Ocean is a grain-free food. I would absolutely stop that as there is an increasing association between grain-free foods and fatal cardiac disease. There are limited ingredient diets made by food companies that test their diets through AAFCO feeding trials (not just “formulated to meet AAFCO standards”) and have decades of research proving their diets are safe.

I would go see your vet for help with the itching - allergy testing isn’t necessarily the next step. The vet may be able to determine the most likely source of the allergies and can guide you from there (medication trial, food trial, allergy testing, etc.).

[Bugs_s_Mom]

@animaldoc

What are you using for flea control? Even if you don’t see fleas, if he’s flea allergic (which is more common than food/environmental allergies) it only takes ONE bite (from ONE flea) to set them off.

It looks like the Earthborn Ocean is a grain-free food. I would absolutely stop that as there is an increasing association between grain-free foods and fatal cardiac disease. There are limited ingredient diets made by food companies that test their diets through AAFCO feeding trials (not just “formulated to meet AAFCO standards”) and have decades of research proving their diets are safe.

I would go see your vet for help with the itching - allergy testing isn’t necessarily the next step. The vet may be able to determine the most likely source of the allergies and can guide you from there (medication trial, food trial, allergy testing, etc.).

Earthborn is not grain-free or at least the one I use isn’t’. It has Rye flour, barley and flax seed. I would not feed my dog grain free for reasons you list and more my vet warned against, apparently they increase UTI chances too.
https://www.chewy.com/earthborn-holistic-ocean-fusion/dp/29002

I use Nexgard on both dogs, I know for a fact my other dog is allergic to fleas and he has not had a single issue in years. If we had fleas he would be bloody from the scratching. The other dog is also white and I check him constantly for signs of fleas. The one in question is dark and they would be harder to see, but if one dog has them the other certainly will too.

[Bugs_s_Mom]

stargazng386 and rockonoxo, thank you both for your replies. I have used zyrtech with my other dog when he was exposed to fleas by a friend’s dog… It worked well and I honestly don’t even know why I hadn’t thought of it myself :sigh:. I will give that a shot and see if he has any relief. Thanks!

[Janet_Conway]

You’ve gotten very good advice already. Many years ago, I had a GSD with a flea allergy, determined by vet testing. It was high maintenance in Florida, as we did oatmeal baths, allergy injections and routine fleabuster treatments in home, but once we moved to northern Utah, thankfully his problem disappeared.

We now have a belgian shep that had itchy ears and occasional infections. Did not test, but switched her to a restricted diet, with beef as only form of animal product, and her issues disappeared.

After the 2007 pet food disaster, I am convinced that most pet-food products are no better than ‘horse apples’ for my animals. Earthborn is a premium brand and I encourage everyone to eliminate poultry from diet. But FYI, the FDA issued warning in June that the top premium brands grain-free foods, including Earthborn, may be linked to heart disease, so I’d steer clear of grain-free formula.

[Bugs_s_Mom]

@Janet Conway

You’ve gotten very good advice already. Many years ago, I had a GSD with a flea allergy, determined by vet testing. It was high maintenance in Florida, as we did oatmeal baths, allergy injections and routine fleabuster treatments in home, but once we moved to northern Utah, thankfully his problem disappeared.

We now have a belgian shep that had itchy ears and occasional infections. Did not test, but switched her to a restricted diet, with beef as only form of animal product, and her issues disappeared.

After the 2007 pet food disaster, I am convinced that most pet-food products are no better than ‘horse apples’ for my animals. Earthborn is a premium brand and I encourage everyone to eliminate poultry from diet. But FYI, the FDA issued warning in June that the top premium brands grain-free foods, including Earthborn, may be linked to heart disease, so I’d steer clear of grain-free formula.

Janet, thanks. Yes, grain free is something I avoid. I have not tried beef or lamb only foods but we haven’t finished the bag of Earthborn Ocean yet. I have heard of many animals being allergic to poultry which is why I eliminated it first. We will see how he does once he gets closer to the end of the bag and I may gradually try beef only food. What feed are you using for your dog?

[Janet_Conway]

Odd… I believe in KISS for my horses… high quality grass/alfalfa hay with safechoice or oats to supplement, as needed. But for my dogs… lol

I feed a mix of kibble, can and treats, broken into two meals. For kibble I use nature’s recipe healthy skin vegan. For can food, I use natural balance liver or Newman’s organic liver (although often out-of-stock), and for treats, I like beef tendons and gullets (USA or So. America sourced).

Belgian shep is 11.5 yo, so she also gets 2 dasuquin w/msm, 1 previcox, and cbd. She thinks she is still a puppy and does not look or act her age.

[stargzng386]

@rockonxox

Food testing was ABSOLUTELY useful for my dog. There is no way I would have ever figured things out with an elimination diet… he’s allergic to wheat, oats, potatoes, turkey, eggs, peas etc etc. Also some weird ones (like plantains) If you take out one thing almost all the other foods have another. There is only one kibble brand I’ve found that he can eat (that isn’t $100+ a month) and I don’t give him any treats that aren’t freeze dried chicken because almost everything has some type of binder that he can’t have. Hell, I was giving him oatmeal baths to soothe his skin and surprise he’s allergic and that is causing more hives.

I think getting a skin prick test to know what the allergies are and what to avoid, both food and environmental, was a huge help and in the grand scheme much less expensive than trying out new foods, going to the vet, etc. Allergy test was maybe $150 (so long ago I don’t remember) and added up the “I’ll figure it out myself” was in the $500+ range

The only thing that works on my guy is apoquel and I also use chlorhexidine shampoo for baths and in between baths I use chlorhexidine wipes on his paws. Yours may be luckier and get away with some benadryl or zyrtec. My vet also gave me a spray (GentaSpray) that is amazing when he has bad flare ups. I only recently added it (about 6 months ago) and it works great. Might be another thing to consider especially if yours is more environmental than food allergies. Zyrtec and benadryl aren’t effective for mine, but if they were it’d be cheaper!

Quick response to this. Blood testing for food allergies is useless. It’s useless in humans and pets. The skin prick testing can be helpful and I would recommend that if you can’t figure it out by yourself. I had pet insurance and my vet ran the blood test just to see and I took it to the nutritionist to figure out a diet to try her on and she basically laughed and said to toss it, it wasn’t worth the paper it was printed on. I was already suspicious because I am anaphylactic to two foods and both are negative on blood testing.

[Smashley]

I can sympathize with you. I had a rescue Ori-Pei that was an allergy mess. From my experience you might actually be dealing with environmental allergies, or a mix of both. Food allergies tend to show themselves in things like constant diarrhea. Itchy feet and skin tends to be environmental. Our dog was allergic to pollen, and ironically, us. He spent a few happy years on Apoquel but it eventually lost effectiveness. We added in Cytopoint and he was moderately comfortable until the end. Weekly bathing and Epsom salt soaks for his poor inflamed feet also helped.

[rockonxox]

@stargzng386

Quick response to this. Blood testing for food allergies is useless. It’s useless in humans and pets. The skin prick testing can be helpful and I would recommend that if you can’t figure it out by yourself. I had pet insurance and my vet ran the blood test just to see and I took it to the nutritionist to figure out a diet to try her on and she basically laughed and said to toss it, it wasn’t worth the paper it was printed on. I was already suspicious because I am anaphylactic to two foods and both are negative on blood testing.

He was skin pricked So was I. We’re both allergic messes. Sorry it didn’t work for you, but I know a lot of people who have had luck with severely allergic dogs with getting the skin prick test. My vet did suggest to go to a dermatologist for further testing and I put the kabosh on that because it was insanely expensive and once I had a road map from the skin pricks I could guide myself towards figuring out what to do. Having a full list of no’s in front of me made it much easier to find something I could give him than trying to make my own list and cross compare everything. Sure, it can be done, but if a dog is allergic to more than one or two things it can be very difficult to figure out.

Cytopoint did nothing for my dog and I know our vet has had not great results with it for the worst of the worst allergy cases. Perhaps it would work for minor allergies? I don’t know. It is really expensive for just one shot too - so it wouldn’t be my first choice for treatment. My dog is also allergic to human dander. So far 6 years with Apoquel and it is still effective. Depending on the season he gets .5 to 1.5 pills. Really hope the effectiveness never wears off because it is a miracle. I haven’t tried the Epsom soaks but that will be something to add to the list!

[Smashley]

@rockonxox

Cytopoint did nothing for my dog and I know our vet has had not great results with it for the worst of the worst allergy cases. Perhaps it would work for minor allergies? I don’t know. It is really expensive for just one shot too - so it wouldn’t be my first choice for treatment. My dog is also allergic to human dander. So far 6 years with Apoquel and it is still effective. Depending on the season he gets .5 to 1.5 pills. Really hope the effectiveness never wears off because it is a miracle. I haven’t tried the Epsom soaks but that will be something to add to the list!

Ours was a bad case. Was basically bald and had scratched out an eye when we adopted him. I truly feel the Apoquel gave him a few of the best years possible for him. When it stopped working we did both Apoquel and Cytopoint for about a year. We finally called it when he also went into early liver failure and allowed him a medication-free week (he HATED swallowing pills). full of hamburgers and puppachinos before a send-off at home.

Apoquel gets a bad rap, but it’s one of those risk vs. reward meds. I wouldn’t do it differently if I had another chance. Fingers crossed you get many more comfortable years.

[16_Hands]

My lab was recently diagnosed with having a whole host of allergies when she started scratching and it wasn’t fleas because the other dog was unphased. took her to the dog dermatologist and first did a food allergy test and that turned up negative, then did the skin prick test and took about 15 different skin samples and came up with the results:
Allergic to cat dander (we have a cat)
Allergic to dust mites
Allergic to ragweed
Allergic to a number of common field grasses

So now, vet concocted serums for her particular issues and she is on a shot every 3 days until she reaches the end of the third vial and then will wean down to 1 shot every 3 weeks. What the vet neglected to tell me, it takes 6 to 10 months for full effectiveness and meanwhile she’s scratching her fur off and her whole underside is red and inflamed and she scratches constantly. Plus her skin stinks, not normal dog smell, but just stinky. The only time she’s not scratching is when she’s playing ball or sleeping. The dogs were found to have contracted fleas and we eradicated them pretty quickly and our other dog has stopped scratching at fleas and now is back to his normal self. However, my lovely young lab is not. It breaks my heart to see her so unhappy but hopefully we’re on the right track to helping her cope.

[cloudyandcallie]

When one of my Aussies was a puppy she developed allergies to lots of things like centipede and palmetto. She had the same testing as humans had, blood and skin, etc, and the same doctors’ lab as with humans did the evaluations. She had to take allergy drugs and even tranquilizers for almost a year. Then she outgrew her allergies and had a long and happy life. Her 3/4 sister never had allergies.
Get the full testing done. She did not have food allergies btw.

[2tempe]

I’ve had two dogs that had allergies to Florida. The first moved south with me and then they hit, so I knew it wasn’t food. Vet’s first suggestion was to get him shaved (he was a chow/golden allergen magnet) Surprisingly that made an enormous difference, no more hot spots, no more itching in a material way. An occasional bout was dealt with using benedryl for a few days.
Second dog came from foster home in central Fl to me, so no material climate change. He was fine through the winter; in maybe mid summer the itchies started. Skin got red but no hot spots. He was still on the same food. Vet gave us some apoquel, and that helped. Several months later, same thing again. Maybe 3x per year. Then after hurricane Irma he started and it went on and on for about 8 months. So tried the cytopoint. He went every six weeks or so for maybe a year, and then, when the next period was up, no itching. So I waited and waited, its now been 6+ months since his last shot. Go figure.

[rockonxox]

@16 Hands hopefully the shots work for you. I tried those too and it didn’t help much. The only positive was that at least my dog is really good with getting shots so it wasn’t too traumatic for him Try the GentaSpray for quick relief - your vet should be willing to give you a prescription since she’s seen your guy for his allergies. It isn’t very expensive and easy to apply. It isn’t an all the time fix, but it really gives my guy relief when his skin gets more raw, pink, and yeasty smelling.

[Bugs_s_Mom]

Thank you all for the replies!

I am going to start the zyrtech this weekend and see what happens. I also paired down all of the food I have ever had him on and found two common ingredients; fish and flax. I am going to try a food that does not have either BUT still has grain (I promise I will not feed grain free). I forgot to mention previously he is very gassy. I have him on a probiotic but he has always had a higher amount of gas than my other dog. That is why I really think it could be food related.

[16_Hands]

@rockonxox thanks for the suggestion of the GentaSpray. I’ll call the vet today.

[animaldoc]

If you want to do a true elimination diet, you really need a Rx diet. Hydrolyzed protein diets work well, or true limited ingredient diets. Unfortunately most OTC diets will have cross-contamination or other protein sources if you get down far enough on the list of ingredients…you only need to do the diet for 6-8 weeks.