Dog Allergy Supplements?

[EquestrianRunner]

Sorry if this was already posted…I found some posts about dog allergies but they didn’t really answer my question.

Our puppy has food AND environmental allergies. We have the food allergies under control – strict diet, seems to do well. She was doing really well during the winter months when the enviornmental allergens (sp?) weren’t really there. I started taking her to the farm around x-mas. She seems to be itching like crazy the past couple weeks. I don’t know if it is the farm or if it is the crazy warm weather that is bringing the allergens up to the surface. She is eating a little bit of horse poop ( gross! ) so I don’t know if that has anything to do with it but if it does, how do I stop that?

Currently she is eating:
-approx. 2 1/2 cups (her food is out all the time) of Natural Balance Limited Ingredient Diet, Salmon and Sweet Potato

• the matching treats whenever she gets a treat
• 1/2 tab Benadryl around 6pm. – this was helping with the itchiness but it seems to be not as effective anymore
  All of this is per our vets recommendation.

She also gets frontline plus and a heart worm pill once a month.

Are there any good supplements to help with environmental allergies?

thanks so much!!!

[ShanonaDVM]

My mom has a Corgi that has both environmental and food allergies that are mild to moderate. She also does well when is food restricted but occasionally my parents slip her some people food and she gets itchy. She also is on benadryl which sometimes helps and sometimes doesn’t. Benadryl does not work as well in dogs as it does in humans especially if given after they are already scratching. Anyways, my parents started using Platinum Performance’s Canine Skin and Allergy (http://www.platinumperformance.com/Canine-Platinum-Skin-Allergy/productinfo/CSKIC75/). My mother thinks it works well and really helps Dixie. It increases the amount of omega 3 oil in your dogs diet and helps balance the omega 3 to omega 6 ratio. If you don’t want to do this supplement you could try other supplements that increase omega 3 oils. You can also talk to your vet about increasing your dose, amount and/or frequencey of Benadryl. Dogs can also take Zyrtec. Hope this helps.

Shannon Oliver

[2tempe]

First part: I have never known a dog who didn’t like horse poop now and then. So unrelated to the allergy problem.

I don’t know about supplements, but I have a chow mix who has environmental allergies. We have resolved doing two things: He gets, in May and August a “buzz cut” of his lovely red coat, because it is an allergan magnet according to vet. ALSO he gets a benedryl every day from May thru the end of October. (actually Target generic brand, 100 for about $4. )
This has worked like a charm!

Check with your vet re dosing amounts; mine can actually take more, though it isn’t needed.

[SquishTheBunny]

Well there are lots of options, but the most tried and true are the following:

Tapering dose of Vanectyl P. One of mine gets seasonal allergies, and this has done the trick for hte past 12 years. 1 daiy for 5 days,then every other day for 10 days, then 1/2 tab every other day for x days. Its a low dose steroid combined with an antihistamine. With the weaning doses,I have never noticed any steroid related side effects.

Allergy testing - especially for environmental. Go to a dermatologist, they will do a series of allergy tests on the skin. Then, a serum specific for your dog is made up and injected every 6 (I think) weeks. You buy the serum, your vet holds onto it and will give the injection and monitor them for any reaction. We used to offer the service and it was $7 per injection, so very affordabe. Im suret he initial cost of allergy testing and making up the serum will cost more.

Im sure there are some holistic treatments out there too.

Good luck!

[MsM]

SQB,
If you do the tapering dose, are you able to taper off in the allergen season?
My dogs have seasonal allergies. OTC Antihisitamines didnt work (tried several). They were on Temeril-P which sounds similar. Tapered down the dose after the initial knockdown but had to keep them on a low dose until mid-winter. Now we didnt start until later (due to trying other products) so I wonder if stoping it earlier might allow them more time off the stuff.

Might try the allergy testing but I have heard mixed reviews on that…

[GutsNGlory]

Have you asked your vet about allergy shots for your dog?

My dog also has food and environmental allergies. I have discovered most of them through process of elimination - we haven’t had him allergy tested as my vet actually did not recommend it (it can be very expensive and doesn’t always “solve” the issue).

I can (mostly) control the food allergies with a limited diet… he is allergic to wheat/gluten and does better on a diet with limited poultry. I say mostly because my father likes to give him “treats” he isn’t supposed to have. I can tell when he has had too many forbidden treats or gotten into something based on his stools, but he generally does very well with his current diet.

For his environmental allergies, he gets a steroid allergy shot every 4 weeks. I have a great, inexpensive country vet that makes this financially possible. My dog goes in every third shot (so about 4 times per year for allergy shots alone) to get one administered by my vet and have a check up done ($16) and then we take two shots home for me to administer ($12/shot). These have made ALL the difference with my dog. He does have slight side effects, due to the steroid, if he goes any longer than 4 weeks - increased appetite/thirst and more frequent urination about 3-4 days after the shot. These only last about 2 days and can be controlled by keeping him on the 4 week schedule, though.

Overall, our program works pretty well. He is a much happier dog now than 3 years ago - he was suffering from extreme diarrhea (food) and itchy skin (environmental) which was causing open sores and infections from scratching/chewing.

Anyway, I hope you find something that works for you!

[EquestrianRunner]

Thanks so much everyone!!!

We have not tried allergy shots. We did do the Temeril P and that worked well but we didn’t love the fact that it was a steroid.

I might try the Platinum. Do you feed it with regular Platinum or just the Platinum allergy/skin tab?

I found this one ( http://www.petco.com/Shop/Product.aspx?sku=1289322&CoreCat=Related_Products ) at PetCo. It has more stuff in it than the Platinum. What do you guys think?

Thanks so much!

[ShanonaDVM]

My mom just feeds the skin and allergy and puts the powder on her dog food. You can also feed it with the regular platinum supplement that has more vitamins and minerals in it.
Allergy testing has its positives and negatives. Just doing a blood test is not as diagnostic as doing an actual intradermal allergen test. If you are going to do that, I would talk to a dermatologist and go with the intradermal testing. If you do that, you will have to be willing to stop all medications for several weeks before the testing as they will interfere with the results. Hope your dog feels better!

Shannon

[SquishTheBunny]

The goal is to keep your dog comfortable - so a tapering dose of steroids is likely not to cause him any ill effect, but make him feel better.

Often times you can completely remove them from the drugs, but some dogs do need to stay on it for a season. The idea is to get them to the lowest possible dose that they are comfortable on.

I would think you would be able to get your pup down to a very low dose. At low doses, you should not see ANY side effects of it. Prednisilone generally has lower side effects than prednisone and dex anyway.

You could also try the allergy shots - its quite a bit of money up front,but those would likely help especially if you knew what he/she was allergic to.

Anyway, if you are concerned about sde effects of steroids, dont be - the dose you should be able to get down is very low.

[EquestrianRunner]

Thanks again for all in info guys!!!

I will talk to the vet about the allergy shots. Also gotta talk to Mom and Dad. Thanks so much!!!

[Foxtrot_s]

Our white Bull Terrier has had a horrible time but he was put on Prednisone, a fatty acid capsule and a shampoo called Mal-A-Ket by Dermapet which is made in the USA but unavailable here in Canada. Over time I have very slowly lessened his dose of prednisone to half a pill every third or fourth day and a shampoo every couple of weeks and he is comfortable. I monitor so see how he is and then change as necessary. Prednisone has to be reduced very, very slowly - over a period of months it seems. I’m quite satisfied with this regime for this dog. The shampoo helps with the formation of yeast on his skin…brown instead of healthy pink. I used to think it was dirt!

[Horsegal984]

1. What heartworm pill are you on? Even such a small amount of it can affect a food allergy dog.

2. What does your pup weigh? Benadryl dosages for dogs are usually about 1mg per pound, twice a day, so you can definately increase there. You can also go to hydroxazine or claratin if needed.

3. fish oils! I know you’re on a fish based diet, but there’s still not enough of the essential fatty acids in there, you can always supplement with more, and it’s cheap!!

4. baby wipes! Wipe pup down when coming in from outside, it really can make a big differnece just getting those allergens off the skin.

5. horse poop may well not be your friend, since most horses eat grains, and therefore pass some of those in their stools. And there goes your grain free diet! Although honestly the pop is far less of an issue than any small bits of dropped grain from the stalls.

Katherine
Vet Tech

[EquestrianRunner]

HorseGal–

• we were on Interceptor but now we are on a different one because the Interceptor was having a factory issue… She has only taken the new heart worm pill once. – I will look at the box and see if it has beef or chicken in it, yes she’s allergic to beef and chicken, most likely it probably does have those in it as flavors?

• she weighs about 19 lbs. Right now she is taking 1/2 a tab of generic Benadryl 1x a day.

• how much fish oils would be beneficial? also which ones?

• baby wipes! GREAT IDEA!!! I will do that. Easy enough!

• she doesn’t tend to eat the dropped grain on the barn floor…don’t know why but that doesn’t seem as exciting as poop :lol:

FoxTrot–
-right now she is getting a baby shampoo bath about every 4-6 wks when she gets groomed. Next time she gets groomed we will try a medicated shampoo.

I don’t want to change too many things at once but I will change stuff one at a time so I know what works :yes:

thanks SOOOOO much everyone!!! Bailey appreciates it!

[Horsegal984]

Right now the ONLY hypoallergenic heartworm pills on the market are either Sentinel with the coating washed off, or Trifexis. Even Interceptor has some beef in it, although small amounts.

I would talk to your vet, but at 19lbs 1 25mg benadryl twice a day sounds more appropiate.

800-100mg of fish oil a day, and I just buy whatever is on sale at the store.

I would switch away from the baby shampoo. I know they market it to be super safe and gentle, but it tends to be very drying. A good quality oatmeal or medicated shampoo would probably be much better. There are also some medicated leave in conditioners you can apply to help with itching, like ResiSoothe. Might be worth looking into, although they typically work best if used 1-2 times a week.

[EquestrianRunner]

HorseGal – I cannot thank you enough for all of this great info!!! I will call the vet tomorrow and ask about the heart worm pill. Hopefully they will have some insight.

As of this morning she is getting 1/2 tab of Benadryl 2x a day. I sort of remember our vet saying she could have 1/2 to a full tab 1-2x a day.

I will look into the fish oil if the Benadryl does not work. I will also get some oatmeal shampoo.

[OTV]

Love the idea of baby wipes for environmental allergies!

My brother’s dog has gone through hell this past year. He started getting itchy in the summer, then scratched all his hair off on his front legs, belly, and ears. Benadryl worked but it was just suppressing the itchiness, not fixing the root cause. Allergy testing showed miscellaneous fish (he was eating Orijen 6 fish), wheat, and grass. He’d been on the orijen 6 fish for 3 years and had done great , so we figure he developed a food intolerance.

Changed food to EVO and it snowed, so it helped. Then EVO did a formula change and added herring oil and the itchies started again. Hair was still gone, but now poor guy had developed a staph infection. His skin on his inner thighs was bright red and burning hot. We switched him to a raw diet - no fish - and only beef liver cookies, and got the staph infection treated. BUT during that time, he’d also been under stress from a move…and with everything else (allergies, staph infection) he fell to demodex mange and lost all the hair around his eyes and had the ‘goggles’.

Poor thing. He’s been on raw for 3 months now, the staph infection is under control, his skin is normal and not hot, the hair is growing back so he no longer looks like some weird 90 lb mexican hairless. Allergies are BRUTAL.

And of course, the snow has melted so the grass is up and he’s starting to scratch again. i will definitely be buying the baby wipes and passing them along to my brother. We’re going to try a supplement too and see how that goes. I feel bad for all the dogs who have allergies AND their owners. They are so hard to deal with!

[Bicoastal]

Anti histamines other than Bendaryl

someone help me here…I can’t remember the name of the other active anti-histamine? When Benadryl was doing zilch for my food & environmental allergy boy, the vet switched us to Zertec.

When it’s bad, which is only a brief time, I bring out the big gun antihistamine/steroid rx. Better than infections! And that is now the top of our “big guns” thanks to other steps. No more Pred!

Ditto treating the topical element of the environmental allergies: wipe downs after every walk, if his paws are really affected put booties on or rinse his paws in a pan of water after every trip outside; bathe in soap-free moisturizing shampoo often (for us that means weekly in ‘high season’ and bimonthly all spring - fall); and hydrate the skin with fish oil. You don’t need to wait to see if Benadryl works before adding fish oil. Go buy some!