Help Needed For An Allergic Staffy

[2staffys]

I'm new to the world of dog allergies so I need a little advice on what to do to help my 5 month old staffy.

He has scratched behind his ears, around his neck and licked his feet for a few months now. His skin is dry and sometimes scaly so I took him to the vet this week to get it investigated. The vet has told me that it looks like he is just going to be a allergic staffy, no sign of mange there. We were advised to change his bedding as it might be a big cause of the problem. He currently snuggles up to our non allergic staffy on a bean bag type bed that is topped with a polar fleece banket. They seem to get cold during the night so I am hesitant to swap their bed for one of those snooza type ones that our vet recommended. Does anyone have any ideas for non allergic bedding?

Buster is outside during the day within a section of our property, about 4 acres. It's made up of some lawn and not much else at this stage as he have just built a house and the landscaping is "still in progress".

We have washed Buster in a medicated shampoo and we were given prodnesolone?? for him to start today, once a day for 3 days and then once every 2 days until finished, about a week away. Does this sound like a good thing to stop the itching? I have just read a few posts about the drug and I'm worried about side effects or whether I should be doing something else to get this under control. He was also given an injection at the vet on Monday night and I have noticed that he has been going crazy around food since then.

He is currently being fed a combination of supercoat puppy dry food and the fresh puppy roll. I think I should try him on other food and I'm interested to try one mentioned in previous posts, can't remember the name but know it's available at animal tuckerbox.

Any thoughts from other staffy owners or anyone with similar problems would be great, want to do the best I can for our little boy.

[poodlefan]

The first thing you need to determine is what your dog is allergic to.

However I don't think his diet would be helping. I'd suggest you get him off cereal based foods or those containing preservatives.

A really good quality dog kibble supplemented with raw meaty bones or a completely raw diet might be the go.

Five months old is very young to be starting a pup on anti-itch drugs. I'd be wanting to figure out a cause. I'd suggest a specialist vet visit.

Is your pup a blue stafford by chance?

Edited August 11, 2010 by poodlefan

[persephone]

I too, would recommend a vet who gave you a bit more detail than "an allergic staffy" Did the vet do skin scrapings?

The prednisolone may well stop the itch- but IF it is an allergy , it will recur when the drug wears off.

just some things to think about....

what collar does your pup wear?

what spot on flea products do /have u used?

what treats does pup get?

does he rub his face on the carpet ?

[sas]

Your dog could be allergic to anything. Your Vet has given you a short course of Cortisone - you hopefully will not have to keep on with it long term however in really bad cases it provides quality of life to the dog.

Cortisone will increase food and water consumption of the toilet and in-turn will need to toilet more.

Have you contacted your Breeder to ask them if any of their other dogs have been allergic to anything in particular?

The dogs diet isn't great, you might want to look at Raw or a Kibble for sensitive dogs.

I think the food you mentioned is Tuckertime which is Ok - but that doesn't mean your dog won't react to it if it has a food/sensativity.

For bedding, you can cover your existing beds in Cotton or Callico - Callico is cheap and has no dyes etc. I wouldn't go changing the actual beds when it may not even be the case.

Washing in Medicated shampoo is pretty harsh and can ause their skin to dry out and get itchy - however can be a neccessary part of the elimination process - is it Malaseb?

If your puppy is still itchy after this round of Cortisone I would 100% be asking yoru Vet to send you onto a Dermatologist - if they're itchy young that's not a good thing, they'll get worse if they are an allergic dog and you're going to need guidence from a professional (other than a standard Vet).

[Nekhbet]

you need to get him off that junk food ASAP. Try royal canin large breed, eagle pack or nutro. Also get off the dog rolls completely, if you want to add something fresh try preservative free kangaroo meat or lamb necks to munch on. He's lacking on the inside if he's always itchy and scaley. You can also try the ethical nutrients high strength liquid fish oil on top of new food.

As for the bedding unless your dog is allergic to nylon sounds like a hard sell to me from the vet. Wash it only it a hot wash and dont use detergents, then leave it inside to dry so the pollens dont get into it.

Tablets, I prefer to just use antihistamines.

[2staffys]

Thanks for your replys.

Going to change his diet first of all, I've had a few suggestions for Royal Canin so might give that a try.

Will put a cotton sheet over the existing bedding and I'm keen to try adding the oil to his food. I'll keep an eye on things over the next few weeks/months and see how it goes.

To answer a few questions:

Yes Malaseb is the wash that I was given. We have bathed him once last night and it hasn't dried the skin at all, that was my first thought too.

He doesn't rub his face on the carpet, his collar is nylon so looking at changing that as he has developed a rash underneath it.

We feed him raw and bones occasionally but can look at increasing that, we have been giving liver treats only so far.

Are human antihistamines ok to use? dosage?

[Nekhbet]

I only wash in malaseb when there is a problem and the skin is red or scaley, then after 4-5 days if its not settling I repeat. I find less is more with that stuff, great to fix problems but unless there is a bacterial/fungal infection it wont fix the skin.

How heavy is the staffy?

ETA changing foods can help but it wont be instant. You need to give it a few weeks before a good change is occuring as there is residual irritation in the system. Oh and when you bath make sure the dog it totally dry. I have noticed with itchy dogs leave them a little damp and their skin suffers for it. That could be why the collar is irritating as well, if some water gets under there the lack of oxygen and bacterial growth can make a red patch. I'd leave the collar off unless you really need it on.

Edited August 11, 2010 by Nekhbet

[OSoSwift]

It can take weeks for a food change to have an effect so make sure you are patient and don't swap around again too quickly.

If he is allergic to his collar, what sort of bowl does he eat from? Some dogs can be allergic to plastic bowls, stainless steel is the toughest and most hygenic choice.

Polar fleece is basically a plastic so I would definately have him sleeping on cotton.

Our Stafford is allergic to 38 things other than foods. He is allergic to the hessian sack beds, but can have the white feed bag type covers, he is also allergic to wool. He is allergic to any biting insects, horse hair, cockroaches etc etc. He is also allergic to grasses, pollens and trees along with some foods.

I would add Fish oil at 1000mg per 5kg and you will also have to give Vitamin E as well as they can be depleted in Vit E if having lots of fish oil. I also give Evening Primrose oil at the same dose, along with Ester C.

It can be very frustrating and yes at times you may have to resort to short doses of Prednisolone. It is ideal if you can avoid giving them that.

[stormie]

A lot of what has been suggested area great ideas, but I would second the referral to a dermatologist first. You need to get a proper diagnosis and work down a path of elimination.

Changing the diet is all good and well, but it's not uncommon for allergic dogs to be allergic to both the environment as well as foods. So there's no point changing the diet if it still contains the same proteins found in the food you're feeding, in case there's an allergy to this.

The Derms will eliminate other possibilities, such as fleas, scabies etc and also look to rule out bacterial and fungal infections, all of which can cause chronic scratching.

They can also go through different antihistamines with you to try and find some that may provide relief.

Fish oil can be great for skin problems, but again, pointless if it turns out you have a dog with a fish allergy.

I understand your pain and am only suggesting this based on personal experience. I tried changing diets many times, using as many different supplements as I could find, different shampoos etc etc. It was all just wasted time and money in the end and I wish I had used this money to seek Derm help sooner.

I have a dog who is allergic to the environment and food. He is always itchy, but rolling in grass, walking through plants etc make him insanely itchy as does eating chicken. He's also allergic to dust mites and cat dander so I am careful about carpets too. He is also allergic to oatmeal, so any of those soothing oatmeal based shampoos and conditioners also make him worse. Applying shampoos that have any plant based oils also are bad for him.

Again, I'm not saying the above are bad ideas, more that, IMO, it's best to try and identify the problem first so you know where you stand and what you're free to work with, in terms of supplements, shampoos etc.

[Mas1981]

Stormie is right, go and see a dermatologist it saves you money in the long run - vet had put us on a few kibble based elimination diets, they showed us nothing, we did roo and sweet potato and have since found out that our dog is so far allergic to chicken and beef as well as pollens , storage mites and dust mites - we have a few more things to try foodwise before I can tell whether he is allergic to them or not. My previous vet said to use Malaseb - derm told us it is too drying and now we use QV wash and QV oil.

[sllebasi]

doesnt it say a lot about the world we live in, i work with children and cannot believe the amount and severity of allergies they are suffering from, and didnt realise that dogs suffered so badly from it too - goes to show you preservatives and additives are no good for anybody or anything. is is mainly staffys that have allergies or is it universival across most breeds???

[Sandra777]

I wouldn't say it was mainly "staffys" - I've had Staffords for over 30 years and never had a seriously allergic one. I have one who is mildly allergic to beef, which I think I caused because the litter she came out of was born just after we had a cattle beast knocked over and the pups were raised mainly on beef whereas before and after I've always made a point of mixing up what they get as pups.

It does have a genetic component however and sadly there are so many thoughtlessly bred Staffords out there that vets do tend to see a lots of the breed who are just born to have allergy issues. Any breed which becomes popular and is subject to bad breeding practices tends to end up as being viewed as having "x problem" when in reality it's almost always the thoughtlessly bred ones which are prone to that problem.

I would definitely see a dermatologist if you don't have the experience to do elimination testing yourself. It could be something really simple or it could be something very hard to solve, only very careful elimination testing can identify it - constantly masking the problem won't solve it.

[Staff'n'Toller]

You've had some good advice so far.

In the interim I would change to Royal Canin, lots of people on this forum feed sup*coat with no problem whatsoever but I have seen way too many in the clinics I've worked at come in with bad skin and are fed this brand.

Hot wash and tumble dry the bedding at least once weekly.

Visit this page http://www.dermcare.com.au/easyweb3/WEBID-...de-allegry_info download the pdf poster link they have there, print it out in colour and walk around your yard to see if you have any of the common weeds. Wandering Jew is the most common one. All your dog needs to do is run through these types of weeds and crunch the leaves to get a contact allergy. You must totally eradicate any of those weeds you notice.

I would still treat for fleas as I know my Stafford only needs one or two adult fleas to cause a flare up. If you don't want to apply an oil to the skin comfortis is a month long oral medication that will do the same thing (essentially). You need to be treating all dogs and all cats in the home, even if the dogs never come into contact with the cats.

Edited August 12, 2010 by Staff'n'Toller

[Amerigo]

we have recently been through this with our Amstaff pup.

we did the whole vet thing which was a waste of time but has to be done...we knew she had ALLERGIES and not just parasites.

We got a refferal to murdoch for allergy testing...

she is allergic to pine, many grasses, some pollens etc......

we also have had her on a strict grain free diet as we think she also displauys allergy symptoms when fed this.

To save yourself some money.. try an elimination diet.

First eliminate all grains, and feed sweet potato as the carb, and a different meat, like kangaroo. If she settles down and improves her condition in 6 weeks or so, you know you have food allergies there.

[Polgara's Shadow]

Hey there 2staffys,

I feel your pain! My now 10month old staffy has been itching since we got him. By six months he was itching constantly and had many open sores on his feet and his 'armpits'. It was very upseting. We got our vet to have a really good look at him while he was knocked out for desexing at six months. The vet thought it was atopic allergies, but suggested we do a food elimination trial first to rule food allergies out. He was put onto Hills Z/D prescription dry food for about six weeks. He got 90% better over that time. We have figured out that he reacts to sardines, lamb and couch & kykuyu grasses. We currently feed him Hills Senistive Skin dry food for breakfast (the only brand without fish oil or lamb that I can easlilly source) and Vet's All Natural complete mix (puppy) mixed with minced chicken carcass along with Vet's All Natural Omega Blend. I sometimes use kangaroo instead of chicken carcass mince and give him beef brisket bones to knaw on.

He is 100% better - his coat gleams, his skin is no longer pink and his itching is minimal. As long as we keep him off the grass that is

The Hillz Z/D prescription has had the proteins broken down to such a miniscule level that his body doesn't recognise them as allergens. So it's great to figure out if your pooch has an allergy to food or not. Unfortunatly you can only get it through a vet.

Good luck. It's a slow and painful process!