cavvysavvy Posted March 21, 2011 Share Posted March 21, 2011 I am wishing that the allergy season would end soon!!!! My cav is suffering terrribly with eye, skin and ear problems. His bum is so red raw from scooting (I thought it was the anal glands till the vet showed me his date) Plus, with him already suffering from dry eye, it makes it so hard to keep his eyes looking clear and healthy, rather they are red and inflamed. Does anybody else have any similar problems? How have you dealt with this? Even changing the diet to a natural one in case it may help a little.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
W Sibs Posted March 21, 2011 Share Posted March 21, 2011 (edited) Poor thing. Is he on any meds? (like zyrtec or something) What has the vets said about it? Edited March 21, 2011 by CW EW Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miz J Posted March 21, 2011 Share Posted March 21, 2011 Got a boxer with contact allergies. We keep the lawn short, have removed any offending plants. He gets bathed every other day when allergy season is on with aloveen. He is on Zyrtec in the allergy season and when his ears get red. We did the elimination diet and then got him onto low allergy food and it made no difference to his seasonal symptoms. We also have a mild topical steroid that we use if his ears flare up badly. He has been on prednisolone when it was quite bad last year but thats a last resort. Everything we do tends to keep it at bay and he doesnt have any problems in the winter. Talk to the vet and have a plan for managing the allergy season ( if its seasonal), a plan for escalation in symptoms and look at the envronment. There are some great people who can give you nutritional advice on here so go have a look at that thread. All the best Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
julzjc Posted March 21, 2011 Share Posted March 21, 2011 Bonnie is red raw too , driving me insane. Just have to constantly tell her to stop scratching. Shes been having Maseleb (sp) baths every fews days, antihistamine tablets most days and bepanthen rubbed into the worst bits. Shes going through stages of looking great and then the very next day she is a mess again. Main thing is keeping an eye an her and being able to tell her to stop it (otherwise she wont stop). I thought I was going to have to take her to the vet last week. I was out for a few hours and she had scratched her belly button to the point of almost tearing it (as with 2nipples~ one still looks horrendous), emergency bath and covering her in cream helped ALOT and she was back to looking normal again the next day. Trying to keep her inside as much as possible but as soon as she gets out, the first thing she does is "belly crawls" on the grass and plants Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ESCS Posted March 21, 2011 Share Posted March 21, 2011 Our dog has contact allergies too and this summer has been bad. We do what we can to keep the grass cut and remove offending weeds such as wandering jew but his allergies still flair up. He is on cyclosporin daily and this has made a huge difference. Antihistamines were not working for him. I also found that washing him in a hydrobath helped as it was more effective in washing off pollutants. We use QV wash as it is fragrance free and was recommended by our vet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cavvysavvy Posted March 21, 2011 Author Share Posted March 21, 2011 All good suggestions thanks guys... I am trying him on a sensitive stomach and skin formula, just in case... The vet has never ever suggested zyrtec to me but I might look into it... He is currently on Maxidex for his severly red eyes and panalog for the skin spots... He just looks so listless when he is having a bad day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JulesP Posted March 21, 2011 Share Posted March 21, 2011 Rather than a sensitive skin formula I would try an elimination diet. The sore bum and ears sounds like food could be playing a part. To do an elimination diet you need to pick a protein that the dog doesn't normally eat and a carb. So maybe kangaroo and rice. Have the dog on just that food for about 6 weeks. Watch treats too. I found my dog cleared up in a couple of days. Then you just add ingredients back in one at a time. If you get a reaction you have found the thing the dog is allergic to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starkehre Posted March 21, 2011 Share Posted March 21, 2011 (edited) I have a good friend that has a young boy that until fairly recently had nasty allergies. She swapped her dry food over 2 Black Hawk Holistic and he started to improve within the first few days of the diet change, although the allergies manifested themselves more in the form of contact allergies as opposed to diet related allergies. He was previously on Artemis by memory, but he also enjoys a lot of raw and barf style feeding. The only difference to his diet was the dry. We think it may be the emu oil in the Black Hawk that is helping or even perhaps the elimination of corn/maize, wheat and soy. This was a few months ago. This pup was on antihistamine tablets sometimes twice per day previously. Whatever the reason for the improvement, this friend of mine is sticking with BHH and she is happy to do so as her dogs is so much happier. I am very lucky, I have never had any dogs with allergy issues. Added, yes I have recently started supplying BHH and feeding it to my own dogs, but one of the reasons I now do so is because of this pups' results, not the other way around. :rolleyes: Edited March 21, 2011 by dyzney Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mason_Gibbs Posted March 21, 2011 Share Posted March 21, 2011 Rather than a sensitive skin formula I would try an elimination diet. The sore bum and ears sounds like food could be playing a part. To do an elimination diet you need to pick a protein that the dog doesn't normally eat and a carb. So maybe kangaroo and rice. Have the dog on just that food for about 6 weeks. Watch treats too. I found my dog cleared up in a couple of days. Then you just add ingredients back in one at a time. If you get a reaction you have found the thing the dog is allergic to. Dont do rice a lot of dogs react to it, rather use sweet potato or pumpkin. If i were you i would see a dermatologist and find out exactly whats going on!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JulesP Posted March 22, 2011 Share Posted March 22, 2011 Dont do rice a lot of dogs react to it, rather use sweet potato or pumpkin. If i were you i would see a dermatologist and find out exactly whats going on!! My dog didn't react to rice. Just don't use pasta as you want to avoid wheat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mason_Gibbs Posted March 22, 2011 Share Posted March 22, 2011 Dont do rice a lot of dogs react to it, rather use sweet potato or pumpkin. If i were you i would see a dermatologist and find out exactly whats going on!! My dog didn't react to rice. Just don't use pasta as you want to avoid wheat. On my dermatology sheet that I got given rice is not an option as part of an elimination diet and my dog is actullay allergic to rice so that would not work for us and many others. Loads of allergy dogs will react to rice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aussielover Posted March 22, 2011 Share Posted March 22, 2011 Just so you know, elimination diets are not completely balanced and you will have to add supplements. Its really best to do these sorts of diets under the supervision of a specialist or vet. And Mason2009 is right, pumpkin or potato is better than rice as they seem to cause less of a reaction than rice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ptolomy Posted March 22, 2011 Share Posted March 22, 2011 Just so you know, elimination diets are not completely balanced and you will have to add supplements. and in a true elimination diet all the suppliments will have to be individually tested Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chook007 Posted March 22, 2011 Share Posted March 22, 2011 When you say you have given your dog zyrtec, is it the same as we take ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cavvysavvy Posted March 22, 2011 Author Share Posted March 22, 2011 Thanks so much for the feedback guys. I have a sample of the black hawk food arriving today, so hopefully its just what I need, and I have heard so much positive feedback from you regarding this food. I am really excited to be trying it. How do I go about gettting an allergy test done, guessing Ill have to go to Melbourne for this? I thought it may have just been a seasonal thing with the high pollen counts this year..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sas Posted March 22, 2011 Share Posted March 22, 2011 Just so you know, elimination diets are not completely balanced and you will have to add supplements. Its really best to do these sorts of diets under the supervision of a specialist or vet.And Mason2009 is right, pumpkin or potato is better than rice as they seem to cause less of a reaction than rice. No no no. An elimination diet is only a short term diet, the dog will be fine for a short period. Elimination diet does not include supplements as you would have to test each of those as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sas Posted March 22, 2011 Share Posted March 22, 2011 Thanks so much for the feedback guys. I have a sample of the black hawk food arriving today, so hopefully its just what I need, and I have heard so much positive feedback from you regarding this food. I am really excited to be trying it. How do I go about gettting an allergy test done, guessing Ill have to go to Melbourne for this? I thought it may have just been a seasonal thing with the high pollen counts this year..... I have my allergic dog on it. He's still allergic, there is no cure for allergies only management tools and food isn't going to make too much difference if that's not what the dogs issue is. I am however very happy with the kibble though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cavvysavvy Posted March 22, 2011 Author Share Posted March 22, 2011 Thats fantastic, I cant wait to receive mine today Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aussielover Posted March 22, 2011 Share Posted March 22, 2011 Just so you know, elimination diets are not completely balanced and you will have to add supplements. Its really best to do these sorts of diets under the supervision of a specialist or vet.And Mason2009 is right, pumpkin or potato is better than rice as they seem to cause less of a reaction than rice. No no no. An elimination diet is only a short term diet, the dog will be fine for a short period. Elimination diet does not include supplements as you would have to test each of those as well. They are definitely NOT suitable for young growing dogs, even for the short term. A proper elimination diet should take at least 6 week, sometimes up to 12 weeks. A lot of people with adult dogs choose to keep going on the diet or a similar diet (if there is a food allergy) in which case supplements have to be added. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stormie Posted March 22, 2011 Share Posted March 22, 2011 Eukanuba's FP is actually ok for growing puppies. But unfortunately not really that novel any more seeing so many commercial diets have fish in them. Goodluck s_edmonds! I wish we had an allergy season. Ours is 24/7/365 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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