Need group opinion and possible advice. My 5yo lab has environmental
allergies and getting cortisone shots to control the itching.
Recently (30days) the Vet recommended I change to Prednisone
administered orally as an alternative that would allow me to better
control the itching. Initially the Prednisone seemed to work. With
the exception of the constant urination, the itching seemed to stop.
Then he started losing his hair first on his belly and hindlegs and
now under his throat. The vet seems out of ideas and I am concerned I
will be left with a completely hairless lab. Also want to get away
from the "chemical" solution and affect on his body longterm. Are
there any recommendations or ideas? Please .....

Thanks much in advance

Sam

On 11/2/2010 7:27 PM, Sam wrote:
Need group opinion and possible advice. My 5yo lab has environmental
allergies and getting cortisone shots to control the itching.
Recently (30days) the Vet recommended I change to Prednisone
administered orally as an alternative that would allow me to better
control the itching. Initially the Prednisone seemed to work. With
the exception of the constant urination, the itching seemed to stop.
Then he started losing his hair first on his belly and hindlegs and
now under his throat. The vet seems out of ideas and I am concerned I
will be left with a completely hairless lab. Also want to get away
from the "chemical" solution and affect on his body longterm. Are
there any recommendations or ideas? Please .....

Thanks much in advance

Sam

Yeah, what you need to be doing is figuring out what makes him itch
instead of just hiding the problem with dangerous drugs like Prednisone.
Your vet is taking the easy way out instead of doing his homework.

The most common reason for this itching is a allergy to something in
their food. Grains are the most common cause but it could be a lot of
things. First suggestion is to go grain free but there is information
that needs to be mentioned here.

I's need to know several things. What exactly (brand and type) you are
feeding him, what drugs and pesticides are you exposing him to and tell
me about his vaccine history.

And get him off the Prednisone but don't stop abruptly. Slowly reduce
the dose till he's off it.

Char

On 02 Nov 2010 23:27:02 GMT, Sam wrote:

Need group opinion and possible advice. My 5yo lab has environmental
allergies and getting cortisone shots to control the itching.
Recently (30days) the Vet recommended I change to Prednisone
administered orally as an alternative that would allow me to better
control the itching. Initially the Prednisone seemed to work. With
the exception of the constant urination, the itching seemed to stop.
Then he started losing his hair first on his belly and hindlegs and
now under his throat. The vet seems out of ideas and I am concerned I
will be left with a completely hairless lab. Also want to get away
from the "chemical" solution and affect on his body longterm. Are
there any recommendations or ideas? Please .....

Can you tell us what else you've tried besides the prednisone? Any
antihistamines? Are you quite sure that his allergies are
environmental?

Everything I've read always says that dogs do not tolerate prednisone
well long-term. It would definitely be wise to try to get him off
that.

"Sam" wrote

Need group opinion and possible advice. My 5yo lab has environmental
allergies and getting cortisone shots to control the itching.

That wouldnt be my first try but I dont see enough here to tell for sure.

Sam, can you list what you are feeding him by brand and include any treats?

Allergy seems obvious but it *may* be a food allergy. It's pretty classic
symptoms.

The top allergins in foods for dogs a wheat, corn, soy. Many of the
seeming good foods by brand name (and often price) are using those as 2 or
more of the top 4 ingredients (listed in order of percentage in the USA).
Since most dogs aren't allergic to such, they can get away with saying
'Pedigree' brand for example is good kibble.

Char will tel you about 'raw feeding' and she's good people but a bit
stronger than some can take about that one aspect at first. Lets say even
if i can't follow her full plan and disagree with some aspects, she helped
me figure out a food allergy with my dog.

In my case, I couldn't raw feed totally (irrelevant why to you) but
converted to a food that doesnt cause issues for my 'pups' (only 1 of which
seems to have food allergin issues).

To help you best, we would ask the food brand and type you feed now
including treats used?

I can offer up too that I had to convert Cash to 'Blue Wilderness' (a grain
free product and there are others that can be used) and grain free treats.
I also give about 50% of his food in 'raw feed style' with livers, hearts,
fish, and his all time favorite of pig blood.

I still do not know exactly what of the top 3 pet food added allergins Cash
reacts to, but it doesnt matter much. I just removed all 3 and it works
here with no need for expensive tests and Vet agrees on that.

My suggestion if you have a food with wheat, corn, or soy, to try one for 3
weeks with none of that. *If* it is related, they say some really long time
to have effect on some web pages but in personal experience, it was less
than a week to see 'something got better'.

On 11/2/2010 11:56 PM, cshenk wrote:
"Sam" wrote

Need group opinion and possible advice. My 5yo lab has environmental
allergies and getting cortisone shots to control the itching.

That wouldnt be my first try but I dont see enough here to tell for sure.

Sam, can you list what you are feeding him by brand and include any treats?

Allergy seems obvious but it *may* be a food allergy. It's pretty
classic symptoms.

The top allergins in foods for dogs a wheat, corn, soy. Many of the
seeming good foods by brand name (and often price) are using those as 2
or more of the top 4 ingredients (listed in order of percentage in the
USA). Since most dogs aren't allergic to such, they can get away with
saying 'Pedigree' brand for example is good kibble.

Char will tel you about 'raw feeding' and she's good people but a bit
stronger than some can take about that one aspect at first. Lets say
even if i can't follow her full plan and disagree with some aspects, she
helped me figure out a food allergy with my dog.

In my case, I couldn't raw feed totally (irrelevant why to you) but
converted to a food that doesnt cause issues for my 'pups' (only 1 of
which seems to have food allergin issues).


Yes you can feed raw totally. You just won't deal with the gulping issue.

Thanks all for your input. This allergy problem has existed for most
of Dakota's four years. Over the years we changed his food from
Science Diet (my favorite) to all natural (LTD, etc) and even fresh
meat (raw grosses out the wife) - none seemed to work with any degree
of success so Vet advised to go back to Science Diet (my preference)
Sensitive Skin and work on itching with medication. Treats are
regular food. Just returned from office visit with specialized
shampoo/conditioner and Atarax replacing the Prednisone. Next step is
to detox his body of steroids and submit him to full battery of
costly allergy testing.

Sam

On 03 Nov 2010 16:37:33 GMT, Sam wrote:



Thanks all for your input. This allergy problem has existed for most
of Dakota's four years. Over the years we changed his food from
Science Diet (my favorite) to all natural (LTD, etc) and even fresh
meat (raw grosses out the wife) - none seemed to work with any degree
of success so Vet advised to go back to Science Diet (my preference)
Sensitive Skin and work on itching with medication. Treats are
regular food. Just returned from office visit with specialized
shampoo/conditioner and Atarax replacing the Prednisone. Next step is
to detox his body of steroids and submit him to full battery of
costly allergy testing.

But why the food changes if his allergies are environmental? And how
was it determined that his allergies are environmental?

Allergies in dogs are tough. I have heard numerous times from
numerous sources that tests for food allergies in dogs are unreliable.

Atarax has antihistamine properties but it's also a sedative and it
wouldn't be my vet's first choice of an antihistamine. Have you tried
Benadryl? It's over the counter and inexpensive.

On 03 Nov 2010 16:37:33 GMT, Sam wrote:



Thanks all for your input. This allergy problem has existed for most
of Dakota's four years. Over the years we changed his food from
Science Diet (my favorite) to all natural (LTD, etc) and even fresh
meat (raw grosses out the wife) - none seemed to work with any degree
of success so Vet advised to go back to Science Diet (my preference)
Sensitive Skin and work on itching with medication. Treats are
regular food. Just returned from office visit with specialized
shampoo/conditioner and Atarax replacing the Prednisone. Next step is
to detox his body of steroids and submit him to full battery of
costly allergy testing.

I'm confused. I thought you said his allergies are environmental. If
so, how was that determined? Atarax is a drug with both antihistamine
and sedative properties and I'm wondering why your vet chose it,
unless your dog is itching so much he's going crazy. Have you tried
Benadryl? It's over the counter, inexpensive, safe for dogs, and
available without the pink dye in case your dog is sensitive to dyes.
I think you've got to find out the cause of his itching, but
unfortunately, food allergy tests in dogs can be very unreliable, with
lots of false positives. If food allergies are suspected, you would
need to narrow down what they are by elimination. I think raw diets
are great, but a raw diet isn't going to help if the dog is allergic
to, for example, lamb (not as common as grain allergies, but it
happens).

On Wed, 03 Nov 2010 13:47:52 -0400, sighthounds & siberians
wrote:

On 03 Nov 2010 16:37:33 GMT, Sam wrote:



Thanks all for your input. This allergy problem has existed for most
of Dakota's four years. Over the years we changed his food from
Science Diet (my favorite) to all natural (LTD, etc) and even fresh
meat (raw grosses out the wife) - none seemed to work with any degree
of success so Vet advised to go back to Science Diet (my preference)
Sensitive Skin and work on itching with medication. Treats are
regular food. Just returned from office visit with specialized
shampoo/conditioner and Atarax replacing the Prednisone. Next step is
to detox his body of steroids and submit him to full battery of
costly allergy testing.

I'm confused. I thought you said his allergies are environmental. If
so, how was that determined? Atarax is a drug with both antihistamine
and sedative properties and I'm wondering why your vet chose it,
unless your dog is itching so much he's going crazy. Have you tried
Benadryl? It's over the counter, inexpensive, safe for dogs, and
available without the pink dye in case your dog is sensitive to dyes.
I think you've got to find out the cause of his itching, but
unfortunately, food allergy tests in dogs can be very unreliable, with
lots of false positives. If food allergies are suspected, you would
need to narrow down what they are by elimination. I think raw diets
are great, but a raw diet isn't going to help if the dog is allergic
to, for example, lamb (not as common as grain allergies, but it
happens).

Oops, sorry, didn't mean to post twice; I thought I'd deleted the
earlier post. It's been a bad week.

Oops, sorry, didn't mean to post twice; I thought I'd deleted the
earlier post. *It's been a bad week.

As I understand it, many usenet servers will ignore cancel and delete
requests because they're too easy to forge, so it's best to assume it
is irretrievable once sent.
--Glenn Lyford