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HELP - Prednisone Causing Lab To Lose Hair
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 |
#2
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HELP - Prednisone Causing Lab To Lose Hair
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 |
#3
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HELP - Prednisone Causing Lab To Lose Hair
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. |
#4
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HELP - Prednisone Causing Lab To Lose Hair
"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'. |
#5
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HELP - Prednisone Causing Lab To Lose Hair
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. |
#6
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HELP - Prednisone Causing Lab To Lose Hair
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 |
#7
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HELP - Prednisone Causing Lab To Lose Hair
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. |
#8
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HELP - Prednisone Causing Lab To Lose Hair
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). |
#9
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HELP - Prednisone Causing Lab To Lose Hair
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. |
#10
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HELP - Prednisone Causing Lab To Lose Hair
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 |
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