Does anyone here have dogs with really bad allergies?

[Shell Beau]

How do you treat the allergies?

I feed my Hank only deer and potato based food. He can also have white fish and rice. But his allergies still are bothering him now. I think it is the summer heat and the moisture that gets trapped in his ears. I clean them daily though.

[B3Nut]

1. Check with your vet

You may need to get into some antihistamines, or in advanced cases the immunosuppresant Cyclosporine is brought on board more and more. My wife's a vet tech and we have a herd of Pit Bulls, which are allergy-prone. And people wonder why we're always broke...LOL! My American Bulldog is on cyclosporine, as is my basket-case rescue Pittie (who takes a freaking pharmacy every day it seems...)

But I'd consult your veterinarian, there are many ways to control allergies in dogs these days. Good luck!

TP

[Shell Beau]

2. He's been to the vet several times about it.

We have changed his food and that has helped. I am going by the vet today to pick up some more meds for him. I was just hoping there was something else I could do to prevent his allergies from onset. He is a golden retriever mix and they too are prone to have allergies.

[Rambis]

3. Our golden does

if he gets wet he gets hot spots all over his body and has to go on steroids. He is 13 and has not had a bath since he was around 2. He is our smelly boy! i wish I had a pic he is very white faced now:(

[RebelOne]

4. I had a little rescue dog (who passed away in March)

that had terrible skin allergies. When I started feeding him Dick Van Patten's Venison and Brown Rice, it cleared up. But then it was discontinued because it contained gluten. That was during the time when all the bad dog food was taken off the shelves. I finally started feeding him Purina One's Sensitive Skin formula and that worked.

[Shell Beau]

5. I have fed him the sensitive system from Purina 1.

It is stinky.

I have moved over to Nature's Recipe venison and sweet potato. I also tried Eukanuba's wild game food which had venison and rice. He is allergic to wheat, beef, chicken, etc. It is amaizing. I did find some good treats for him that are duck and sweet potato. PetsMart has some variety.

[RebelOne]

13. I tried other brands of venison and rice and also tried

venison and sweet potato, but he didn't like any of them. Just Dick Van Patten's brand.

[Dangerously Amused]

6. Second on the Cycosporine suggestion.

My kitty takes it on an as-needed basis. It worked when nothing else did. Before that he was licking raw spots into his belly and legs.

[femmocrat]

7. Yes!

I just paid $250 for bloodwork to find out that one of my corgis is allergic to about 50 different thing in the environment, including dust mites, some grasses and weeds.

He is not allergic to any foods.

He is going to start allergy shots in about 2 weeks to "desensitize" him to these common environmental allergens. Wonder what that is going to cost me!

[flvegan]

8. Heavens, yes.

We've been lucky with the food helping out. All the dogs here wind up on vegetarian kibble or I cook for them, which has been fantastic for them. We have one rescue, a pitbull that has terrible skin allergies. The vet can't figure it out, we've eliminated the possibility of it being food. Steroids don't work very well. Don't think it's fleas. Tonight, I washed a blanket in special organic detergent to see if it's that. No idea what to do next, to be honest. This one is a first for us.

[NewEnglandGirl]

9. My (late) lab had allergies

It was an ongoing battle. Tried all of the things discussed here, I can't say anything worked that great. She scratched her tummy and legs all of the time and always had the ear problems. I used to give her Benadryl because I just couldn't stand to see her so uncomfortable. That does help when it's really flaring. Good luck. :hi:

[Blue Diadem]

10. My son and Dil's dog has awful allergies.

They have him on a fish and sweet potato kibble. His dog treats are also the same ingredients. If he even gets a tiny bite of anything else, it can set him off with intestional problems. He's having some other problems too. My Dil just took him to the vet the other day and he's now being treated for a skin condition and another urinary infection.

If your dog has moisture in his ears, there are drying agents you can get for him, or you might want to talk to the vet about giving him some benydryl.

[Greylyn58]

11. My boy Sheridan does

Being a Golden Retriever he was almost predisposed to have some kind of allergies. He use to get nasty ears and these icky hot spots. Once I changed his food it has gotten loads better. He's been on a special food diet for several years now.

I use to order food from Blackwood, which was really good, but they can be pricey. Now I feed him Nature's Recipe and can get it from Petsmart. It has no wheat, corn or beef-ingredients that tend to cause allergy problems. He has been eating their fish and potato variety and has done really well on it. He's 12 1/2 years old and just went through cancer surgery back in May, but he's very healthy now and doing well.

[madeline_con]

12. I've given mine antihistamines, diphenhydramine.

A small dose. But I think he was being stunk by bees or something. He'd come inside and be restless and sneezy.

I've heard giving them a vegetarian diet clears up a lot of ailments. It just seems weird not to feed a dog meat. :shrug: