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Camus has been through a lot, not least of which is his constant scratching, licking, and biting of his nails.  I decided to follow Karen's advice to take him to a specialist and he had the Southern California Intradermal allergy testing done today.  Excellent advice - he had 24 reactions rated @ 2 (moderate reaction) lots of trees, weeds, cotton, & human and cat dander; 3 rated @ 3 (strong reaction) mold and mites; and 4 rated @ 4 (very strong reaction).  Those with very strong reaction (4's) were moths, Dermatophagoides farina dust mites, storage mites and a histamine control.  Apparently he does not like bugs.   Of interest, he had a moderate reaction to human dander – he's allergic to me!  He is not feeling very good; he is lethargic and looks sad.  I hope he does well with the antigen injections that will be every other day for the first three weeks.  The next few months may be tough, but in the long run, he should feel much better.

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As someone who has also gone through this testing  myself Camus you are a real trooper.  Rest up and here's to you feeling better in the near future.  Your mommy is taking good care of you even if it doesn't feel like it now:(  She must love you a whole, whole bunch:)

I'm kinda tired so I am resting a lot and my mom does love me a whole bunch, just wish she wouldn;t kiss me so much! Yuck!

I think that Yuck is the Doodle code of bravado. LOL

Thank you for posting the results and with a visual too!

Christine, may this be a turning point for you and for Camus.  I'm looking forward to good news in the upcoming months.

The results are interesting. Cotton, Human, and Bugs.  Unreal.  So will you now have to change his bedding?  How do we find things that are not cotton? Many pups love to sleep on the tile floor--I suppose that may work.

How do you deal with human dander--Shower every 10 minutes?

You have a lot on your plate but the love of a dog conquers all of those problems. So glad he has someone like you.

Since Camus and Spud seem to have similar ear issues, I'll be watching your results closely.  Keep me posted and Best Wishes.

Many if not most of the common allergens are unavoidable. You have mentioned a few. It is impossible to eradicate many of the most severe allergens from your environment, no matter how hard you try. Camus does not have severe pollen allergies, but JD does, and since most pollens travel 400 miles, it's impossible to avoid them. Dust mites will be there no matter how much you vacuum. Cat allergies, well, most of us don't get rid of our cats. That's the whole purpose of the immunotherapy treatment, and why you do the testing. Once you know what the allergens are, a serum is custom formulated which contains those proteins, and a series of injections is started, with a very diluted strength and a very low dose, and then increased daily and weekly until a maintenance level of full strength and full dosage. The purpose is to desensitize the immune system by increasing the tolerance levels for these allergens.. Eventually, the level of these allergens that the dog can tolerate is higher than the level in the environment. There's a good explanation of it in an old discussion of mine, written by a doctor. Have to go find it.

Here it is:

"The nice thing about the allergy shots is that it isn't suppressing the entire immune system in a shotgun effect, it's increasing the threshold of exposure required for Jack's body to notice it & have probs with it (at least that's the theory behind it) so eventually the amount of allergen naturally found in the environment will be smaller than his threshold to respond to it ergo bye-bye symptoms."

Fingers (and Paws) crossed, I'm hoping for positive results.  I was surprised by the allergic reaction  to human dander, my first thought was he is allergic to me - of no! Then I remembered he use to be afraid of people in general.  Maybe he is smarter than the average dog. :) 

Cotton is an issue since I always thought cotton was best, but I cannot let him spend too much time on hard surfaces because of his elbows, unless he is wearing his elbow socks.  My next project is to make new throws to go over his beds, I need to find material that has the least amount of cotton content.  Not a problem for me because I am always looking for new projects.
Bugs outside will be somewhat problematic, because I do not use any poisons in my patio garden.  However, since the majority of my plants are in containers I think there are not as many bugs as in a standard garden & yard.  I am trying not to go nuts over this and hope that the treatment will eventually mitigate. 

Mites - my bed is brand new so not a problem, but need to buy a cover to protect from dust mites.  Couch is old and I am sure dust mite laden.  I'll need to replace it.  Camus' bedding is washed weekly, I think that is adequate.  I also have a Verilux UV-C Sanitizing Furniture & Bed Vac.  His kibble is stored in a plastic bag inside a tupperware container.  I do need to dust more often - don't know why, but I hate dusting.  Finally, since he goes to work with me, my office needs a thorough cleaning. 

Got to go now - it is time to take my shower!

I am allergic to mites and I wouldn't dream of changing my couch. I never had a symptom from it . Occasionally when I was exposed to a lot of dust I'd sneeze. My allergy shots, which I started 2 years ago include mite antigens and I assume Camus' will too. But do little things one at a time. Not everything that causes a reaction on allergy shots does. My biggest reaction was to cats and I do avoid them. But the cat allergen isn't even in the mix because my allergist said the cat antigen causes the most adverse reactions. The tree allergy was much better this year. I'm also mildly allergic to dogs. Never had a symptom from that either. So I'd say relax a bit and tackle the easy and obvious things first.

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