Multiple Issues this Summer: Allergies?

[Nicole and Teddy]

Hi all! I've been following all the posts about allergies this summer with intense interest. This has been a really challenging summer for Teddy and I'm hoping for some advice on next steps. It seemed to start in May after a week long beach trip in Florida. Teddy ended up with hot spots, yeast between the toes, etc. The vet put him on a course of metronidazole as one of the spots was infected. Since then it's just been downhill. We live in South Carolina and Teddy has battled itching, licking, hot spots for the whole summer. I've tried fish oil, Benadryl, and vet prescribed Hydroxizine. In addition he's had one bacterial ear infection - for which the vet prescribed another course of metronidazole. Amazingly during the antibiotic rounds he hasn't really suffered from stomach issues. I've sporadically supplemented with Klaire probiotic powder. Teddy eats a homemade diet of mostly beef, rice, beans, veggies, and multiple vitamin supplements. Through all of the posts on here, I am fairly certain this isn't a food allergy issue because he's had good luck with this diet until this summer (he's 4 years old). However, about a week ago he did have a bout with diarrhea - for which, you guessed it, the vet prescribed another round of metronidazole. I only gave him 2 days worth of pills and took him off of it. This past week, he's vomited 3 times - mostly undigested food about 10 hours after eating.Normal energy level, eating, playful, drinking water, no diarrhea with the vomiting. And finally, he has anal gland issues. I don't know how it happened but, thinking I was helping, we began getting them expressed when he was a puppy and he's been pretty regularly getting them expressed once a month. Well, last month when he went in to get expressed, they ended up inflamed and on the verge of infection - for which, the vet prescribed metronidazole! He's had a normal expression between that bout and this week- 2 weeks later...and now he's back to incessant licking in that area - which tells me they are bothering him again. I just don't know what to do - i don't want to have them expressed because i know that can (and probably has) lead to all sorts of issues but we're headed into the weekend and I'm at a loss. I don't want him to be uncomfortable and I'm kind of losing confidence in my vet because her answer seems to be antibiotics for everything. However, I did call her for a referral to a dermatologist and am waiting to hear back. I also am speaking with a more holistic vet who agrees it may all be a case of allergies, but she's already mentioned starting with the M word for his anal gland issues. I've heard how expensive allergy testing can be so am also looking into this product: https://market.dogsnaturallymagazine.com/products/pet-wellness-pet-...

If anyone has any advice/experience, I sure would appreciate it. Thank you!

Nicole

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I also have to mention that the only way to reliably diagnose IBD as well as to know what type of IBD you are dealing with is to do an endoscopy. So while Teddy's bloodwork results do point to IBD, we don't know for sure that he has it, or what type it is if he does. I'm guessing that if the supplements and diet change don;t help enough, they may want to do an endoscopy. Only 20% of all IBD dogs can be managed without some type of immunosuppressant drugs, at least initially.