Margaret Female Maryland&amp;amp;#039;s Eastern Shore United States: Share on Facebook MySpace Tweet

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What Type of Doodle(s) do you have? What are their names? Tell us about your doodle(s) or any other pets you have!: I currently have one very lazy Labrador named Duke and one Labradoodle named Madison which was born on November 7, 2009.

Who grooms your doodle(s)?: I will take my doodle to a local groomer - although I would love to learn to do it myself.

At 1:40pm on November 3, 2010, Shanthala Rajagopala said…: Margaret, how is Maddie doing now? Hopefully the cold weather is helping her...

At 6:31am on October 15, 2010, Shanthala Rajagopala said…: Oh boy...Has she chewed her skin anywhere? I think you can ask for the vet you like when you make an appt. I do here. I like one in the practice(she sits on the floor with Berry to get kisses:-)) and i ask for her everytime. Yes, steroid will cause frequent urination and make them thirsty. But it is good for her to drink water. Berry did not get the shot but with tablets itself i had noticed that she was asking to go out a lot more than usual. And she was much more subdued and behaved(that is the only good side effect of steroid:-)) Hopefully she will feel better very soon. How long the effect of shot lasts?

At 5:32am on October 15, 2010, Shanthala Rajagopala said…: How is Maddie? What did hte vet say?

At 7:54am on October 12, 2010, Shanthala Rajagopala said…: Hi Margaret, glad to know maddie is feeling better. I know how hard it is to look at them being so miserable. I think you can start off with high dosage of Omega-3 may be 2000mg/day and see how it goes. At the most that i have heard is that they will have loose stools. But i have not seen that with Berry at all. At one point, i have given her 2 1200mg/day and she has done just fine. Another thing i have noticed - Berry used to have brown staining around her mouth all the time...eventhough i clean her couple of times a week. Now, it is gone. The only thing that i can think of is food and water- I have moved her from TOTW to Acana and she drinks filtered water from the refrigerator. Just wanted to pass this along if you see this with Maddie. I don't know if any of the other littermates have the allergy problems. I did not hear back from Carol. I think we should post this on the group and find out...

At 3:27pm on October 11, 2010, Shanthala Rajagopala said…: Hi Margaret, I was just wondering and thinking about Maddie today morning. Poor thing must be soo tired of itching. Berry is better on Zyrtec. 3 in the morning and 3 in the evening gives her some relief if not complete. Do u give fish oil to Maddie? I do. I give her 4tabs/per day and each is about 300mg of Omega-3. I think this is helping her a lot. I get the tabs from Costco...earlier i used to just drop them in her food. But now, i cut it and put just the oil because i am not sure if she is allergic to any gelatin or anything that the capsure outer layer is made of. I used to give her EPO too...but i have stopped it now. I have learnt here that Fish Oil and EPO helps a lot with itching. Bath is supposed to help her. When Berry started showing signs, Karen has suggested to give her oatmeal conditioner soaking...and when the groomer did that I did noticed that it helped. Hope Maddie feels better soon...I cannot wait for the freezing temp. I cannot believe I am saying this since I am not a big fan of winter:-)

At 6:32pm on September 23, 2010, Shanthala Rajagopala said…: Berry is on zyrtec for a week now, i think. Her scratching has decreased compared to what it was before but not like how she got complete relief with steroids.

At 1:52pm on September 23, 2010, Shanthala Rajagopala said…: Margaret, How is Maddie doing? Is Zyrtec helping her?

At 6:58pm on September 20, 2010, Shanthala Rajagopala said…: Yes. I was told the dosage of human medication on the dogs are higher. I checked what i had written down when i talked to the vet.
Zyrtec - 3(10mg tabs) 2 times a day
Benadryl - 2.5(25mg tabs) 3 times a day
I read that Benadry is not effective on many dogs. I asked my vet about claritin and she did not know or have much experience with it. But I know that Karen gives claritin to Jack. I think it is plain claritin not claritin-d. Anyways, since my vet did not know about it and she was okay with zyrtec, I am going with it for now. I did the same - started from the lowest dosage (2 tabs a day) and watched if she will get any relief...With 4tabs a day she is getting I would say about 80% relief. I hope it will help Maddie...Please let me know what happens.

At 1:42pm on September 20, 2010, Shanthala Rajagopala said…: Zyrtec dosage is based on weight...Berry is 62lbs now. Yes, Berry has watery eyes sometimes and i was trying to figure out what it was. I use saline drops 2times a day and that helps a lot. But now i think more and how during the period that she was on steroids there was none of these problems...it is allergy related. May be all kinds of pollen...So, waiting for winter to see how she does. I am suspicious that she is allergic to mold spores tooo b'cos for her the eye watering gets worse when it rains. I dont think you worry too much...I heard this is not easy on them and it is not cheap treatments either...

At 12:41pm on September 20, 2010, Shanthala Rajagopala said…: Hi Margaret, i am so sorry about Maddie. A while back Berry had scratched in one place and that place the fur was discolored. Check her paws fur. Berry does not chew on her paws atleast...she just scratches and now i have realized that her eye watering might have been allergy related too. We went thro' a course of antibiotic and during that time her eyes was soooo clear...no watering, no rubbing. And what i have noticed is that when we get stuffed up...even she is worse those days. I was given different options from my vet for now(she thinks we can try different things and see how she does in winter...if she continues in winter then it might be food)
1. more steroids - not a good option so not doing it.
2. Prescription antibiotic - hydroxyzin...this is $1 a pill and I am supposed to give 6pills...jeez...talk about expensive.
3. Zyrtec.
Right now, i am trying Zyrtec. Vet told me to use 6tabs(10mg) a day. But I started with 2 a day...did not work. Then 4/day...did not give complete relief. Now, she is on 6tabs/day. Not complete relief(comparing to steroids). But she is not sleepy or tired...so continuing on that for now.
What food was Maddie eating? Berry was on Taste of the Wild and now she is on Acana. Both are grain free. I rotate b/w their chicken and fish formulas.
I had sent an email to Carol about this...and she replied that she would reply back with some things that i can try.