Is it time to do allergy testing and if so what kind?

[Ann Kendig]

My labradoodle Duke is just plain miserable. He is going on 9 months old and I have taken him monthly to the vet for ear infections, chewing on his abdomen which causes skin infections, constant scratching and biting his back and now his membranes around his eyes are very red and he has a discharge coming out of both eyes. (This is the first time for the eye problem). I really haven’t ever noticed him licking his paws. He sneezes when he is outside, he sneezes when I spray perfume, and he sneezes if I spray Febreze. The sprays don’t bother Sheba at all. (I try not to spray anything with my dogs in the room but when the sprays travel through the air into another room it makes Duke sneeze.) I don’t spray anything on their beds or use any fabric softener on the covers to their dog beds when I wash them.

. I have had a problem with his itching and sneezing since day one. He came to live with us May 22nd and I looked back on the calendar and he was started on prednisone June 22nd and he has been on it a couple times. On June 14th I shaved him down because he was breaking off his hair badly on his hindquarters from scratching and chewing. I shave his belly because it gets very matted from his chewing and the hair on his muzzle gets matted from the constant chewing.

Duke had finished antibiotics for the skin infection (and had a cortisone shot at the vets) and within 2 weeks of stopping his antibiotics he was back to scratching and biting with another skin infection. So on the 4th of December the Vet gave him another shot and he is on Prednisone 20 mg. pill. (1/2 pill for 3 days in a row and then ½ pill every other day until pills are gone. So that means his last dose of prednisone will be January 10th.) He is also on an eye ointment called Neo-poly-dex for 7 days. I give Duke Children’s Benedryl 12.5 mg tablets. He gets 2 pills two times a day and it doesn’t seem to help him much at all. I have been giving him 1 capsule per day of Omega 3 fatty acid called AllerG-3 which I purchased at the vets’ office. He has been on that since the beginning of September. He gets very smelly after about 2 weeks and needs a bath!! I use oatmeal and aloe shampoo and conditioner I bought from the vet.

Duke and Sheba (my golden doodle) are on flea prevention and I haven’t seen any fleas on either of my dogs. (Vet is changing flea med to Comfortis because he said he wonders if the Frontline isn’t working as well as it used to.)

Duke has been on Taste of the Wild for a few months. I rotate between the 3 different “flavors”. I was switching them over to Orijen puppy. After about a week of ½ Taste of the Wild and ½ Orijen puppy Duke’s membranes around his eyes became very red and developed a discharge (pus?) from his eyes and he started chewing. I’m not saying the food had anything to do with the itching and eye problem, it is just an observation.

I asked my vet if I should get Duke tested for allergies, he said I should wait. (Probably has a car payment to make.) My vet offers the serum allergy testing but there is a place in Columbus Ohio called MedVet which is a medical center for pets. The doctor I would take Duke to is a member of the American College Veterinary Dermatology. They do the skin testing. When I called MedVet they said that they test for more allergens than the serum testing does. I forgot to ask if one type of testing was more reliable than the other. (Serum testing vs. skin testing) DUH!! MedVet recommended Wellness White Fish & Sweet Potato or Natural Balance Venison & Potato as a diet.

I would rather spend the money on the testing than to be constantly running to the vet. I hate to see Duke suffer and I only want to help him feel better! I really don’t know what to do. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[Ann Kendig]

Thanks Karen!

[Mona Haight]

try changing his food, give him some probiotics and fish oils, I had to change my Boston's food, he developed allergy to it after having eaten it for over two years. His skin was so itchy and he had sores on him he was flaky and scratched so much at night he drove me crazy, the poor dog. He would roll on his back and scratch himself on the concrete which broke his fur off. He is so much better now. sounds like yours may have a few different allergies, good luck. I am using the venison and potato and that is what is better for him he used to get lamb and rice. It takes a little bit once you change their food if that is the only allergy.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Mona, please read through the previous responses to this discussion. It has been determined that Duke's allergies issues are unrelated to food, as are 90% of allergy issues in dogs. Even when there are food issues, simply 'changing foods" is not the protocol...you need to do food trials. It's great that your dog is doing better with the change of food, but it really doesn't tell you what his problem was...it may have been a lack of EFAs in the old food, it may have been an allergy to storage mites, and if it was a particular ingredient, which one was it?
We appreciate your input; however, those of us who have dogs with serious allergies have done a lot of research on these issues, which is all available here in this group as well as in the Food Group. You will be very interested in this information if your dog has allergies. The "change his food" advice that many of us suffered through is not the best course of action for a dog who has an immune-system disease, which is what an allergy really is.