Allergies: How effective is washing paws in a basin each time your doodle comes in the house from the yard?

[Marianne Kay]

While there was snow on the ground for 6 weeks, Pierre, my 4 1/2 year old goldendoodle, had no problems with his paws turning red. His paw problem began when I had a larger area of the yard fenced for him, in the autumn. Due to health issues, I have been unable to walk him like I once did. The yard is grass with a chipped wooded area. Last fall the vet used antibiotics and prednisone, to help him heal, a few times. We also switched his food to Limited Diet Rabbit. I was using a wash cloth to rinse his paws. From your groups I have learned this issue can pop up at 4 years of age, and that diet may only be the problem, 10% of the time. Also I have been told to bathe him once a week. Has all the water rinsing help solve anyone's problem? The vet thinks he may have a grass allergy and I may want to make my fenced lawn, a totally wood chipped area.

What has worked for you? By the way I am slowly switching Pierre to a prescription duck diet ( He really likes this better than the rabbit!).  Poor Pierre! I just want him well.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

It's important to also give the evening primrose oil (or fish oil) supplements, too. Studies have shown that the effects of the antihistamines are enhanced when given with the fatty acids. 

[Marianne Kay]

Is this enough, Karen? He has been getting fish oil, two gel tabs in his evening meal for a few months. Its purified to remove mercury, etc. The two pills have 2400 mg of fish oil concentrate. 720 Omega 3 fatty acids, of which 360 is from EPA, 240 from DHA, and 120 other Omega 3. I started him on 12 hour Allegra today, and he is much more alert than when on the Benadryl. He started licking today and today was his last 1/2 prednisone pill. The AlIegra took care of that. I found out that the pollen level was 5.3 from cedars and junipers, today, which was a surprise to me. I started to get post nasal drip today, so I know something is in the air, despite no obvious sign of anything blooming. I raked a few leaves, in the event it is a leaf mold allergy, too. I am interviewing someone tomorrow who had the allergy testing done locally and did the shots, and had a successful experience. Meanwhile, I did up his Rx duck food to 2/3 C. today, with each meal and he has 2/3 cup of his rabbit kibble, too. I have been wiping his whole coat when he comes in the house, with a wash cloth, then rinsing that. I have not had the chance to buy the shampoo you suggested, but its on my list. Thank you for you suggestions!

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

That should be enough fish oil. 

Jack had the testing done and the immunotherapy shots have been very successful for him. 

Most dogs with Atopic Dermatitis do have multiple allergens: JD tested positive for 15 different things, including several weed pollens, several grass pollens, one tree pollen, one mold,  two varieties of dust mites, storage mites, and cat dander. He never has symptoms any more. :) 

[Marianne Kay]

Thank you, Karen. I am so glad the allergy shots worked for your dog! Did you do the skin test, rather than the blood test? I think it was you who said the skin testing was better. I spoke with the local person who had allergy testing done, and she said her dog was allergic to everything in her yard. She had a blood test done, and two years of shots. It helped some, but not enough, so she went to a famous Chinese Medicine vet and said the herbal prescription and Zignature Duck with lentils was the solution for her dog. Perhaps the difference was in the type of testing? This is Pierre's first day off prednisone, tomorrow he gets 1/2 a pill, and that is alternated for a few days before it ends. He started licking this afternoon, and he had the 60 mg of Allegra at 6 am, so it should technically, still be working. I am going to give him a bath with the sprayer, and I hope that will help.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Skin testing is the gold standard of allergy tests. The blood tests are notoriously inaccurate, and they cost almost as much as skin testing anyway. Since the success of the immunotherapy treatment depends on getting the allergens right in the first place, it makes absolutely no sense IMO to do any kind of testing other than skin testing by a dermatology specialist. 

The blood tests are so inaccurate, in fact, that neither Jack's dermatologist nor his internal medicine specialist will run them, even though I was willing to pay hundreds of dollars. That speaks volumes to me. 

There are two known treatments for Atopy: Immunotherapy (desensitization) shots, or immunosuppressant drugs like Atopica. It's a disease of the immune system, and needs to be treated at that level. Until there is some clinical evidence that any kind of herbal treatments are effective at all, I would not consider that. Your main objective is to get some reliable relief for the dog, and the sooner you start a treatment plan that is known to be effective, the faster the dog will get some relief. 
As far as food goes, as mentioned in the link I provided on food allergies, IF there is a food allergy, the symptoms would be year round, not seasonal. You would not have seen improvement over the winter. But if you want to pursue that, any food that contains limited ingredients, a single novel protein source (novel meaning one that the dog has not eaten before) and a single starchy carbohydrate can be used for a food trail, as mentioned in the link I provided. If a dog has been eating a food containing duck on a regular basis, obviously a duck based food will not help, lol. 

[Marianne Kay]

You made a great suggestion about looking for clinical studies regarding Chinese medicine for allergies. I will do a search. Yes, I can agree with you that most likely the condition is environmental, and an immune response. I guess the doctor, may think a "cooler" food may be better for Pierre, who is considered a "hot dog." The vet we saw locally, has studied Chinese medicine in animals, but he is not a prescriber of herbs. Duck is a new protein, with white potato, which is also a new starch for Pierre. He loves it. He did have more ear infections when he had grains in his diet, and that is when I went grain free. I need to read more about Atopica in the allergy section. Right now Allegra and the 1/2 prednisone pill every other day is keeping him comfortable, although I am not happy to give him these pills long term. I am concerned about the length of the prescription for prednisone: 20 mg x3 days, 1/2 pill x 3 days, and then 1/2 a pill every other day until all 20 pills are gone. I called the office to confirmed because the doctor had spoken about giving me extra prednisone for another event. Does this sound normal to you? Thank you for you help!

[Marianne Kay]

Hi again, Karen. I found a local dermatology vet. It looks like your dog has to be off prednisone for 4-6 weeks before testing, and 2 weeks off antihistamines. Meanwhile, I am wondering if I should get his thyroid tested, too. He did put on 15 lbs in the last year. Normally his weight never fluctuated more than a few pounds up or down. He has lost 5 lbs. by food measuring, and now we are at a plateau.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

It's important to understand is that allergies are an inflammatory disease of the immune system. (I explain this in the link I provided above). In allergic individuals, the body reacts to the protein molecules in common every day organic substances that enter the bloodstream via ingestion or inhalation (eating or breathing them) such as pollens, dust mites, molds, dander, and less commonly, foods, and launches an immune response against them. Inflammation is an immune response. Rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn's Disease, Psoriasis, these are all also immune mediated diseases involving inflammation. The only way to treat them, i.e. alleviate the symptoms, is to use drugs that suppress the immune response. Atopica is one such drug. It's the veterinary name brand for the drug cyclosporine, which was first used to prevent organ rejection in human organ transplant recipients. It does that by suppressing the immune system. If you've heard the TV commercials for such drugs (Humira, Xeljans), you know they can have very serious side effects. One side effect of these types of immunosuppressant drugs is an increased risk of cancer. That was the main reason I chose to try the immunotherapy shots instead. (Atopica would also cost in the neighborhood of $200/month for my 80lb dog). But for those dogs who do not respond to the shots, you really don;t have many options. 

Prednisone in an anti-inflammatory that also has an immunosuppressive effect when used at higher doses. It works like a miracle, and that's why you are seeing an improvement in his symptoms. But you cannot use it long term, because it has some pretty heavy duty side effects of its own. Typically, it is used for 3-4 weeks on a tapered dose like the one your vet recommended, so that sounds right.

It's hard to accept some of this, I know. People throw the word "allergies" around like it was a minor nuisance, they use it for anything that botheres them, and it seems like no big deal. But it is a big deal. In its most severe forms, it can be life-threatening. Allergies get worse as dogs get older, so the sooner you start a treatment plan that is known to be effective, the better for your dog. 

[F, Calla & Luca]

Allergies can be life threatening but often they are more of a chronic annoyance. I chose immunotherapy for myself for my pollen allergies but the antihistamines did a good job if taken regularly during pollen seasons"I never had Calla tested for her fall itching since 2-3 weeks of Allegra take care of her itching.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Yes, you're lucky; Calla seems to have mild allergies and probably not a lot of allergens. If the symptoms are limited to one season and symptoms are mild, you can probably do well just using fatty acids and antihistamines to get through.

However, JD would flare so badly that he was causing himself skin infections, and his flares multi-seasonal, with Autumn being the worst. His would start licking his paws in spring. His paws would be stripped of all fur and so red and sore they looked like pickled pig's feet.  His eyelids would be purple and he would rub his face against the furniture and carpeting so violently that the fur was all rubbed away around his eyes and broken off on his forehead. And he couldn't stop moving, it was like he was on fire. Distressed and miserable. He was requiring prednisone too often just to keep him comfortable. he just couldn't go on like that, let alone get worse with age, which it appeared to be doing.  Rule of thumb is that if prednisone must be used 4 months of the year or more, you really should do testing. 

[F, Calla & Luca]

Poor Jack. I am glad you found a good solution and that rule of the mg sounds good.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Honestly, to me, even four months is too much, and I just hated to see him suffering like that. 

Because the diagnosis was hard for me to accept at first, and the treatment options sounded awful, I did ask why I couldn't just try managing him with the antihistamines, fatty acids, sprays, baths, etc and just use prednisone whenever he flared, and the answer was that I could, but that chronic steroid use that often would most probably shorten his life. :(

Back in the 90s, before cyclosporine was used to treat Atopic dogs, I had a foster GSD whose adoptive owner tried everything including holistic "Eastern"treatments, but couldn't get him enough relief;in the end, she had to have him humanely euthanized because his allergy symptoms were so severe, he tried to chew off his own paw.