Henry's allergy testing results in; grass and a question about Cytopoint

[Dolly Dykhouse]

Hello everyone,

Henry began chewing/digging at his paw pads a few months ago. I thought that it might be caused by the new cedar bark that they had placed at the dog park we go to several days a week. Over the last 10-12 weeks it has escalated to not only rooting around his paw pads like a pig looking for truffles but also licking the tops of them to the point that they are now that lovely shade of rust red in-between the toes as well as scratching his muzzle and armpits multiple times a day. I had allergy testing done last week and the vet called me last night with the results; Bermuda grass, crab grass, rye grass and Russian thistle had a high reaction. I was pretty surprised...our backyard is aggregate and concrete, no grass at all and he rarely steps foot on ANY grass as our outings are to our local lake and the dog park which also has NO grass just bark or sand. Now with that said, our house backs up to our local 5 acre park which is loaded with all of the above grasses I imagine and even though I don't take Henry there (no dogs in public parks in my city) we do use a whole house fan to cool our house off at night and I had a lightbulb moment of "gee, this is right around the time we started using the whole house fan that his itching started." My window screens show all the pollen, dust, etc that is being pulled into the house and Lord knows I have to clean off the plantation shutters every few days because they are coated with dust and pollen. Does this make sense? Does grass have pollens that are released like flowers and trees? If this is the case, even though his dog park is all cedar bark the entire 15 acres surrounding it are grasses and trees and I'm sure that if they are pollen producing it is getting into the dog area and coating the bark too. Gah! 

The vet offered a few solutions; allergy shots, Apoquel and Cytopoint. I'm not thrilled about Apoquel as it is an immune suppressing drug and Henry is only 18 months old; a lifetime which could be shortened with this drug. Does anyone have any experience with Cytopoint? Ive done some reading and another doodle owner in Australia swears by it and uses it in combination with Apoquel for her doodles severe allergies. I'm going with the allergy injections to start because as I have read on this board, and Karen's experiences with Jack, that this is the safest of the options. If anyone (Karen!!!!) has any other words of wisdom and advice I am all ears! 

Thanks from Henry and Dolly

[Dolly Dykhouse]

Thanks again Karen, yes I will be asking for the topical version instead...this poor guy does not need to have any GI issues on top of dealing with everything else. 

Someone here on DK mentioned that she put the ointment on and took her doodle out for a short walk which kept him from laying down and licking his paws until it had dried which I thought was pretty genius!