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

[Nicole and Teddy]

I thought of that too- I buy most of Teddy's vitamins/supplements from Amazon and am now rethinking that. The vet didn't find anything yesterday though we are still waiting for stool and blood results to come back. She has also referred me to an internist who would then order the GI panel. However, as I think back when I changed his diet to the chicken and rice and he started back up with the diarrhea, the only consistency was a calcium supplement that I typically put in his food. I may be stretching but I'm thinking, what if it's tainted, contaminated, who knows. So now he's on JUST boiled chicken and rice. I will order the proviable from chewy, unless others have other suggestions?

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Jackdoodle, who did have IBD, never did real well with rice. I know Teddy has been getting it in his meals, but what has worked better for a lot of dogs here with stool issues is to use sweet potatoes instead. They are more nutritious and contain more fiber. I always use a 50/50 mix of boiled white meat chicken, cut very small, and baked mashed sweet potatoes. (It's very quick and easy to bake sweet potatoes in the microwave, and they peel easily; you don;t even need to use any pots.) This is not going to fix whatever is wrong, of course, but it might help firm up his stools. 
I think consulting an IMS is a very good idea. 

[Nicole and Teddy]

Thanks, Karen. I haven't given Teddy sweet potatoes in a long time as I remember he would get sick after eating the freeze-dried ones. I might try a little bit though and see how he does. I'll let you know how the Friday appointment goes. Thanks for everything!

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I found with JD that he could not tolerate anything with a jerky-like consistency, even though he did fine with the fresh cooked version of the same food. We had the same experience with sweet potatoes. He couldn;t tolerate the dehydrated sweet potato treats like Sam's Yams, but he did great with fresh baked sweet potatoes. This was even true with things like chicken; chicken jerky made him sick, boiled chicken breasts, no problem. 

[Nicole and Teddy]

Oh, that's interesting and makes sense now that I think about it. Teddy does get bites of our sweet potato when we have it and has never had issues. Makes sense that the dehydrated version would be harder on the tummy though. Come to think of it, Teddy had the same issue with the freeze dried chicken bites!

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

Amazon actually sent me a refund on their own.  I appreciated that.  Of course, I didn't have any Proviable.....

[DonMarie and Picco]

And that's why I like shopping on Amazon!

[Dolly Dykhouse]

Oh boy Nicole I feel your pain in this.

Henry was diagnosed with severe allergies to grass after experiencing increased itching and scratching as well as yeast infections in between the toes of his paws from excessive licking and a yeast infection in his ear. We are on immunotherapy and it has been a bit of a wild ride of two steps forward and ten back finding that the full strength (what they call the maintenance level) is just too much for his system to handle so we went back to a medium dilution of the serum and things are better and our progression to the maintenance strength is just going to be a very slow process. Like Karen has stated, immunotherapy is the best way to approach controlling their allergy symptoms with little to no side effects long term versus immune suppressing medications. 

It's funny you mention the anal gland issue that Teddy is experiencing. Henry never had an issue with his anal glands expressing naturally until the onset of his allergies. He started doing the butt scooting at the exact same time as the itching/scratching/paw licking started in the spring with the onset of high grass pollen season here in CA. The only person who does his expressions is his vet, never his groomer; it does need to be done internally and if not done correctly can cause more harm longterm. The bigger his flare ups, the more often we have the anal gland issue; this happens when we increase the dose of his serum and usually calms down by the time we get to the third injection at that particular dosage and then we are back again to needing to be expressed when we increase the amount of the next injection. Like I said two steps forward and sometimes ten back. The bottom line is I will deal with running him into the vet to be expressed due to the immunotherapy rather than put him on useless meds that cause more secondary problems. His vet was surprised that I linked the anal gland issue to his allergies (because he has firm, normal stools consistently) and I told her, take a look at your other patients that have allergy issues and see if they also have anal gland issues that started at the same time I know that there is a connection.

Best of luck and keep us informed!

Dolly and Henry

[Nicole and Teddy]

Thanks so much for the response, Dolly! Honestly, with all the stomach problems Teddy has had this week, the skin issues have taken a back seat! The dermatologist did call me to make an appointment in November though. He gets groomed tomorrow too, so I am hoping that gives him some relief. Everyone has been so helpful - I will keep you posted!

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

We usually use Proviable when our dogs take antibiotics or have upset tummies, but our Charlie  - when he has loose stools, we have to use a human probiotic that Karen said is safe for dogs with serious digestive problems.  It works for Charlie. We need to keep him on it for about a month.  VSL#3 is the name of it.  It needs to be refrigerated.

[DonMarie and Picco]

VSL#3 is one of the best probiotics on the market, one of the few that actually survive through stomach acid. Expensive but worth the cost.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Yep, and one of the most studied, both in dogs and in humans.