Question by Brittany Swartz: What do I feed? My dog has allergies AND chronic mange!?
Help! My maltese (Hailey) suffers from demodectic mange and we deal with it in cycles as it comes around… It is really expensive to keep treating, but we love her so it’s necessary.
-BUT-
Our vet said she may also have allergies. When she first started itching badly, we had just moved to a new town and we brought her to a new vet. He immediately said it was allergies and started her on steroid based medication. Well, her itching got worse and worse, and so finally I drove her back to our old vet 1 1/2 hours away, and he found the mange (and a secondary infection). He treated her and she cleared right up.
It started again about 6 months later, we took her to a new vet, he said it was allergies, gave her a steroid injection and… it got worse and worse. I took her back to my old vet and he found mange again, this time it was severe enough (bc of the steroid injection) that he treated her with interferon (used on cancer patients) to help try to boost her immune system.
Both vets in our town initially did a skin scrape and found no mange.
I am beginning to think that she is allergic to something- and with her predisposition to mange, what happens is that she gets steroids to treat her allergies, and that clears the allergies, but opens the way for the mange to take over.
I have tried all different kinds of food for her (Iams, Science Diet, Orijen, Rachael Ray, Nutro) and she is currently on a raw food diet *lamb and rice. It’s supposed to be absolutely allergen free, but it seems to be too rich for her and she burps ALL THE TIME now when you pick her up, and has vomited once or twice since we started, with occasional diarrhea. This food is made especially for dogs with allergies, and it’s not helping!!!
Can you please give me some kind of formula to prepare her meals for her? When I was at my old vet in Orlando, I saw a maltese there that looked like a puppy and the owner told me she was 14!!! They also fed their dog food they cooked for her, but when I tried to ask what they did, they were called into the room and I never saw them again to ask. What do I do?!?! She’s starting to itch again, and I desperately want to break this cycle and keep her comfortable and happy.
Thanks so much!
Thank you all this is excellent information! No, my dog has not actually been tested for allergens. I asked the vet to do it and he said “it is expensive and it rarely is effective at finding all the things your dog could be allergic to… like finding a needle in a haystack.” He said to wait and see if she clears up before he thinks it would be necessary.
I’m really unhappy with the vets in this new town, I keep having to drive an hour and a half to get reliable information. I will try these new foods, and request an allergy test.
Best answer:
Answer by sparklebutterflytalia
Well my dog eats Natural Balance!! Only from PetCo though try it!! It has natural flavors and it comes in lamb and rice flavor!!
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Question by Wake N Bake Girl: How do you get small dogs to eat medicine and what helps with allergies?
I just adopted this little chihuahua out of a really horrible shelter, and he’s in really bad shape. He’s extremely skinny and seems to have a skin condition of some sort. The vet says its allergies, but underneath his arms his irritation seems to also be from the harness they made him wear 24/7. he has the rash on his neck as well. the vet said to give him fish oil [which he loves], and then benedryl to help with the itching. I didnt want to give him any benedryl, but he seems to be itchin up a storm [a snow storm lol], so i went out and bought some, but he wont take it. giving him only one half ata time of course, i tried putting it in bread, but he wasnt fooled. i tried crushing it up and putting it in bread…no dice. any ideas? hes kind of a picky eater =\
thanks for all your help guys! my vet told me to give cholo half of a 25 mg pill once a day until the fish oil starts doing its job and he’s not so itchy. im sure whatever they were feeding him in that shelter wasnt nearly as good as what im giving him now because his coat already seems to be looking better. he gladly ate my laced cheese treat, so thats for all the ideas. once he gets the hang of that, im sure i’ll have the move on to peanut butter ;] thanks all
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Best answer:
Answer by bob ©
you might have better luck with the liquid and use a syringe to give it to him. did you try the flavored tablets? my little one likes the grape flavored benadryl. otherwise you will have to pill him.
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