Dog Allergies

[KurtR]

We are in the same boat with our 10 month old lab currently. Skin is so dry it looks like he rolled in sawdust...eyes are literally dripping and he is constantly pawing at his face. We have had the shots, changed food, and the eye drops to no avail...he is on 6-9 benadryl a day. We are thinking of taking him to a specialist to see if maybe it is something beyond a "seasonal thing".

Have you talked to your breeder to see if they would have any answers like in past genetic or allergy testing of the parents. Might be a place to start

 

[weekender7]

We have a light colored lab with what we assume are really bad allergies, we have experimented with every kind of diet and the raw dog food (with specific types of meat) seems to be the best for her. Some of the symptoms are to be expected I guess, she sheds YEAR ROUND, enough to bale, along with itchy scratching issues. We have to stay on top of her ears if I don’t treat them regularly they start bothering her and get full of a dirt/wax looking stuff. That is easy enough to deal with just not something I’ve ever had to do with other dogs.

The main issue is her feet, the area in between her pads turns a reddish, maroon color and she licks and chews her feet bad. You can tell it makes her miserable at times. The vet has her on Apoquel (SP?) it helps, however not good enough. It cost about $2.75 cents per day for the pills, that would be easier to justify if it cured the issue, not just made it marginally better.

I would really like to get a handle on this so would love to hear from anyone that has had to deal with this sort of thing.

Our mostly white jack russel pup had this. Really bad gnawing of her feet to the point chewing all the hair off. They treated her for mange which she didn't have. She had allergies to chicken. She got two shots of Cytopoint and we switched all feed to beef based with no chicken and it cleared up completely.

 

[willtim]

Have your vet test him.

 

[cod007]

One word....DYNOVITE.

 

[Mosby]

We have a light colored lab with what we assume are really bad allergies, we have experimented with every kind of diet and the raw dog food (with specific types of meat) seems to be the best for her. Some of the symptoms are to be expected I guess, she sheds YEAR ROUND, enough to bale, along with itchy scratching issues. We have to stay on top of her ears if I don’t treat them regularly they start bothering her and get full of a dirt/wax looking stuff. That is easy enough to deal with just not something I’ve ever had to do with other dogs.

The main issue is her feet, the area in between her pads turns a reddish, maroon color and she licks and chews her feet bad. You can tell it makes her miserable at times. The vet has her on Apoquel (SP?) it helps, however not good enough. It cost about $2.75 cents per day for the pills, that would be easier to justify if it cured the issue, not just made it marginally better.

I would really like to get a handle on this so would love to hear from anyone that has had to deal with this sort of thing.

We had two yellow labs from the same kennel and both had significant skin issues and allergies. The first one suffered for years and we took him to Oklahoma State Vet school and they never really got a handle on it besides a boat load of steroids. He died at a relatively young age from prostate cancer. Our second was more manageable and we were able to control most of her problems with her diet but she was always itchy. They would shake their head and black goo would fly out of them. Gross. Our second lab lived to be 13 but we never bought another lab because of all the problems, issues and cost we went through with them.

 

[Ckoenig]

I’ve got a German Shepherd that had constant skin condition issues. What ended up working for us very simple dietary change. He gets rice and pulled pork for all of his meals. We generally stick with white rice and cook the pork in the crockpot with water. It instantly cleared up all of his issues and we have tried introducing small portions of other foods here and there and each time the skin conditions come back. We’re going on 5+ years of this diet and have had zero other issues. We order a nutrient blend called Balance It from online to supplement the things he isn’t getting from the food. It’s pretty simple it may be worth a try, for reference he’s about 85 pounds and gets 12.5 ounces of rice and 12.5 ounces of pork per day. Feel free to DM me if you have any other questions.

 

[gbflyer]

Yep. Our yellow as well. Vet isn’t a fan of the pill long term so he’s gotten 2 injections now. They help. We did the blood panel. We will see if it’s a waste of money. He shows a very high reaction to corn. He’s very itchy and breaks out in hives occasionally. We can feed him salmon so we are embarking on homemade food for him. There is no dermatologist option in the Alaska weeds, lucky to have a Vet right now.

I didn’t do my homework very well on this dog. We love him. I hope the breeder doesn’t do it again though. Labs bloodlines are a mess.

 

[timstl]

My dad's yellow lab had very similar symptoms to what you're describing. They did trial and error for a long time but no food changes made a difference. Eventually, they switched vets to someone who would do a full barrage of allergy tests. She's mildly allergic to a lot of things, but the biggest one is protein. All of the high-quality, grain-free foods they tried really just made the issue worse. So in his case, the (not so cheap) testing was worth it. Not sure he would have ever thought to try a protein-free diet.