A Possible Solution for Dog"s Allergy Problems

I was going to blog about something else this morning until I watched a segment on ABC’s Good Morning America about dog allergies. I went to comment in the shout out section of GMA’s website but if you don’t login first, your comment is lost. I wrote too much and didn’t feel like writing it all over on GMA’s website. Instead I thought I’d share my prescription for dog allergies here, since I’m seeing more and more of it, and well, it is environmentally related.

If your dog smells like dirty feet, is licking its paws continuously, shaking its head, and rubbing and chewing its rump until it’s bloody, your dog has allergies. Don’t bother with the vet. They don’t have anything new yet except allergy shots and advice that it may be food allergies and to buy the food they offer. You can switch foods yourself. There are many out there now for sensitive skin.

In the meantime, bathe your dog everyday if you have to. The vet on GMA did suggest that. Use cooler water and an oatmeal based soap. I did it for an entire summer. I had a Westie for 17.5 years named Riley. When we moved from an apartment into our house in Berlin Twp. near the water my poor 1-½ year old puppy acted funny and I saw it had something to do with his fur. I shaved him down. It didn’t work. He got the shakes so bad I thought he was going into convulsions and rushed him to the vet. He had allergies. What could I do? Change his food and keep him indoors as much as possible for a while was the suggestion. That didn’t work. He licked his paws, found a conveniently low coffee table where he could scratch his rump until it was bloody, and shook his head a lot. Of course I would tend to his bloody rump, and bathe him, only to start all over the next day. Like most people I didn’t have to be told to do that. The dog stunk by time I got home from work. The smell is from a yeast type infection from chewing and rubbing.

My vet decided to take a blood sample and send it to a lab to test for allergies. It came back showing my dog was allergic to 16 different things in the environment where I live, i.e., lawn weeds, pollen, mold, etc. Great just great. My vet suggested a monthly allergy shot. I asked about human allergy pills. My vet responded that antihistamines for humans do not work on dogs. Dogs get allergies differently, mostly in the skin. So the shots were best. The idea of allergy shots is to get continual small doses of the allergen assuming the immune system will build antibodies against it. The shot helped only the first part of summer. When tested again, Riley had about 16 more allergies. Now what? My vet said I shouldn’t give more than one allergy shot per month. I switched vets.

The next vet said I could give more than one allergy shot. By now Riley’s allergies were acting up year round. I hated giving him one shot let alone 2 shots. I would get the shakes beforehand I hated it so much. When he howled in pain one day because I hit a bad spot, that was it. Besides the shots appeared to be making him worse. I called the lab that sent the allergy meds to me and asked if I could be over compromising Riley’s system between the outdoor exposure and the shots. He said yes. That was it.

Back then I didn’t have a home PC to look things up. I went to the bookstore and found the answer and an explanation about dog allergies that really added up to Riley’s behavior. One book stated that allergies in dogs show up in the skin first. They lick their paws, shake their head because the inside of their ears itch, and then they start chewing and rubbing their rump. It also stated that allergies cause a dog’s spleen to swell, which causes problems in other organs as they are compressed by the swelling. People would comment sometimes that Riley was getting fat. But he wasn’t ever fat. He did look wide sometimes, and just as quickly, like the next day, he did not. Was it the swollen spleen pushing on his pancreas because he would also suffer bouts of pancreatitis?

The book also warned of yeast infections where Riley chewed himself continually. It suggested bathing daily in cooler water with oatmeal based soap. And finally the suggestion that might allow me to get my dog off of shots altogether.
The book, which I do not remember, stated that giving a dog fatty acids like Omega 3 offered a 25% chance for curing the allergy problem.  The book said to give the dog a fish oil pill every day. But the next suggestion was the real kicker. It said to give the dog an over the counter human antihistamine. What? My vet said that wouldn’t work. I bet there are vets today that still say it won’t work. I didn’t hear this suggestion on GMA’s segment this morning. The book said that between the fatty acids and the antihistamine there was a 50% chance the dog’s allergies would ease up.

Perfect! Because I had allergies and, therefore, a never-ending prescription for Claritan. I was confused, however, about the dosage. There was no mention of dosage. I asked my pharmacy friend who said there is no dosage for Claritan. So I just give Riley the whole thing.  Since  I didn’t need to take Claritan every day, I had extra. I gave it along with a fish oil pill and switched his food to higher quality with no CORN. Remember, this occurred 20 to 25 years ago. There were no where near the healthy dog foods that are out there now. This was a lifesaver for my poor dog. It brought his allergies under manageable control. I only bathed him twice a month. The hair grew back on his rump, and he only occasionally licked his paws.

When I took him to the vet, the vet wanted to know what I did. He began prescribing the same thing to the rest of his clients. But I got a phone call from him asking where I got my Claritan. At that time, Claritan was $ 75 without a prescription. Clients were calling up screaming about the cost. I told him they could get it really cheap in Canada, otherwise, it was still cheaper than all the vet bills. He laughed.

Now that Claritan is over the counter and its generic form “Loratadine” is everywhere, and there are sooooo many good dog foods made specifically for allergic pets, give this suggestion a try. You can pretty much one stop shop now at the grocery store for good food, fish oil pills, and Loratidine for your pooch.  I never witnessed any side effects in Riley from the Loratadine in Claritan, and he lived beyond what an average Westie should.

I don’t believe the breed of dog makes any difference for allergies as some would suggest. Many say white haired dogs suffer more from allergies as do purebreds. My neighbors had a lab mix, and springer mix, one black, one white and brown that they had to put to sleep from allergies that literally crusted over the poor dog’s eyes. My neighbors tried everything too. By time they tried the Claritan they figured it was too late, their dog was overwrought with allergies. So it’s a gamble whether a dog develops allergies or not. The German Shepherd next to my neighbor doesn’t have allergies, or the lab that used to live on the other side of me. So go figure.

I haven’t had a dog since. I don’t want to chance putting another dog through it. We did care for a large pit bull for a year that was white haired named Sport. Shortly after we got Sport we noticed the pink skin under his short white fur started to get dark spots. I’ve seen many other dogs like this and thought nothing of it. He wasn’t in the sun, so it wasn’t that type of damage or anything. After a year, we found Sport a permanent home. When my husband went to visit Sport about a month later, he remarked to me that all the dark spots on Sport’s skin were gone. We looked at each other and said, “ALLERGIES. It’s a good thing we found him a new home!” I believe dark spots on a dog’s skin are a sign of allergies so be on the lookout for those other symptoms.