Hello. Myself and my partner are really struggling to get to the bottom of a problem with our 12 month old Ridgeback.
It's so upsetting and we just don't know what to try next.
Since about 5-6 months old she has had a really itchy face and watery eyes. It's so bad that she almost tears her eyes out with the scratching. She violently scratches around her eyes and the sides of her face and rubs her chin on the carpet.

We've been to the vets dozens of times now about this; following all their advice.
Initially they put her on steroid tablets and that really helped. they took a few days to kick in and the itching stopped completely. However, each time we weaned her off the pills, the itching came back immediately.  So she has been on and off the steroids for 6 months.

We've tried Antihistamines, both in conjunction with other treatments and on their own. They seem to take the edge off it a little. But not much.

We switched her diet to raw when she was 3 months old (she was originally on Simpsons kibble when we got her from the breeder) and during the itching episodes we have excluded pork, beef, turkey, chicken, duck and fish at different times, for periods of weeks. None of which made any difference at all.
A few weeks ago we switched back to a high quality (Eden Holistics) fish only single protein kibble to see if it was the raw food upsetting her. Again no difference. In fact all it did was start upsetting her stomach, as she is used to raw. She's now back on a mix of fish kibble and raw fish.

Last week we started her on Yumega Plus oil, which I've read so much about it helping scratching/itching. Again, no difference.

We vacuum the house twice daily in case it was a dust mite allergy and have spent a fortune on HEPA air filtration systems around the house which remove any dust or mites in the house. We wash her face down as soon as we come in from walks, in case it's a pollen allergy or something in the fields and have tried aloe juice to calm the itching.

Her face is a mess at the moment from tearing it apart with the scratching. She gets virtually no sleep and we also cant' sleep now due to the worry and getting up with her in the night.

Apart from the itching, she is in stunning condition with a glossy coat. She only itches her face. Never the rest of her body.

She's back to the vets this evening again as she's in a mess again with her eyes streaming and scratching her chin/face. I know we will again be told that there is no point allergy testing until she is more mature and they will suggest steroids again. I can't believe they are doing any good for her growth at ths age.

All very upsetting. I hope someone can provide some advise or suggestions of anything else we can try.

Many thanks,
Stuart

Hi, has the vet ever taken any skin scrapes and looked for mites/mange? A friend's young Bull Terrier was very similar to your dog and she was diagnosed with Mange. Had to go to the vet every day for special baths and now is under control.

Hi - thanks for the reply.
No - the vet hasn't mentioned skin scrapes or suggested mites/mange. Maybe I should mention that when we take her to the vet this evening...

Once mites etc have been excluded I would be looking at allergies.lab tests for environmemtal  are reliable enough but food ones are better done by a full elimination  diet.i see you said u tried raw and did an elimination  diet of sorts .I would either go back to raw and do a full one which is 6 weeks on one protein including offal and bone of that same protein nothing else then adding back other proteins  one every week or so.if no answers there more than likely environmental.if u don't want to do raw which is always my choice for feeding anyway use a hypoallergenic kibble from the vet for 6 to 7 weeks  . This will at least find our if it's food .next steps then will need vet help to decide what she is allergic too.its possible it's both Ince u have some ideas it's looking at treatment options of which there are a few.just to add I would also look at a specialist referral to a derm vet which is what I did with my two and just having her ideas and explain at ideas has improved life

I would once mites have been ruled out get an allergy test done, the York test is the most thorough unless that's changed recently, not cheap but will pinpoint to the exact point what the issue is.
Have her eyelids been checked? Making sire she hasn't got entropion, the inlid rolling will causing weeping and if its bad the dog will rub and scratch at their face to relieve the pain

Allergy tests are around 250 pounds each but wpuld Def  check what sue jaw suggests

Thanks for the replies.

We've been to the vets this evening and she's taken bloods to move ahead with allergy tests. The vet say it's definitely not mites (mentioned something about the steroids would have made them worse).

The vets current thinking is that as we have followed her advice on elimination diet that its probably environmental. Possibly trees or plants in our gardens or local area.
We do want to go back to raw and the plan is to move her back over steadily over the next week. We'll stick with the fish only I think, to keep it to single protein. We're really not keen on kibble and only tried it as a last resort, in case she was having a reaction to the raw somehow.

I'll have a look into derm vets; thank you, once we've had the blood tests back.

Not checked her eye lids. That's not something the vet has mentioned. Will have a look into that.

Many thanks.

What food bowl do you use metal or plastic if plastic change to a metal one

Hi - we've only ever used metal bowls.
Thanks.

If you think that your dog's problems may be food related then I would highly recommend that you look at at the website nutriscan.org. This is  run by Dr.Jean Dodds the world renowned vet. We carried out the nutritiscan test on one of our dogs last year and although it was a bit of a pfaff on we felt it was worth it . The results helped back up what we thought was going on.
the test cost about £190 the postage £10.

If you are going back to raw I wouldn't choose fish for the single protein for  6 weeks if this is for an elimination diet. any other protein yes but not the fish and include meat offal and bone whichever you choose. There are one or two reasons why fish is not ideal long term but necessary on a varied diet if you can.  I have found that generally as environmental allergens are usually impossible to remove it becomes a treatment protocol which has to be fluid. I have one on immunotherapy,  yet to know if its helping enough as with her its mainly ear infections so needs the vet to tell me what's going on , she also has ear cleaners and sometimes drops and also omega 3 capsules and a herbal tincture specifically for her. The other who has skin problems with the allergies has steroids very very low dose for his size which keeps things at bay at tm . currently we have got him off those and are watching. he also has omega 3 and herbal tincture and they both have regular baths in  malesab ( from the vet ) especially the itchy bits. we haven't used aquopel which is the new drug as our vet doesn't think its appropriate atm

If you are on fb have a look at the fb groups for raw feeding  barf uk have a number of dogs with allergies there so they are used to questions and raw feeding uk is also good, although  there are others