My GSD has skin allergy and is undergoing homeopathic injection following an earlier skin test. She is allergic to house dust mite and hay(grasses). I am getting concerned as the skin reactions do not appear t be working, although I understand that it may take some time.(I understand that this treatment does not work in all cases).
Can anyone give me any advise, or let me know if they have had some similar problems with their dog.

You can email me if you wish, I went through this last year with my GSD nanouki, same allergies.

Theresa

Hi Theresa,

I have emailed you directly to your email address.

Thanks,

Dave

Hi,

Here are a few ideas to help, I have a dog who is allergic to housedust mite, fish, wool and nylon!!!

Change the food to raw food, this helps to keep down the un-natural ingredients and if your dog is allergic, this immune system is probably not the best it could be and the last thing you want to do is bombard the body with loads of artificial rubbish.

I also use Echinacea from Dodson and Horrell, especially formulated for dogs to boost the immune system, this has helped a lot as has the raw feeding.

Not sure what you feel about this, but we have also decided not to vaccinate our dogs every year due to all the problems we have found out that vaccines have caused and I am sure that a few of the problems we have here with our dogs are vaccine related.

We have the puppy vaccines done and then a test about a year later to check the immunity and then nothing else until the age of about 7, when we will test again and vaccinate if required.  We use homeopathic vaccines for Lepto and KC, but nothing for the rest.

Hope this helps.

manda
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Once had a GSD that was allergic to Daffodils, antihistamine worked well.

Hi Mandy,

Thanks very much for your email which I read with great interest!

I took Kallie to a homeopathic vet yesterday who said pretty much what you have said in your email.
We have taken her off all other medication and will see what goes from hereon.

She has been given Sulphur 30, (Small tablets) which I think helps with some part of the detox program.

I went to the shops and bought her fresh lamb on the bone, which she devoured, although I made her a blended variety of potato, parsnip, broccoli and organic carrot with pasta. She is still undecided with this, so fingers crossed.

I shall send you an update during the course of this treatment.

Thanks again!

Dave
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Hi Dave,

Glad to be of help, Sulpher is great for skin and should help loads.

It is funny when you first start dogs on BARF with the veggies, they really don't know what to do with them.  We liquidise our veggies and give them the pulp (lovely dirty job sorting that out) with a little juice in with their meat and they love it.

Ours a funny about bits and will often pick them out and put them on the floor.... :)

Good luck, lets hope it works for you.

manda
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Hi Mandy,

Well started my carnivore culinary skills with endeavour .....boiling, steaming and liquidising vegetables..(in their their own natural stock of course). My only problem is that Kallie has always been a fussy eater, and am having trouble getting her to eat the vegatables.My obvious concern is that I get anough carbohydrate inside her as she is a very active dog, and is outside all day.

I am not sure if it is okay to maybe add a knorr stock cube to water that I boil rice or pasta in just to enhance the flavour. I will have to get in touch with the vet and ask?

Kallie will take the Sulphur pillules but we still have to drop these at the back of her throat..she must be feeling rough!

If you have used Sulphur, how long before you saw any results?

With thanks,

Dave
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Hi Dave

Pasta is a proceed food (wheat) and therefore not a standard part of a raw diet.

If you can liquidize (use water as well) the raw fruit, vegetables and salad this is the way the dogs can digest them the best. 

Raw chicken wings, backs, frames (or occasionally a whole chicken) are a good source of meat/bone/fat.  Breast of lamb and lamb and pork ribs and necks, hearts, liver etc are also standard parts of many dogs raw feeding regimes.

Forget about what it says on bags of dog foods and check out some of the raw feeding books and sites (also known as BARF)

Good luck

Christine

Hi Dave,

Typical GSD, many are fussy eaters unfortunately.  I wouldn't add a stock cube because they have a high salt content and that wouldn't be good.

You could try cooking some liver up and crumbling a bit of that over each dinner (this is what we do for our girls when they won't eat (female hormones and all that :) ) and it works everytime.

Definately mix the veggies with the meat and increase the veggies slowly, some dogs take a while to get used to the taste and texture of veggies.  Fruit is good to add to, including Blackberries and elderberries (which are free of course :) ), although it's not a good idea to mix fruit and veg in the same meal.

Pasta is (as Christine said) wheat which some GSD's can be sensitive to, so I wouldn't.  There is no reason why you can't add a bit of cooked potatoe to her dinner once or twice a week.

Something else that is good would be Sardines and Cottage Cheese (sounds delightful eh?), ours get this once a week to help with the calcium and also omega oils from the fish.  They LOVE it, but do have smelly faces afterwards!! :D

Homeopathy can works almost instantly or can take up to a month to work.  I would think at least a couple of weeks, because toxins come out of the skin and ears, so by changing the food you are freeing the body of all the toxins and rubbish and therefore the skin is likely to be the last to clear.

I bet she is loving all the fresh meat and stuff :D

manda
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Sometimes I`ll liquidise raw liver with the veggies or en egg, that seems to go down really well :) But I do them last cos it goes like a souffle! Or put a little raw meat in with the veggies to be liquidised, that way the flavour goes right thru & the meat cant be picked out easily. If you have any homemade stock you could stir that thru as well. :)

Christine, Spain.

Hi Christine & Mandy,

Thanks again!

We shall some of your recomendations and give you Kallies comments on Monday!

Have a great weekend!

Dave
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