Hi All
I have started giving my Bichon Oil of evening primrose for her itchy skin, but wanted to know what other treatments are good, vitamins etc.  Also my vet has advised that Antihistamines (I know thats not how you spell it!!), which ones would I get from the chemist as the vet said it would be cheaper to try her on these.

I use Malaseb to for baths.

Thanks

Jo

Boots do their own brand of antihistamine, you don't want the non-drowsy use the ordinary ones.

What food do you feed?

Salmon oil is very good for the skin,alfalfa helps with allergies but beware it also stimulates appetite,i give my allergic dog 1eveningprim+salmonoil capsule a day and 2 alfalfa tabs daily,1 in morn. and again at night.As for the antihistamines go for products starting with the letter P such as palaramine-phernigan or periactin,dont ask me about the letter "p",lol,i was advised this by my vet,the one thing that has helped my girl is palaramine,altho it does contain the "drowsy" ingredient it doesnt seem to affect here altho i do give it at bedtime just incase :p

good luck

christine

Edited to say:all of the above antihistamines are for humans,i get mine from the chemist,1/2 to 1/8 tablet daily.

Thanks Christine
Where do I get the Alfalfa from??

Jo

Garlic is meant to be good for the "itchies"

First of all I would want to find out why my dog HAD itchy skin; how can you treat it if you do not know the cause?

All the supplements in the world will not help if she has a food or environmental allergy.

Hi Tohme
I have spoken to my vet with regards to finding out the issue behind her itching. They are going to do a skin scrape in the next few weeks to see if it's mites etc. My vet doesn't really want to go down the skin testing route if we don't have to, as I'm sure you know it's very expensive and apparently even though that way it would tell me what exactly she was allergic to, they don't have a magic cure for any of these things. She has suggessted trying her on Antihistamines as her dog has the same issue as my Bichon and it's worked for him. Obviously if it still doesn't work I will then go down the test route.

I just think vets all have different opinions and sometimes are only after the money and in this case if I did test it would cost about £500! and may not even help.

Jo

Whilst it is true that environmental allergies are difficult to treat let alone cure, food allergies are very simple.  Are you not insured?  A blood test sent off to Yorktest will reveal if your dog has a food allergy which will then mean you can cut out the offending items and will be cheaper in the long run and healthier for the dog.

I agree with tohme.  That was the reason that I asked what food you feed earlier.  Bichons commonly react to beef and beef products in this way but I assume that as you are going down the antihistamine route you have checked out the food allergy theory thoroughly.

Thanks Both
I wasn't advised by my vet that they could do a blood test that could just be sent of. How much does this cost??

Thanks

Jo

http://www.animal-allergy.com/pet-owners/contact-us-pets.php4  I think it is around £200 but your insurance should cover it.

Jo

What do you feed your Bichon?

Andi

Hi Andi
At the moment just dried food, Bakers complete. She doesn't itch all the time so don't know if it is her food, and when I bath her she's much better.

I am going to buy wafcol tomorrow and will try that, I've heard it's meant to be good. She also bites her feet after we have come back from a walk so maybe it's the grass etc.

Thanks

Jo

Thanks Tohme
Brill site

Jo

I am assuming that you don't feed the beef variety anyway but the other Bakers varieties have 'animal derivitaves' as ingredients and I would be wary what exactly that meant.   As I said in my previous post, Bichons more often than not react to beef products and you can't guarantee that Bakers is free from these.  You could have a test but at this stage I would be inclined to change to a food that you are certain contains no beef products and try that as it certainly won't make things any worse. 

I can't speak for Wafcol as I don't know what's in it but I have used Eukanuba in the past (although I wouldn't recommend it for other reasons), James Wellbeloved and Burns and none of my dogs have had any problems on these.  My personal favourite is Burns which is usually delivered the next day and they also sell good natural treats (although the blue whiting is something of an experience for the nose when you open the bag!)

My bichon was majorly itchy and I put her on to Burns (chicken and rice) and we've never looked back. Burns is nice and low in non-beef protein so it's ideal for bichons. My lab has seasonal itching especially at this time of year. I suspect that it's the salt on the roads from the gritters. When it's very bad my vet gives a steroid injection and puts her on to attarax(antihistamine). I get a private prescription from the vet and we fill it at the chemist and it only costs a couple of pounds. Sometimes I get away with only the attarax depending on how bad the foot chewing has made her. A steroid cream applied locally is a good additional anti-itch remedy.

Thank you for that. Can you get Burns from the big pet stores??

Jo

You can get Burns from some pet shops, don't know where you live but there are a couple close to us in the North East but I buy off the net because I don't like the shops.  If you email Burns they'll send you a sample, fact sheets and a stockist list for your area. 

Hope it helps

I feed Wafcol salmon and potato for itchy skin & dodgy tummy Wafcol was my vets recommendation I previously used the chicken and corn wwafcol

Jean

Just hope that your dog is not allergic to potato :D

A friend of mine forked out $300 + on allergy testing and it turned out his dog was allergic to grass,which is impossible to avoid,so basically he wasted all that money as his backyard has 1/2 acre of grass and all the places we walk our dogs have grass.
You can buy alfalfa tablets at any health food shop.

good luck

christine

Thanks all of you, I have had to make a trip to the vets this morning as Jaz has been itching all weekend, another steroid injection, I now have Piriton which the vet told me I can give aswell as the injection. Will get Walfcol tomorrow to.

I'll keep you informed

Jo