Hi all
I have a 2 yr old Cavalier K.C Spaniel and he has been visiting the vets on a regular basis, due to his skin allergy. He has had two blood test, a skin scrape and skin biopsy plus various food trials carried out, but all tests were found to show no positive signs of the main cause, which could either be food related or the environment or both. Has anyone gone down the route of food testing and if so, please could you tell me the outcome. I believe that they inject allergens into the dog? My vet advised me not to go down that route, as it is a waste of time and money. I have been given a choice of steroids or Atopica. Please could anyone also give me any advice as to the long term use of Atopica and the outcome, as the steroids are believed to have more side-effects than Atopica. I want to enable my pet to have the best treatment with the least side-effects as possible. He is such a great dog with so much love an affection. I want to help him as much as I can. I have also been told to wash him regularly with Sporal D to help reduce the scratching.
I awaite your response
Dawn x

Hi Dawn, I went down the route of allergy testing they take a small blood sample and send it away, it is rather costly but I believe it is well worth it. The vet will give you a copy of results, in my case  my dog has extreme allergies of food intolerance we found out he can only eat one meat protein. We keep an eye on his diet make sure he has nothing on the list by doing this it has help improve his health. He also has an allergy to one dust mite and a few pollons.

If you have a look at this website (this is the lab my vet uses) it will tell you about the test. http://www.animal-allergy.com/  If you wish to go down this route then ask your vet to take blood sample and send to yorktest.

Hi and welcome!
I too have a CKCS with nasty skin irritation - he has thinning coat and is so itchy. I haven't gone down the path of tests as yet - he has been prescribed piriton which didn't really help. My vet advised bathing with Sporal D but it didn't help but I now use epi soothe and its brill - Harvey really does calm down after bathing with epi soothe :)
I posted here just a few days ago to ask for any recommendations of diets to try....we seem to have tried most but nothing seems to help - I dug around the WWW and came across Royal Canin veterinary hypoallergenic diet which seems to have a good success rate in controlling allergies and it was also recommended by a poster here too so I have just ordered a bag tosee how we get on - I will let you know if it helps us. Out of interest, what colour is your boy?

Hi Luvhandles
Thank you for your reply. My young lad is Blenheim in colour. He gets lots of attention and admirers when out walking. I will try and help you with telling of how we have been getting on with our food trial. I used Royal Canin Hypoallergenic, but it didn't help my boy. I was then referred to a dermatologist vet. He recommended a low protein diet: Hills ZD Ultra Allergen free. The food caused loose bowl motion, so he then recommended another low protein diet Eukanuba Dermatosis FP Response from the U.S.A. The advice I was given was that most common cause of food allergens in dogs are beef, milk products & wheat. An immune reaction to a particular ingredient, which is almost always a protein, so very low protein diets are recommended. I hope that your sweetie does well on the Royal Canin diet, if not then I would like to suggest the ones I have mentioned. Eukanuba is available on the www. All the best!!
Dawn x

Hi Katt, Thank you for your comments in relation to the allergy testing. My CKC Spaniel has been for allergy testing, it was called Damitor/Antisedan Intradermal skin test. This involved him having his fur shaved off in one small area and then rows of slight pin pricks were made. I was told that after testing he may show reaction signs to the treated area, which may indicate what he is allergic to. The results were said to be inconclusive, as it wasn't showing a pattern to indicate that he was allergic to pollens, dust mite and the environment. I had to do a diet trial, but to no avail. The dermatologist whom my vet had referred me to who carried out these tests is against food allergy testing, but after reading your reply, I am seriously considering it. Before I do, could you please tell me if the blood test you had done was called serology? As my dog has had two blood tests sent away for allergies. The result was as follows: Topscreen still negative - does not mean doesn't have an allergy, but causal agents not detceable by serology. What was recommended for the dust mite and the few pollons that you mentioned.
Kind regards
Dawn x

Hi
I have two GSD's, my male who has anal furunculosis who is on Atopica all the time now and my bitch who has an allergy.  She started at 6 months old, scratching like mad and had lost all condition.  After assuming she had mange and treating her and him we had no improvement.  I was convinced she had a food allergy so talked to my vet (have changed vet since as she was pretty unhelpful) we did a food intolerance test which came back as her having a very mild reaction to all meats including duck which as far as I no she had never eaten before - I took those results with a pinch of salt, my vet agreed they were not helpfull.  I decided to switch both dogs on the BARF diet to see if that helped, her scratching decreased immediately and her condition started to come back and that 'wet doggy smell' she always had disappeared all in a matter of a week. She had some blood sent to Yorktest which confirmed she had a massive allergy to HD Mites and flea saliva. They are both frontlined every 6 -8 weeks. She still scratched too much so she was referred to Bristol Vet school where she had 42 or so allergens injected into her side.  House dust mites was confirmed as well as flea saliva and clover.  She was on weekly allergy injections and has been on maintenance now for 2 months (fortnightly inj) In total its been 8 months. No real improvement so if they do not work she will probably be on Atopica too.  My male is on 100mg a day which after trying every other treatment for A.F this is all that works for him.  I am concerned of the long term affects of this drug as its quite a new drug.  I am going to have 6 monthly blood tests done on him to check all is well.  I would prefer to use Atopica than regular doses of steroids tho, I agree they are great for short periods of time but not long term use.  My males AF returns after one week off Atopica so we have no other choice for him.  The huge downside to Atopica is the price.  A box of 15 which lasts him 15 days cost £70.00. .thank god for insurance. I have never used any shampoo as HD mites are everywhere, in the air, cracks of wooden floors etc so unless she is outside she nibbles all the time. Hope this helps
Lx

In reply to BarkingMad16, could I ask if you tried surgery for your af boy?  My vet recommended atopica for my boy's af but I wasn't comfortable with it because of side effects,etc, as you have already mentioned.  He had said that he had found a problem with weaning the dogs off, again as you mentioned with your boy. I found a vet who specialised in af surgery and he lived another 2 years after op, I lost him to a ruptured spleen 2 months ago :-(.  Had the af returned I probably would have ended up down the atopica route. Hope you can find a solution for your girlie.

> Hi Katt, Thank you for your comments in relation to the allergy testing. My CKC Spaniel has been for allergy testing, it was called Damitor/Antisedan Intradermal skin test. This involved him having his fur shaved off in one small area and then rows of slight pin pricks were made. I was told that after testing he may show reaction signs to the treated area, which may indicate what he is allergic to. The results were said to be inconclusive, as it wasn't showing a pattern to indicate that he was allergic to pollens, dust mite and the environment. I had to do a diet trial, but to no avail. The dermatologist whom my vet had referred me to who carried out these tests is against food allergy testing, but after reading your reply, I am seriously considering it. Before I do, could you please tell me if the blood test you had done was called serology? As my dog has had two blood tests sent away for allergies. The result was as follows: Topscreen still negative - does not mean doesn't have an allergy, but causal agents not detceable by serology. What was recommended for the dust mite and the few pollons that you mentioned.
> Kind regards
> Dawn x

Hi Dawn if you check this link it tells you that the yorktest is not any serological test :http://www.animal-allergy.com/html/pet-owners/?PHPSESSID=d63261d85d552631d454b1ac93488a68

With the pollons we do nothing as he just sneezes.
With the Dust mites I hoover, dust and wash beding every day that includes his fav teddy he looks at me with utter disgust mind you lol,  I also have air purifier's thats recomended by the asthma society. I have always had to do all this anyway as my son has asthma.
My dog has the top score with food allergies if eating certain ones on the list it causes him Breathing attacks, Haemorrhagic gastroenteritis, gastroenteritis, scratching, face rubbing, chewing and licking paws, terrible ear infection and low energy levels.

I also have him under a Homeopathic Vet due to his immune system and him being allergic to a lot of allopatic medication , I wasnt sure about seeing a Homeopathic Vet but my Alloptic vet said it was a good idea and I do not regret doing so. We all work together Alloptic and Homeopathic Vet, If he gets very ill both vets comunicate with each other and come up with something that he can have. It has worked for him and he has had much improved health.

Personally I do not understand why some vets are reluctant to do allergy testing but I have come across this before. I regularly take my dog to a park where one ladies dog ears where terrible she told me that her vet wanted to do an operation on the dog that could cause deafness (the dog had previously had many ear washes at the vets and medication for near two years). I told her about allergy testing food intolerance etc, she told her vet and the vet refused so I told her to go to another vet and get a second opinion. She did and it turned out her dog had problems with chicken, turkey and beef (level 3 on allergy list). Her dog was put on a different food and less than a month later her dog's ears where clear.

You have to remember it's your dog you're the customer that if not happy you can always seek second opinions just because one doesn't believe another may or the other may come up with something not thought before.

Don't get me wrong my dog will never ever be 100% healthy but he has a good quality of life so my belief is try other routes first as the less stress on the immune system the better :)

 

Dawn the Noah Compendium will give you the Contra-indications/warnings on Atopica see link:
http://www.noahcompendium.co.uk/Novartis_Animal_Health_UK_Ltd/Atopica/-46115.html

If you read the above link it tells you. if you look at the "Special precautions for use" part says:

Pruritus and skin inflammation are not specific for this disease and therefore other causes of dermatitis such as ectoparasitic infestations, other allergies which cause dermatological signs (e.g. flea allergic dermatitis or food allergy) or bacterial and fungal infections should be ruled out before treatment is started.

Hope the link helps :)

Hi BarkingMad, I feel for you having two dogs with health problems.The information that you have submitted has helped me to realise that going down the route of more tests, which are very expensive, (even though I have insurance) don't always give reassurances that the dog will be free of itching, as you mentioned that even though the tests reveal the main culprits, it is hard to manage the problem. In the end you are back to square one. My dog CKCS may have both environmental and food allergies. I suspect that even though the tests weren't affirmative to what the actual problems are, I am sure that it will be of a similar outcome if I was to take the tests further. My vet is very familiar and up-to-scratch with regards to skin problems, and he has assured me that he has a pretty good idea of how to deal with my dogs allergies. He said that the main thing is to keep him on a low protein diet Eukanuba FP Response or you could use Hills ZD Ultra Allergen free and a supplement of Viacutan (x 2 squarts) daily on his food for his skin and coat. I use a buster collar on my CKCS, which he wears to bed or when he goes out into the garden, so that when he is alone the collar prevents him from harming himself. It would be interesting to know if any other dog lovers out there have tried the BARF diet, in order to see if it has helped with the skin allergy/itching conditions.
I do hope that you find this information of some use. That's Paws for thought!!
Kind regards
Dawn x

Hi
Even tho she does not have a specific allergy to any one food, the smell that she gave off stopped when I switched to BARF, frequent ear infections have stopped and her general appearance greatly improved within days.  Even my vet commented that she looked fab, when I told him they were both switched onto BARF I expected him to give me a lecture but he simply said 'whatever you are doing is working' I am sure that a natural diet has helped her immune system cope better with her HD mite allergy. You are right when you say that even after finding out what is wrong we are not guaranteed to be able to fix it.  I was told that the immunotherapy of injections can take upto 12 months to work, we are about 8 months down the road so maybe.............. I always have hope.
Thanks for your kind words.
ps. the low protein diet does not make sense to me as my dogs are basically on a protein rich diet and very little carb. I cant see how a processed food can help her fight against house dust mites? Did he explain how that could work?
Lx