good ol' skin problems.

[damienApbt]

living here on the east coast ..philly..we have a good deal of alergy issues. i myself had never had alergies ever thank god. but it figures that my dog has pretty bad alergies. my vet said its no where near as bad as hes seen but for me its a pain. in the summer and spring he gets them the worst. all in his under belly and some on his back he gets bumps that get red and dry. the vet said the best thing i could do is move to vegas. yeah like that'll happen. sad thing is, i would if they were that bad. no wonder most apbt breeders are on the west coast.

any way i bearly ever bathe my boy unless he gets really dirty or smelly. surprisingly he doesnt smell bad. hes got real sensative skin. when i give him baths i have to use a special "non" soap and i only masage it in then rinse him. otherwise if i work it in too much he'll break out in bumps all over, every where. of course i learned this the hard way. they're pretty much wet and dry dogs any way. but as we all know they can get pretty filthy.

i was just wondering how many others' pits suffer from allergies like mine and how you handle it. for myself i have to have him on allergy meds and antibiotics during his bad season... freekin five pills a day..orally. he pretty much knows the whole pill routine and its pretty damn funny to watch too. his one ear gets pretty bad some times too. to the point he cries when he itches it. no matter how clean i keep it it always flares up during the bad season. i feel so bad for him. he hates it when i get in there with the cotton balls and ear cleaner. its almost like thats feels worse than the actual irritation.

[concreterose]

Pookie gets really bad allergies in the summer. When she starts itching real bad, I just give her a benadryl. I also wash her paws frequently and keep them soft with bag balm if she's running in a lot of grass. She's also allergic to fly bites, so I keep a jar of Fly Off. It stinks, but it helps. I heard garlic helps lessen mosquito bites and plus it's really good for humans and animals, so I give them a chopped up clove 2 or 3 times a week in their food.

[damienApbt]

im so happy, my boy rod has been showing no major signs of allergies this season, which leads me to believe its not food allergies and that its all enviromental. so i can safely switch his food to wellness fish and SP with out any major forseeable problems. the vet said ill be able to tell more if its food allergies he has with kibbles like wellness just because they have such destinct ingredients. so im looking forward to see how his allergies are this spring and summer on his new food. hopefully all goes well, and i can given him a normal bath and not have to give him 5 pills a day.

[barbponys]

I hope he's getting over what ever it is he's allergic to. That would be awesome.

Food allergies tend to affect the front half of the body, or more specifically the head and front legs. Usually they scratch their face, nose and top of their head a lot, and chew their legs. Feet can indicate food too but so often food is accompanied by environmentals like grass, trees, pollens etc. so itchy feet may be what they are walking on. I have run into TONS of allergy dogs and they ALL have one thing in common, their right ear gets yeasty and itches like a SOB.

I feed garlic everyday to my dogs, one is allergic to EVERY thing and I can't have fleas, flies or mosquito's on him at all so they get some with every meal. He also has epilepsy so I can't use topical flea treatment either.

Pat