Allergens in the fall?

[pblove]

that sounds like a great plan.

[Misskiwi67]

And that's where I am at a loss. I don't want her to be on steroids. That was given by the dermatologist and that was assuming (hopeful) it was a fall seasonal thing. Now she's off and the symptoms came back. The dermatologist doesn't want her on the steroids long term. I was going to go to my regular vet and put her on something else. In the mean time, once we recover financially from Sadie's tooth extraction, I'm going to make an appointment with the naturopathic vet to see what else can be done. Maybe in a month or two.

I'm seeing a LOT of dogs who's allergies are extending well beyond the usual season because of the odd winter weather (or the lack thereof).

Allergy shots take a year to work, Atopica 6-8 weeks. Really, the only option for comfort is steroids in the short term, and side effects are minimal at low-dose every other day dosing like you were already on. I'd get a refill from your vet before she needs antibiotics from scratching herself too. Then you can see that naturopathic vet as soon as you can manage it.

[Nichole]

Yeah I was thinking about it and was remembering the dermatologist saying steroids was the way to go for immediate relief since everything else takes a while to kick in - which is why we went with steroids in the first place since she was actively itchy and bloody and miserable. So I'm going to see if my regular vet will refill the steroids again, get her comfy, then move on to something else. If she needs to be actively treated for the rest of her life for this we can work on something else. But for right now she needs immediate relief. Poor thing.

I think we're having the weird lack-of winter weather. It's been warm over here in Seattle with very little rain. Very unusual for us.

[mtlu]

We're having a very dry winter in CA right now but it still gets cold enough in our drafty, old apartment that we turn on the heater quite often. Molly's skin is getting dry and she's been shedding more often - I'm slowly adding coconut oil to her food (every couple days) so I haven't yet seen any positive results yet. I might just work some of the coconut oil into her skin for some faster relief.

Do you think Violet might be affected by too much dry air since this seems to happen in the cooler months?

[starrlamia]

Just a reply to an earlier post, Apple cider vinegar has helped a lot with bries yeasty paws

Sent from my Nexus S using Tapatalk

[FBODGRL]

Personally I would see a holistic vet. They will try other options and use steroids as a last course of treatment.

Have they tried anything topical versus doing an oral steroid? Sorry if you said it I didn't go back to the very beginning.

[Nichole]

I'm going to a naturopathic vet in a month or two, once we've paid off some hefty bills we got hit with recently (like Sadie's tooth). No ointments have been tried.

[AmstaffMommy]

Just throwing in my 2 cents...August til frost is Veronica's hell also...even with her allergy shots.

The shots keep her from getting hivey, but she is still itchy as hell!

Yeppers! us to, Rocky's bad allergy time is August to November - he gets hives but doesn't really scratch that much. I think it is the ragweed that hits in the fall on the east coast.

We just manage with Benedryl

[Nichole]

I forgot to update this. The vet put her on prednisolone which is a steroid. Her itchies immediately went away. It's amazing how fast it works on her. The vet is also having us give her 50mg of benadryl (25 every 12 hrs). When her prescription runs out we'll continue with the benadryl and see if we can control it that way. If not, we'll head back and/or seek the opinion of the holistic vet I mentioned above.

[Cherry]

Ask for Temeril P. It has a much lower dosage of steroid then Prednisone so the side effects aren't as bad. We haven't gone to a holistic vet yet but with Cherry's allergies, I don't think it is an option. I'm pretty sure we are just going to have to do Temeril P and Cephalexin the rest of her life. Whatever keeps her comfortable though.

She's itchy year round. She's been licking her paws a lot the past month and I've had to up her Benadryl as well. May have to do Temeril P every day instead of every other for awhile.

Atopica worked for her but because of the suppressed immune system, she was constantly getting secondary skin infections. We may try Atopica and Cephalexin long term once we are back on our feet money wise. But for now, our vet thinks Temeril P is a safer route than bouts of Prednisone. My carpet thanks him .

[Misskiwi67]

Ask for Temeril P. It has a much lower dosage of steroid then Prednisone so the side effects aren't as bad.

Temaril-P is a combination low dose steroid and antihistamine. The problem with it is while the steroid dose is lower, when a pet NEEDs a higher dose, you can't adjust it to perfection without over or under-dosing the antihistamine.

I much prefer to give the two medications separately. Temaril-P has much lower doses than I find adequate for outbreaks, although it works nicely for maintenance levels for many dogs. You can also cut prednisone pills to achieve the same outcome... with my personal dog, I usually do 1-3 days high dose, then cut back quickly.

May have to do Temeril P every day instead of every other for awhile.

Steroids should not be given daily for more than a few days if any options are available. Any outside steroid administration still decreases the normal production of steroids by the bodies natural chemical signals. This is why steroid injections are frowned upon by most dermatologists, the chronic side effects (even at low doses) are unavoidable. The entire purpose of every-other-day dosing is to allow the bodies natural feedback mechanisms to continue to function.

[FBODGRL]

Ask for Temeril P. It has a much lower dosage of steroid then Prednisone so the side effects aren't as bad. We haven't gone to a holistic vet yet but with Cherry's allergies, I don't think it is an option. I'm pretty sure we are just going to have to do Temeril P and Cephalexin the rest of her life. Whatever keeps her comfortable though.

She's itchy year round. She's been licking her paws a lot the past month and I've had to up her Benadryl as well. May have to do Temeril P every day instead of every other for awhile.

Atopica worked for her but because of the suppressed immune system, she was constantly getting secondary skin infections. We may try Atopica and Cephalexin long term once we are back on our feet money wise. But for now, our vet thinks Temeril P is a safer route than bouts of Prednisone. My carpet thanks him .

Why is a holistic vet not an option?

[Cherry]

Thanks for the advice, Miss Kiwi. We use the Temeril P for maintanence, she gets 100mg every day or every other day, depending on her itch level. She also gets 500mg Cephlexin every other day. I'm getting her blood levels checked before her dental so I can see if being on Temeril P every other day, sometimes every day has affected her. We've been doing this for about 3 1/2 months now, maybe a little more. I'm also going to have a sit down with her vet. I'm tired of the steroids. I think we are just going to go back to Atopica but use Cephlexin as well so she can fight off the secondary infections like staph. We are broke as hell but I have 32 pills stored up so we are good for a bit. Temeril P can still be used while the Atopica gets back in her system. The vet said Atopica and Cephlexin is his recommendation for what is best for her but we wanted to try the more cost efficient route.

Holistic isn't an option because I'm not willing to take her off meds and see her suffer horribly. It isn't just food or one or two allergens. She's got contact, inhalant and environmental allergies in addition to some foods. We've tried Nzymes and gone that route, building her immune system up and trying some holistic supplements in addition to the Nzymes. She looked horrible and was suffering. We've tried raw, we've tried just supplements. We've tried tons of different foods, meds, etc. We will literally sacrifice anything for her but I can't see the point of spending the money on a holistic vet when we've already done what most of them instruct allergy sufferers to do. It may work for a lot of dogs but I know Cherry and I know her allergies are too extreme for the holistic route.

I wish we could but I can't let her suffer like that, ever again.

[Misskiwi67]

Thanks for the advice, Miss Kiwi. We use the Temeril P for maintanence, she gets 100mg every day or every other day, depending on her itch level.

100mg? How many tablets is that? That dose doesn't compute with my understanding of Temaril-p and I'm trying to come up with a prednisone mg equivalent just for my own curiosity.

I'm not a big fan of the cephalexin every other day, but I'm (going to try) not going to question what is working for a dog that is otherwise miserable.

[Cherry]

Just one gray. It doesn't have the mg info on the bottle but the pill is gray and says 100 on it. I just assumed this meant 100mg? I dunno, maybe not.

What are your concerns about Cephlexin every other day? It was every day per the vet but he said we can drop it to every other day as long as it is still effective. We ran out and she was off it for a couple weeks. She almost immediately had a staph infection.