|
|
#226459 - 02/04/09 03:03 PM
Re: GSD scratching and blowing her coat?
[Re: Sandra Vernlund]
|
Alyssa Myracle
Leerburg Web Board User
Registered: 06/06/08
Posts: 3280
Loc: WA, USA
|
Offline
|
|
The fact that the food trial failed to reveal a food allergy, doesn't mean that there isn't an environmental allergy at play here.
Just sayin'...
|
|
Top
|
|
|
|
|
#226471 - 02/04/09 03:50 PM
Re: GSD scratching and blowing her coat?
[Re: Kimberly Bunk]
|
Alyssa Myracle
Leerburg Web Board User
Registered: 06/06/08
Posts: 3280
Loc: WA, USA
|
|
Offline
|
|
I guess it could be seasonal allergies?
Connie would probably have a lot of insight here.
Are you giving salmon oil and E?
|
|
Top
|
|
|
|
|
#226562 - 02/05/09 01:03 AM
Re: GSD scratching and blowing her coat?
[Re: Connie Sutherland]
|
Kimberly Bunk
Leerburg Web Board User
Registered: 05/04/06
Posts: 372
Loc: PA
|
|
Offline
|
|
She does get salmon oil and vitamin e daily, she also gets probiotics but this is more recently added to her diet. I had her on a grain free diet, Innova evo reduced fat (also orijen in the past). Now one meal a day is back to raw. This also happened while on a fully raw diet while she was blowing her coat.
The scratching cycle lasts about a month and stops completely when her coat is done switching. I had her on hydroxyzine (sp) and I believe the generic of chlor-trimeton. She has gotten ear infections in the past, but they didn't always coincide with the body scratching.
While on the hydroxyzine she still scratched about 50% as much, but she would just lay around and not play looking dazed. She is pretty high drive and her not playing was very odd. I could literally throw a ball at her and she would let it bounce off her head and not even look at it. Normally when I am playing fetch with her she starts drooling at the site of it.
The once a month bathing is really an estimate, sometimes it may be every 2 weeks or every 2 months depending if she got dirty playing in mud, rolled in something, etc. She has stopped itching now that her old undercoat is pretty much fully out, except the back of her thighs I can still pull a few tuffs out. She does not wake up to scratch, but when she is mid cycle of this her crate looks like a fur bomb went off in it. We tried all the special vet only shampoos for skin infections, both bacterial and yeast. If anything I think they made her top coat dry out and become brittle.
I now use buddy wash lavendar and mint shampoo on her, these are the ingredients:
Coconut shampoo base, aloe vera gel, essence of lavender, essence of mint, chamomile extract, sage extract, nettle extract, rosemary extract, wheat protein extract [natural deodorizing agent], tea tree oil, Vitamin E, Vitamin C.
The reason why I don't or the vet feels it's allergies, besides past experience with this, is that I am not changing anything diet or environmentally this time around and it has stopped. If it was an allergy it would continue and not be cyclical. I had her on an antihistamine last spring when this happened and the whole scratching thing still happened and then just stopped.
I know this is a lot to digest, but it is very frustrating dealing with this. Not only for me, but especially for her. I am so glad her scratching has stopped, but I'd rather be able to stop it from happening this spring if I can. Thank you all for your help.
_________________________
|
|
Top
|
|
|
|
Moderator: Will Rambeau, Cindy Easton Rhodes, Deanna Thompson, Kevin Sheldahl, Ed Frawley, Kelly At Leerburg, Connie Sutherland
|
15680 Members
165 Forums
25005 Topics
262573 Posts
Max Online: 945 @ 07/29/07 04:46 PM
|
|
|
