My 2 yr old Red Nose Pit has, over the last few months, started breaking out with a skin rash. It is to a point where his entire body is red and the skin is flaky. He's been on various antibiotics, but none seemed to help long term. I took him back to the vet today, in desperation, to try and get some firm answers and final results. They did a skin test to check for mange and it came back negative. The vet said that Red Nose Pits are prone to skin allergies. ?? She gave me all of the pampered shampoos, conditioners, creme rinses, etc. as well as Doxepin - 50mg and Simplicf - 200mg. In addition to that, she recommended that I take the dog off of Sentinel, and put him on Avantage Multi. I have also been told to change his diet to Eukenuba FP or KO, as this brand carries the highest fish oil content. ?? Since I've already paid for the shampoos/conditioners and the meds, I'm going to go ahead and utlitize them. My question (for now anyway) is: (1) Sentinel vs. Advantage Multi (topical)? Any pros and/or cons to either product is appreciated.

Disregard just about everything that vet told you (and sold you) and switch him to a raw diet, and don't use ANY of the flea stuff until you isolate the problem. Is he eating grain in his diet? IME, that's the biggest contributer to allergies, and even if they're not the "cause," eliminating them better enables the immune system to deal with the root cause. Allergies are an auto-immune problem.

Eric,

Have you thought about Raw diet? I have seen dogs with allergies like this that clear up in a few weeks on raw.
http://www.leerburg.com/diet.htm

If you are not wanting to go raw try one of these foods as I would never recommend the foods that were recommended to you.
http://www.leerburg.com/all-natural%20kibble.htm

Also, the salmon oil sold on this site is great although you can get the fish oil capsules sold OTC at your local nutritional store and add that to his kibble (off the all natural list).

Most of my dogs are on raw although there are a couple in addition to the dogs in for training and/or boarding that I feed Innova or Chicken Soup for the Pet Lovers souls to.

These are the two kibble foods that I like and prefer. Some others may have different opinions. I have never had any issues with feeding any of these foods. I do stay away from Innova Evo and just use straight Innova adult dog food. (dark green bag).

 Quote: eric eschmann

My 2 yr old Red Nose Pit has, over the last few months, started breaking out with a skin rash. It is to a point where his entire body is red and the skin is flaky. He's been on various antibiotics, but none seemed to help long term. I took him back to the vet today, in desperation, to try and get some firm answers and final results. They did a skin test to check for mange and it came back negative. The vet said that Red Nose Pits are prone to skin allergies. ?? She gave me all of the pampered shampoos, conditioners, creme rinses, etc. as well as Doxepin - 50mg and Simplicf - 200mg. In addition to that, she recommended that I take the dog off of Sentinel, and put him on Avantage Multi. I have also been told to change his diet to Eukenuba FP or KO, as this brand carries the highest fish oil content. ?? Since I've already paid for the shampoos/conditioners and the meds, I'm going to go ahead and utlitize them. My question (for now anyway) is: (1) Sentinel vs. Advantage Multi (topical)? Any pros and/or cons to either product is appreciated.

Please do not switch to a food because of fish oil content. Fish oil is a polyunsurate that does not stand up to cooking, or even heating, without being substantially degraded, apart from where it lives (in fish muscle). The commercial foods with "Omega 3s added" conveniently forget that.

And Eukanuba is, IMO, in the junk category because of all the grains. I don't recommend by-products OR corn OR barley OR sorghum, and they have it all.

Example: Chicken, Chicken By-Product Meal, Corn Meal, Ground Whole Grain Sorghum, Ground Whole Grain Barley, etc.

The most common allergy in hypersensitivity to fleas. (One exposure can cause allover reactions.)

Second is inhalant/environmental.

I would start fish oil plus vitamin E (remembering that we don't give oil supplements without adding E because dogs use E in processing oil supplements). I would start that now, since it's a potent anti-inflammation agent.

I would do trials of antihistamines, starting with a couple of weeks of hydroxyzine, and then chlorpheniramine if necessary.

Benadryl works occasionally, but is the least successful, both IME and according to all I have read.

I would start reading this site -- the threads about allergies -- because there is so much posted. There are hundreds of pieces of advice here that it's hard to re-type in full.

I would rinse the dog in case this is a pollen/grass thing, and I'd wash his mat, bed, etc., and baby-wipe his paws and undercarriage after he is on grass.

All this is assuming that he's itchy. He is, right?

Atopy almost always presents with bad itchiness.

Does he lick at his paws? Are you examining his ears (because ear infections are common secondary symptoms)?

Hi Eric,

To answer your question about Sentinel vs Advantage Multi here is what I have heard. Others may have different experiences and opinions.

Sentinel doesn't work very well on fleas and usually another product is needed for flea control.

Advantage Multi is the new topical Bayer product for fleas, heartworm, etc. Lots of advertising for it right now and Bayer is heavily pushing the product with vets. Our staff just sat through an hour presentation with the Bayer rep for this product and I have to tell you...there is something I don't like about it.

Owners need to be really careful where they apply it on the animal. Our impression from Bayer is that there is a greater chance of an adverse reaction if a dog or cat ingests this medication then if they ingest any other topical medication.

To put it another way, it takes something like 3x the recommended dose of Multi to possibly cause an adverse reaction where Advantage needs something like 50x the recommended dose to do the same thing.

Plus, you may need to add additional flea/tick medication because there is no guarantee that the Multi can handle flea control for a month. That's a lot of medication, IMO.

The only other thing I'll say is that if you are going to try Advantage Multi then your dog should have a heartworm blood test prior to using it.

Good post, Sarah. I'd personally steer clear of anything chemical until he knows what's causing the problem. It's hard to do any kind of elimination when it could be environmental, chemical, food-related, etc. Interesting info on the flea products...people need to be aware that ALL medications have potential to cause adverse reactions...sometimes serious!

Thanks for the replys. This is actually my wife's baby. I have a Rottie and a GSD, she has the pit bull that loves to catch hogs. Yeah, the insurance agent loves us. LOL

She's been posting under my name in an effort to get this sorted out. Although the skin and coat look terrible and the flys are all over the open wounds, the condition does not seem to be bothering the dog. He is not scratching at all. Any recommendations for ointment for the open wounds to keep the flys off of them and help them to heal?

FYI: I like the Sentinel product. I like that is given orally. Having used it for many years now, I have never had a problem with fleas even in the hot Florida climate since going with the Sentinel.

 Quote: Eric Eschmann

Thanks for the replys. This is actually my wife's baby. I have a Rottie and a GSD, she has the pit bull that loves to catch hogs. Yeah, the insurance agent loves us. LOL

She's been posting under my name in an effort to get this sorted out. Although the skin and coat look terrible and the flys are all over the open wounds, the condition does not seem to be bothering the dog. He is not scratching at all. Any recommendations for ointment for the open wounds to keep the flys off of them and help them to heal?

FYI: I like the Sentinel product. I like that is given orally. Having used it for many years now, I have never had a problem with fleas even in the hot Florida climate since going with the Sentinel.

MHO is that if the dog has open wounds that he didn't do himself by scratching, you might need another vet. JMO.

What topical treatment did the present vet give?

Can you link us to a photo?

Atopy is virtually always miserably itchy. Malassezia is not always itchy (although it often is).

What exactly did the vet think? Contact dermatitis (allergic to something the dog is actually touching)? This is very rare in dogs. Atopy -- again, this ITCHES.

I think you need a MUCH better diagnosis than that, if that's all the vet said. It doesn't fit the usual allergy picture.

Open wounds. I would call a vet dermatologist.

http://www.thepetcenter.com/gen/itch.html

Note that bacterial dermatitis is not spontaneous. It's secondary to something. IME, it's often secondary to allergies, but that's because the intense itching leads to scratching and breaking the skin, allowing bacteria to enter and colonize.... not what you are describing if he's not itchy.

I would have to ask in addition to what I already posted.....What is the dog eating now and have you switched foods at all????

He's on the Sam's Brand, "Exceed" and then I mix in a can of moist food with it....Sam's brand also. He eats it up and loves it, and he's been on this same diet for quite some time. So, what would you suggest I do for starters? Change his diet and keep him on the meds? Don't change his diet and keep him on the meds? I am definetly going to add some fish oil to his diet, regardless of what diet he's on. I figure that can't hurt either way. I'm in no rush yet to change him from Sentinel to Advantage Multi. Sometimes you just have to go with your gut, and my gut is telling me that is not the problem. All comments/suggestions welcome.......