After spending several hundred dollars ruling out every form of mange, switching to an all natural raw diet, my young boy is still suffering from bouts of severe itching. He rubs his muzzle raw from digging it into the carpet. I had attempted to have testing done at MSU, but their policy is that the dog has to be on Purina Dog Chow for 14 days prior to testing. Don't think so.
Anyway, my regular vet agreed to do the testing himself without a change in the dog's diet. I have had no prior experience in allergy testing in canines, so I am wondering what to expect? Is the testing similar to the scratch testing done on kids?

 Quote: Nancy Stinson

After spending several hundred dollars ruling out every form of mange, switching to an all natural raw diet, my young boy is still suffering from bouts of severe itching. He rubs his muzzle raw from digging it into the carpet. I had attempted to have testing done at MSU, but their policy is that the dog has to be on Purina Dog Chow for 14 days prior to testing. Don't think so.
Anyway, my regular vet agreed to do the testing himself without a change in the dog's diet. I have had no prior experience in allergy testing in canines, so I am wondering what to expect? Is the testing similar to the scratch testing done on kids?

Frustrating, isn't it?

A change in diet, IMHO, to anything but a strict elimination diet, is pretty ridiculous.

A strict elimination diet can (and IMO should) be conducted with raw ingredients.

Here's why:

There is at this time only one way to determine a food allergy (or allergies), and that's a strict elimination diet. The two kinds of tests for allergies, blood and skin, are so unreliable for food that actually including foodstuffs in them is no longer considered to be useful.

The majority of canine allergies are either flea hypersensitivity or inhalant/environmental allergies.

To isolate these allergens, the skin (scratch) tests are the gold standard, with maybe a 70% to 75% accuracy rate.

If your vet is offering to do the tests, I think chances are he might be offering a blood test. The blood tests (either RAST or ELISA) can be somewhat useful, and I once found out an important allergen with one, but all in all, they probably are not worth the money. JMO. I did use the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) in an extremely allergic dog once as a screening test to limit the allergens included in intradermal (scratch) skin testing, suspecting that there were dozens of allergens. There were.

The scratch tests are generally done by a vet dermatologist, which is why I suspect that your GP vet is offering a blood test.

After the tests, the lab makes up an individual desensitizing injectable based on your dog's particular allergy (or allergies, more likely). The injections are administered on a decreasing schedule to gradually desensitize the dog to the allergens.

This is a VERY simplified version of the procedure. Would you like some reading material?

I'd urge you to learn about this before you invest what can be big dollars, but which can be very useful if done properly. (Many people opt out of the scratch tests because of the time involved or the shaved skin, but it's really, as I mentioned, the gold standard.)

A good thing is that you seem to be approaching this in the most allergic season, which is the best time to test.

What I would do if you possibly can is to ask for a referral to a vet dermatologist. You may find that it saves you big-time in the long run.

These should be ruled out before the tests: fleas or mites, fungus or yeast infections on the skin, like Malassezia, chronic bacterial infections, and concurrent hypothyroidism. I would also do the elimination diet first because if by chance it IS a food allergy, then you'll find it that way.

P.S. BTW, I'd have the dog on fish oil plus Vitamin E and trialing antihistamines, starting with either Hydroxyzine or Chlorpheniramine, to give him some relief....

Hi Nancy,

Connie's the "gold standard" for nutrition and health, so you can feel very confident in what she says. I'd like to add that I recently had experience with the skin test on my dog ( http://leerburg.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=137011 ) and, fortunately, my dog is responding very well to the vaccine. The shaved skin was no big deal - it's just a small patch, about 4" square, and the hair grows back quickly. There's a link in that thread to some photos of my dog's patch, so you can see what it looks like. Well worth a couple months of a funny look to keep my dog as comfortable as possible the rest of his life.

On the down side, my dog didn't respond well to the 2 antihistamines Connie mentioned. He has, however, done well with a third one - Clemastine Fumarate. So remember you may have to try several until you find what works best on your dog. The Salmon Oil is very important to maximize the effectiveness of any antihistamine.

I'm really lucky to have a sharp, caring vet who referred me to a really good derm vet. The derm vet didn't like my guy being on raw, but he didn't insist or even ask that I change his diet, so that Purina policy is hogwash. Only thing the derm vet had me change was to stop the salmon oil and any steroids for a couple weeks before the test, so as not to mask my dog's true reactions.

So I also second Connie's suggestion to look for a good derm vet. I hope you can, and the testing and treatment are successful for you. But remember even the gold standard isn't 100%, so try to be optimistic but realistic.

Something else I just remembered -- the derm vet said he can often tell, by the distribution of the itchiness, whether it's a food or an inhalent allergy. I believe he said inhalant allergies are much less likely to cause itchy paws than food allergies. I don't know if this is just his experience/observation or there's any quantifiable research on it.

Good luck!

Anita

 Quote: AnitaGard

... Something else I just remembered -- the derm vet said he can often tell, by the distribution of the itchiness, whether it's a food or an inhalent allergy. I believe he said inhalant allergies are much less likely to cause itchy paws than food allergies. I don't know if this is just his experience/observation or there's any quantifiable research on it.

Good luck!

Anita

I've heard other authoritative sources say that. My own experience doesn't bear it out, but then I have not yet had an allergic dog who had only food allergies, so I don't have a good "test."

Itchy paws has been almost 100% experience with allergic dogs I've known. But of course the derm vet has a *much* wider experience.

P.S. I agree 100% with this:
"The Salmon Oil is very important to maximize the effectiveness of any antihistamine."

The fish oil (plus Vitamin E) combined with antihistamines makes a team that is far more effective than antihistamines on their own.

Connie, using a statistically valid random sample of two, there may be something to the itchy paws thing. The only place on my current dog that does NOT itch are his paws, and since the vaccine is working, I presume he doesn't have any food allergies. My previous dog licked her paws a LOT, until I finally switched her to raw.

So there you have it - conclusive, scienterrific evidence

Thanks for the replies. Sorry it took so long to get back, but between work, college, training, and kids.... I need a nap! Connie, if you could PM me with more info I would be so grateful. We did the elimination diet and it was so time consuming and difficult with all the dogs. We switched to all raw after a few weeks. The dog showed a major improvement with the itching within a few weeks. Within a month or more his face cleared up. His feet have never healed completely. We have ruled out every possible skin disorder, disease, mange, etc. He does great during the winter and most of fall but as soon as spring hits he is back to itching, scratching, and chewing. We are waiting until September to have the test done, but now I am really second guessing even having it done at all. He originally did refer me to MSU(Michigan State) but because of the hospital's policy on feeding crap for 14 days prior, I would not take the dog. I am really confused on whether to have the scratch test done or not. If the test comes back he is allergic to something like dog hair or grass? It would happen with my luck!

And oh yea. The anti-histamines? We have tried several different ones, but not much of a help. The only thing that really seems to help is steroids. Due to the problems that can cause, it is a last resort. His last dosage was 20mg of prednisone twice daily for 7 days and then 20 mg once a day for 7-14 days. That was along with 20mg of loratadine twice daily.