I am not convinced that this is a food related problem but the vet said he is sure it is a food allergy.

3 year old GSD male. He keeps scratching his ears and to a lesser degree, bits his feet. The Vet gave me ear drops (I think anti-biotic) which clear it up, but only for a while. The vet suggested feeding only turkey for 6 weeks and then introduce other food again.

I have stopped giving him chicken mince but that didn't seem to help and now he gets mainly turkey (sliced wings or legs) some bone meal, bones and liver occasionally, plus rice and par-boiled veggies.

I am loath to feed him kibble but he drives us and himself mad with the scratching.

If anyone could offer some advice, I would be very grateful.

Kind regards
Glyn

South Africa

1. Why does the vet say food and not the far more frequent environmental/inhalant allergies? (I would ask.)

2. If you do a true elimination diet, then you cannot include liver or rice or anything else with protein besides the one source you decide on. I would choose one he had never eaten, BTW, not one that he is eating when he's itching.

3. Were different antihistamines tried for 10- or 20-day protocols?

4. Is there definitely no flea problem?

5. Did the vet check the ear debris for yeast and bacteria? You will want to know whether there is a yeast overgrowth.

My 2.5 yo female GSD has the same problems. She came to us with severe ear infections (the inside of one ear was all black, I thought it was the way she was born with, LOL) 3 months ago, would also lick her paws. My vet cultured the ear and it turned to be a bacterial infection (staph aureus). She was treated with oral antibiotics, steroid shots, and ear drops. It fully resolved after 5 weeks, we followed-up in two weeks and infection came back.

The vet felt that it was allergy related. We ended up running blood work on her for allergies (I didn't find out until later than skin patch test was better, oh well). The results showed that she was allergic to many of the trees/pollen in the area and to chicken, turkey, oat/wheat. We decided to start her on allergy shots, in the meantime, we put her on Atopica (oral cyclosporine) to help with the symptoms.

Although I am not sure how reliable the food allergy part is, she is now only fed beef, duck, or rabbits (plus the Leerburg recommended supplements of Salmon oil, Vit E, kelp and alfafa powder).

In terms of the ears, we just took her off of all antibiotics two weeks ago, the vet now puts her on an ear cleaner once a day, we will follow up in two more weeks, if the ears look fine, the vet will taper the ear cleaner to once every few days, then once a week.

To help with the paws, the vet recommended me to rinse her paws with water several times a day, wipe her with a wet towel 2-3 times per day (to help rid of the pollen trapped in her hair), and bathe her at least once a week. I've been following this protocol for the last two weeks, so far, she looks comfortable and hasn't been licking her paws, her ears look good as well.

Now that you know that the RAST and ELISA tests are a distant second to the skin tests in terms of false positives, etc., you might also want to know that food allergies cannot be identified with the blood tests.

Except for that one rather serious piece of false information, you received some good advice. I would do trials of antihistamines, particularly chlorpheniramine and hydroxyzine, but breaking the itch cycle with Pred was possibly a good move. (You don't want to keep the dog on Pred, however, if there is any possible alternative, and without finishing the desensitizing shots and trialing antihistamines, as well as a true elimination diet, the alternatives have not been exhausted.)

The paw-washing and the bathing (or even thorough rinsing) to get rid of allergens that the dog will carry inside on the coat and transfer to the carpet, bed, etc., is a very good piece of advice that I did not learn until I read The Allergy Solution for Dogs by Messonnier (I bought it here).

Good work, to be trying the real solutions and not just putting the dog on Pred and lamb forever, which is (unfortunately) still a protocol that some extremely uneducated vets follow.

Hello Connie, Thanks for the quick response.
The questions you ask, I mostly can't answer.
1. I will ask the Vet about environment/inhalation allergies, but he did say he was very sure is was food.
2. This makes sense, I will try something completely new. I can keep the veggies though, yes?
3. No, again the vet was convinced it was food.
4. We checked (vet and me) for fleas and there was no evidence. It is Winter here now, would I still see fleas?
5. No, all he did was look in his ears. But I will ask him to do this.

We have been feeding him Herbal Life (my wife sells it) Herbal Lifeline which is Omega 3 a 6, and is supposed to help with allergies. Not been on it long enough to see results yet, but I will keep it up for a week or so, and see what happens. Does this make sense?

Again, many thanks.

Glyn