Let's get the allergy issues over to this thread. Thanks, Will.........I had learned "reply" but not how to start a thread! Duh......... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />

hehe..no problem, it's just that the "member's bio" section is new and was a big leap of faith for the site owner to do. I don't want to get that area messed up, needless to say. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

KAY! Over here!!!

Kay! Over here! Robert and Pamela! Let's get this allergy discussion going, now that we know where it belongs and have it under a good heading! LOL! (Thanks, Will.)

I had to go and do some actual work, but I have a few minutes if anyone wants to repeat their questions and comments (which is easy by copying and pasting from your original "hi" posting over to a reply to this one, and I do hope I'm not suggesting the most tedious route.....), I'll gather my info.

Thanks Connie for starting this.

When I had Denver tested for allergies, he showed he was allergic to a varity of things. Lamb, and pork are his food allergies, so I now feed Purina LA.... I also started the Allergenic Extract, which are suppose to help him to deal with his allergies that I can't correct by changing his diets... What I am finding is that Denver is allergic to alot of airborn weeds, and Penicillium.... Here is his list of things.

Dock/Sheep Sorrel, Pigweed

English Plantain, Lamb's Qts

Ragweed mix, Cocklebur

Saltbush/Scale

Juniper/cedar

Aspergilus, Alternaria

Penicillium, Rhizopus

Tobacco

Goldenrod

Rus Thistle, sage

As I said the food things I can handle pretty well, but the area I live in is pretty much in the woods and ragweed is huge here. Along with the sage and goldenrod being all over the yard. Here is what I do for Denver so far. He gets his allergy injection once a month. Every day he takes 20 mls of prednisone, 10mls in the a.m. and 10 in the p.m., along with all that he takes 2400mls of fish oil, Zinc, vitamin E, and prozymes for the EPI.... The difficulties with the Prozyme is it is made with proteases which happens to be from pork... I still give it to him because somewhere along the way I have to treat the EPI... I also keep a kids pool next to the back door, after he has been outdoors he takes a quick bath that will rinse off any airborn pollens that might have landed on him.... He also gets a bath once a week, if we can stretch it out we will go once a month.. If he is having a terrible time I have a spray that is called Genisis, works wonders and can be purchased from most vets. I am one of the luck ones, I work for my vet and she gives me a great employee discount along with working with all my rescue shepherds. And Denver has won her heart over, so she is always researching ways to get him better, or at the very minimum comfortable.... We have tried holistic steroids and have had no luck with them, although I can provide the information for that if anyone is interested......

I am looking forward to getting input from others. Thanks for letting me share...

What a list! I had a dog who just died in November (at age twelve) whose list was 33 items long........

I too had no luck with holistic steroids, but every dog is different.

What a great idea about the pool, btw!

Luna was so very miserable that once I had the list of identified allergens, I fed her NOTHING -- zero -- that was on the list, whether it was borderline or severe. She was obviously allergy-prone, and I wanted to do everything I could. I ended up with a homemade food (I mean made by me) and stuck with it. It wasn't even a big nuisance once I started, because I did a big batch every three days or so. I had to freeze some, but frozen homemade food has to beat most commercial (or at least in my own opinion; I do realize that homemade food is not realistic for most people).

With the food under control, I started the de-sensitizing injections for all the environmental allergens.

It took months before there was any noticeable improvement, and about a year before I could really say that her allergies were under control. (Note that I do not say CURED! I say "controlled.")

It sounds like you are doing all the right things. It's a slow and painful struggle, or it was for me. But it was worth it. Luna's last three years were free of the terrible skin-breaking scratching and the infections caused by her scratching.

Holistic steroids? What the heck are those?

Connie

would you opt to control itching & eventual infection with steroids or antibioctics

also do they have weekly injections for airborne or only monthly? They seem to wear off about 2 weeks into the month & the vet said he couldn't make it stronger.

I knew someone would ask that! I was tippy-toeing around it politely.

It's a bad term --- a misnomer --- used for herbal substitutes for Prednisone, et al. Astralagus and several other "immune-enhancement" alternative meds are sometimes referred to as holistic steroids.

I've used what people call alternative medicine (carefully and after loads of reading) successfully for human and dog ailments. In this case, I had no luck with it. But I am so leery of steroids, which I believe cure NOTHING (they do suppress symptoms but are riddled with side effects) that I was looking at every alternative.

I did manage to get the allergic dogs off steroids. That has to be gradual, and it was, and it was a long and difficult process, as detailed in my earlier post to this thread.

QUOTE: It's a bad term --- a misnomer --- used for herbal substitutes for Prednisone END

I mean that the TERM is misleading; I am not saying that the actual alternative meds are necessarily bad. It's a big category and no blanket statement applies.