Quote: Mike Armstrong

In the last 15 months .... 2 or 3 pred tablets. . .

Mike

This is the ultimate goal for using steroids .... in the least possible effective oral dose, to break a cycle when needed.


eta
I want to second the recommendation for Huffnagle's book. Mike recommended it to me and I have probably recommended it to at least half a dozen others.

Edited by Connie Sutherland (11/16/2010 11:17 PM)
Edit reason: eta

I logged back in to say again that a written log of antihistamines, all other meds, weather, itchiness, and every other allergy factor is something you will dislocate your arm patting yourself on the back over.

Patterns will emerge, true results will be clear (rather than perceptions and coincidences), and the best things you are doing for the individual dog will start to stand out.

Without the log, I would never have seen the results from the increase in fish oil, or the fact that my dog was worse at sunup and sundown in summer (simple modification: close the windows at those times), or that there was one very worst month for him .... these patterns don't emerge without this consistent long-term info maintenance.

Mike will agree with that. We've passed allergy info and research back and forth to each other via email for years now.

 Quote: Connie Sutherland

I logged back in to say again that a written log of antihistamines, all other meds, weather, itchiness, and every other allergy factor is something you will dislocate your arm patting yourself on the back over.

A big ditto on the log/diary idea. My usual example is that a dose of pred will have noticeable effects is 20-30 minutes while the Clear Allergies I started didn't kick in for 3 to 4 weeks. If you don't write these things down, you'll lose all track of what's happening real fast.

And I forgot to mention that Nettie's diet includes salmon oil; about 1-1/2to 2x the recommended dose made a difference.

 Quote:

I did find a derm vet locally but he charges $375 for the intial visit and then $1200-$1400 for the testing

Cindy that does sound really high. I just looked back at our derm vet expense for the intradermal testing and it was $665. That included an ear swab to check for yeast and infection.

I think you are wise to check around to see what other derm vet prices are. My dog was only sedated as well and not put under.
She did just fine with the sedative and me right there holding her while we waited for the allergens to react in her skin.
I think in our case she was tested for 40 allergens.

I hope you can find a D-Vet with more reasonable prices, so you can get this figured out. I really feel for you.

 Quote: Mike Armstrong

And I forgot to mention that Nettie's diet includes salmon oil; about 1-1/2to 2x the recommended dose made a difference.

and don't forget about vit E, it should be given when using fish oil in the dogs diet.
I saw the OP mention she did give fish oil, but i didn't see anything about Vit E too.

 Quote: Joyce Salazar

My dog was only sedated as well and not put under.
She did just fine with the sedative and me right there holding her while we waited for the allergens to react in her skin.

Me too. In fact, the most recent one, mentioned in this thread, was not my first rodeo, and I have never had the derm vet insist on anesthesia.

The calling around, even if you offer to pay something for the phone consult, is going to pay off, and not just in cost. There is enough in this thread (from experienced people) to give the O.P. the basics for judging which individual specialist will be best suited to work with her.

The relationship between the owner of a severely allergic dog and the vet specialist is not a casual one-shot thing.

Okay this is what he was given at the last visit

Injection of Vetalog which is a steroid but she said he needed this to get immediate relief. I was quite upset about this because I didn't even know she was giving this to him until after she did it. I know steroids are not good for a dog.

She also prescribed Simplicef which is an antibiotic and two antihistimines Hydroxyzine and Clemastine.

She is hoping that once we go into a good freeze if the allergies are caused by outside irritants then maybe we will see some relief by then. If not then we will probably have to pursue the allergy testing. I am assuming we will probably have to pursue this either way.

When I mentioned yeast she didn't really respond to it and acted as if she didn't think this was the problem.

We also bathed him today with a medicated antifungal/bacterial shampoo which seemed to help so far.

I already give my dog greek yogurt but how much of the Culturelle would I give and of the Clear Allergies? He weighs around 40Lbs. I am hoping maybe if I start a regimen similar to yours I could avoid the testing which is very expensive. Also what kind of fish oil and how much do you give?

I know you don't have all the background info re: probiotics, but here's a few important points:

There are hundreds of strains of probiotics and there hasn't been enough research done to establish exactly which strains will produce results for specific problems, so the advice is give as much variety of cultures as possible; you may be lucky and happen on to the right one.

All yogurt requires a couple "starter cultures," but you want to look for a decent brand that says "live" or "active" cultures, and most will list 4 - 8 cultures. Again, it's an individual thing. It doesn't matter what it's called, it's the number of cultures that you're looking for. As Connie said, Nancy's and Cascade brands seem to be very good brands. Results may come in days, as in my case, or it might take several weeks to see them. I've settled on Nancy's low-fat plain that has 6 cultures that I think, for unexplainable reasons, works better than the other half-dozen brands I've tried. For variety, I also use Lifeway plain kefir - http://www.lifeway.net - that has 10 cultures. I'm giving the equivalent of at least a cup/day (combined) to a 65# GSD, and it seems to be more effective with the total amount split into several "snacks" a day. She loves it and would eat as much as I gave her, but you should make some adjustment for the added calories. And there's soy yogurt if dairy products are a problem.

I use Culturelle because it is Lactobacillus GG, one of the most common probiotic strains; it has 10 billion "CFUs" (culture forming units) If you use probiotic capsules or powder, look for something that has numbers in the billions per serving.

Grizzly Salmon oil is available from LB and other places. Their different size bottles uses different size pumps. The qt. size recommends 3 pumps/day; I'm using 5-6. And don't forget daily vitamin E.

The Herbsmith Clear Allergies comes in tablets or (cheaper) powder. I use about 1-1/2 times the recommended amounts.

And most importantly. . . keep that diary.

Mike

Cindy it sounds like you have a pretty good handle on the symptoms with the steroid shot and the two antihistamines.
Hopefully, having a hard frost will help lessen some of the potential allergens.

But I just wanted to mention one thing. If you are planning on seeing a derm vet in the future, they will tell you that it is best to get the dog tested after you have had the chance to get the dog off all of the steroids and antihistamines for a period of time.
The reason is because they want a clear read, and wouldn't want the mentioned drugs masking any results.

So for the time being, you can get your dog comfortable as possible which is a good thing.
I know there are some dogs that have a hard time weening off the meds before the tests. Your Derm Vet will be able to help you determine how to go about all of this before testing.
I thought it was worth mentioning, for down the road.