BTW, just in case you ever consider going back to the allergen-specific immunotherapy injections, you shouldn't do so without a consult with the derm vet first, including a discussion of where you were in the series and also when to administer antihistamines.

Just an FYI about not stopping the doses and re-starting w/o vet advice.

I have my own web hosting that I pay for. So i don't use photo bucket. All of the links are fine just an issue with the board for some reason. I tried using the Link button and the photo button and both worked in past post.

 Quote: Michael Lalla

Here is my boy's stool this morning quite small but brown in color.
http://dxfxhouse.com/images/b1.jpg
This is the yogurt we bought last night.
http://dxfxhouse.com/images/yogurt.jpg
I've also contacted a distributor of Green Tripe.
http://www.redangelraw.com/

1. Not bad but I would still add a bit of muscle meat (a little less bone).

2. You're in luck; I have that in my fridge. Look at the side. "Contains Live and Active Cultures" (way down below the Nutrition Facts). See the five strains it contains?

Now look on the front., to the left of "All Natural Yogurt." See where it says (in script) "Billions of Live & Active Cultures"?

That's what you're looking for.


"It says cultured in a cup."

Below and to the far left of where it says that, see the white script about active cultures.

 Quote: Connie Sutherland

BTW, just in case you ever consider going back to the allergen-specific immunotherapy injections, you shouldn't do so without a consult with the derm vet first, including a discussion of where you were in the series and also when to administer antihistamines.

Just an FYI about not stopping the doses and re-starting w/o vet advice.

The vet was the one that told us to use benadryl, I hate to give my dog any kind of medication. I was thinking of re-starting the immunotherapy injections again.

 Quote: Michael Lalla

 Quote: Connie Sutherland

BTW, just in case you ever consider going back to the allergen-specific immunotherapy injections, you shouldn't do so without a consult with the derm vet first, including a discussion of where you were in the series and also when to administer antihistamines.

Just an FYI about not stopping the doses and re-starting w/o vet advice.

The vet was the one that told us to use benadryl, I hate to give my dog any kind of medication. I was thinking of re-starting the immunotherapy injections again.

Yes, I understood that the vet recommended the antihistamine.

Did it relieve the reaction?

In the case of repeated reactions, the instructions about when to administer the antihistamine may be adjusted by the vet. (Antihistamines, as you'd guess, block the dog's histamine receptors. Once the chemicals, like histamine, released by an allergen have bound to the histamine receptors, which in dogs are almost all in the skin, unlike ours, which are largely in our mucus membranes, the antihistamine is far less effective. This is why I'm saying to consult about what point to give the antihistamine .... before or after the reaction. The frequency and severity of the reactions will guide the vet in this advice.)

And I would urge a consult about re-starting, to be positive you were at a point in the gradated protocol that can be suddenly started up again.

JMO!

 Quote: Connie Sutherland

 Quote: Michael Lalla

Here is my boy's stool this morning quite small but brown in color.
http://dxfxhouse.com/images/b1.jpg
This is the yogurt we bought last night.
http://dxfxhouse.com/images/yogurt.jpg
I've also contacted a distributor of Green Tripe.
http://www.redangelraw.com/

1. Not bad but I would still add a bit of muscle meat (a little less bone).

2. You're in luck; I have that in my fridge. Look at the side. "Contains Live and Active Cultures" (way down below the Nutrition Facts). See the five strains it contains?

Now look on the front., to the left of "All Natural Yogurt." See where it says (in script) "Billions of Live & Active Cultures"?

That's what you're looking for.


"It says cultured in a cup."

Below and to the far left of where it says that, see the white script about active cultures.

Now I see it on the label. My female hates beef but loves the chicken. I'm wondering if she's allergic to beef protein. She will not eat Beef Harts, Beef liver or Beef Kidneys. She likes beefy meaty bones. I'm picking up some green tripe tomorrow and I hope she likes it. I think I'm going to feed her chicken for now, With chicken hearts. We haven't tried any chicken liver or kidneys yet.

This thread keeps coming back up in my mind.

Knowing what the dog's allergens are, and reading in other threads how to help keep them off the dog and out of the 24/7 environment (which they are if she's allowed to drag them in on her coat and paws and then breathe them constantly), along with all the other recommendations you'll read when you search atopy threads .... this will help. So will keeping a journal of times of day and types of weather that are worse for the dog.

I've adopted dogs with severe atopy (and in fact, two of them were surrendered because of the previous owners' inability to adequately manage the allergies), and I've learned a lot over the years.

One biggy is that dogs with bad allergies are most likely to develop flea hypersensitivity. Flea saliva contains a bunch of antigenic materials, including amino acids, polypeptides, and more.

Another is that frequent rinsing of the dog to remove pollen, etc., is helpful. I also had the dog walk through a pan of clean water and then get the paws dried after every trip onto grass, meadows, etc., before re-entering the house. I washed the dog mats, etc., very often, and vacuumed a lot.

I never took the most allergic dog outside at sunup or sundown (his worst times when his worst seasons were upon us: for him, early spring and early fall)), and I closed all the windows every day at those times.

Big in my tool kit are fish oil in a therapeutic dose and probiotics, as well as the raw diet.

So are trials of antihistamines.

With the two worst, I did all these things as well as the intradermal testing and desensitizing injections.

That is, I found that the dogs did best when I used every tool. I even used short-term Pred when it was needed with one dog to break an occasional bad cycle.

Both dogs went from itchy, sleep-deprived, staph-infected, sometimes-bloody (from scratching), miserable dogs to dogs with good life quality.

I think that a big part of the desensitizing process was my ongoing relationship with the derm vet. It's costly to do the scratch tests, the lab formulation is costly, and the followup is costly. I guess I'm saying that with a financial investment like this, I did not hesitate to follow up with questions, with possible tweaks, with two-week trials of different antihistamines, etc.

Just some thought from a been-there-done-that person who has researched canine allergies exhaustively.

I empathize. It's a very frustrating process.

I feel strongly about chicken as an allergan but understand it is low on the list behind other allergies. Here is a good thread you may be interested in reading:

http://leerburg.com/webboard/thread.php?topic_id=31107&page=5#346992

I am late in responding to this thread - been sick!

But I wanted to throw a couple things out there in case Michael checks back. Here's my thoughts on the allergy stuff:

#1 It is very weird that the derma vet put ALL the allergens that your dog was allergic to in that serum! My derma vet, who is very good, said that you can only put 12 different allergens in one serum. Kasey is allergic to 43 things - she picked the top 12 most common things he would be exposed to on a daily basis and started with those. We have tweeked them since we started, but never put more than 12 in there. IF the vet does decide it would be beneficial to do more than that, they will then create a second vial with 12 more and start adding those slowly like you do with the first vial. You did start slowly right? A beginning vial that is much more diluted for the first few weeks and then slowly onto the full strength vial? Some dogs do end up on several vials, but that takes a while to build up to.

#2 It almost always takes at least 4 months for those shots to start helping, and often up to a year. It took a year before we saw any improvement for Kasey, and even then we didn't think they were doing much. We stopped for 2 months and it became apparent how much they were helping.

#3 Are you doing other things to keep the allergens she's exposed to at a minimum? I.E. frequent baths (once a week), keep the bedding washed on a regular basis, wash off her feet after walks, don't let her play in the grass (we HATE that one, but if Kasey even runs through the grass for a few minutes he itches way more). There are so many other things you need to do, the shots are not a magic cure all, especially in dogs that are allergic to sooo many different things. But they often do contribute to the overall picture.

I would definitely question this derma vet, if indeed, he did give you one vial with all the allergens. That could really be causing the symptoms you are describing in your dog when you give the shots!

"It is very weird that the derma vet put ALL the allergens that your dog was allergic to in that serum! My derma vet, who is very good, said that you can only put 12 different allergens in one serum. Kasey is allergic to 43 things - she picked the top 12 most common things he would be exposed to on a daily basis and started with those. We have tweeked them since we started, but never put more than 12 in there. IF the vet does decide it would be beneficial to do more than that, they will then create a second vial with 12 more and start adding those slowly like you do with the first vial. You did start slowly right? A beginning vial that is much more diluted for the first few weeks and then slowly onto the full strength vial? Some dogs do end up on several vials, but that takes a while to build up to."

That's a good catch, Lori. I assumed that your dog's protocol (which matches mine) was what Michael's derm vet was doing. One of the dogs I did this with did have more than one formula, but not all started at the beginning. And I assumed that of course, there was a graduated-strength system.

A really important takeaway (IMO) that I'm glad you brought up is how long it takes and how closely the owner needs to work with the derm vet.

I know that you (and a few others on the board, too) have been through this and learned a ton about canine allergies.

It's a long haul, and it's very frustrating, I know.