Atopy - any experience?

[GingerbreadMoomin]

Hi,

Last week I took my two year old lab to the vets, he'd been chewing at his foot for a couple of days and it had started to go red. I thought maybe he might be a little anxious as I've not long been home from hospital with DS2 who is now nearly two weeks old. Vet dismissed anxiety and said it's likely to be atopy and has booked him in for tests for half a day tomorrow. He's only ever been prescribed ear drops twice and at the time vet had said no to atopy because of how quickly his ears cleared up.

Does anyone have any experience of going through this with their dog? I've read all sorts online about going to dermatologists for loads of tests etc. I just want to make sure we're doing everything we can to help him. Thanks

Our poodle was diagnosed with this a couple of years ago, she chewed her paws and the base of her tail bare overnight once :( It got to the point where it was almost impossible to get her to focus on us, as she was so focused on scratching. She had punch biopsies, saw a dermatologist etc and was eventually put on Atopica. She was really ill on it, and the vet kept encouraging us to persist but last Xmas after 4-5 months on it we decided between the constant vomiting from the Atopica and the scratching, she wasn't having much quality of life, and we stopped the Atopica. We changed her diet completely - she's not on raw, but she is on a completely home cooked bland diet, with no grains or cereals (though she can eat rice). Treats etc are all home made. It made a huge difference - her worst flare up over the last year happened when we were visiting friends and she scarfed Bakers Complete from their dog's bowl. She does need piriton twice a day, and we have an emergency supply of steroids we can give her for three days at a time if she flares up. We wash her feet with plain water after walks, brush her out every day, and use baby shampoo at the groomers. She's much much better now.

My GSD suffers from a very itchy chin and muzzle - to the point where he scratches himself until he bleeds.

The Vet did biopsies looking for mites, but found nothing. I tried washing his face after eating, and that didn't really do much either. They said that the next course of action would be to start an elimination diet, but it can take a lot of time and is difficult to get right.

Last ditch option - we tried Cortavance Spray. It works wonders! I just give him a spray when he's having a flare up, and it really keeps the itching down.

No idea whether this is relevant to your particular dog's problem - but it's well worth asking your vet about it.

Good luck

Hi OP,

I have an 18 month old golden retriever who has a history of stomach problems - he is very sensitive to foods and is on a special hypoallergenic diet. He also has atopic dermatitis (atopy).

Around 9 months ago we noticed that he was chewing his paws (dark staining between the toes indicated this too). He would also have gunky ears and occasionally sore eyes. In addition to this he would also have sore patches of skin in his armpits, on his stomach and in the crook of his elbows etc. The would start pink and sore then end up scabby. In general his skin was black where is should have been pink.

Getting his diet right definitely helped his eyes and his ears, but his skin was still a problem.

We starting bathing him with Malaseb shampoo (I believe this is only available on prescription). The important thing with the shampoo is to concentrate on the sore areas, lather it in well, leave it to soak for 10 minutes (v important) before washing off. We also used Fuciderm gel and/or hibiscrub to topically treat the sore patches. Once when his skin was very sore he was treated with Rilexine antibiotic. All of these treatments helped but we wanted to get to the bottom of what was causing the problems in the first place.

Our vet referred us to a specialist skin vet. He did a patch test, where a patch of skin was shaved on his side, and very small amounts of potential allergens were injected into the top layer of skin. I think (if my memory is correct) there were 35 different dots. We had to monitor which of these dots flared up, and when, and make a note of these. Following the test the skin vet identified that my dog's skin reacts very badly to house dust mites, storage mites and a type of plant he encounters on his walk. A potential solution to this is regular allergy injections, which should increase his resistance to these specific allergens. We are due to start the injections soon.

Based on my dogs history I have quite a bit of knowledge in this area, unfortunately so please feel free to PM me if you want any advice or further information.

All the best x

Thank you for all your replies.

Sorry I'm a bit late getting back to you all, it's a bit crazy here with a 3 week old, a 22 month old and a two year old lab that I'm now having to bathe with Malaseb.

Ladylashes - thank you so much, I'll probably pm you in the new year when we get our next lot of results. He's having another skin test in January to see how well the Malaseb is working and to see if it's bought the secondary yeast infection under control. We're due to start a food trial after that, he's on Symply at the minute, with the view to having the intradermal skin testing/vaccines made at some point next year if needed

gingerbread No problem. Hope the malaseb helps. Good luck with the food trial. Is it an elimination diet? If so, it takes a long time (over a year with ours) but was totally worth it. If the diet is a problem then the skin may get completely better all by itself, which would negate the need for the intradermal skin testing. Fingers crossed! The only reason we proceeded with the skin testing was that the change of diet helped, but not enough.

I look forward to hearing from you soon x

Well we're back at the vets on Tuesday to see how well the Malaseb has worked, if it's not taken the results they're after under the threshold it'll be time to start the food trial.

Ladylashes - I asked about the food trial, they said it wouldn't be elimination because it would have to cover everything he's ever eaten so it will be a trial over eight weeks using a hydrolysed protein-based food. Hope you had a lovely new year