Allergies in gsd

Hi, looking for any advice because my friends gsd is struggling with allergies and looking at another bout of steroids which is only masking the problem. Her skin is awfully itchy and her pads are cracked and sore. Seems to be the mud from all the rainfall we've had. She's just bought shoes to see if it helps which are going down like a lead balloon. I'm thinking homeopathy now. Vet says allergy tests a waste of money. She's on James well beloved sensitive. Any thoughts would be much appreciated.

There is a new tablet that controls the itch in dogs with allergies. We have had Finn on it for 6 weeks and the results have been amazing. Its like steroids without the constant hunger and if like Finn constant peeing. In Finn's case its yeast around his face and paws, so he scratches and chews which causes the yeast to build up. The tablet stops him chewing because he is itchy so with regular bathing with malaseb his yeast is kept at a minimum.

Forgot to add its called Apoquel. Might be worth enquiring about.

Not sure I like the sound of a vet who thinks allergy tests are a waste of money, especially if it could pinpoint exactly what is causing it Your friend could spend years going down blind alleys trying to figure out what it is and most vets first response is "oh it's the food" and more often than you would think, it isn't......

My girl is allergic to mites that live in decaying leaf/veg matter so all this rain has given her quite a flare up, the only thing that works for her is steroids, she also has viacutan which has been found to improve the efficacy of the steroids meaning she needs less.

My dogs sister is on Apoquel (she is allergic to house dust mites, hay mites and the cat!) and it works a treat, it is expensive though if you are not insured.

Hope your friend finds a way it's miserable having an itchy dog

Is the dog fed on raw meat ... our ex next door neighbour's GSD suffered similar problems, and within days of going onto the BARF diet he started to dramatically improve, both internally and externally.

It's not too expensive, works out at £12.60 a week for us and that's for a 32kg dog. Unfortunately I changed insurance after Finn's allergy testing so not covered

I know we all have our own cost thresh holds but comparatively speaking that's over £650.00 a year compared to my £150.00 for steroids a year, so it's a huge difference if you are not insured.

Thanks for all the replies. I agree about the vet. And I've passed on about this new drug. She is insured. She will never use a raw food diet cos her neighbours husky .... I'm not sure what happened but it was something to do with a chicken bone. She did change from royal canin for gsds to jwb and there was an improvement but it one looks coincidental. It's an awful shame.

Tonks started on apoquel a few months ago and it's been great for her. Some for the side effects are a little unknown at the moment as it's such a new drug...but it's thought not to have some of the more serious side effect that Atopica has.

Tonks has had the tests, I would push for them if your dog is insured. They only thing about the food testing is that you can get back false negatives, Tonks food ones came back clear but she is allergic to chicken, dairy and possible beef. However we did find out that she is allergic to storage and dust mites so we changed her to naturediet and bough her a faux leather bean bag, banned her from upstairs and bought a steam cleaner.

On and she's been able to complete come off all steroids.

It was most likely a cooked chicken bone that caused something to happen to the neighbour's husky. This poor gsd sounds a very similar case to our neighbour's GSD who was virtually on deaths door and was saved by raw feeding. His skin allergies were caused by kibble and cured by raw feeding - it is worth trying, and if it doesn't work, then at least you tried.