To be honest ramble i have spent nearly £8K on vets in last year On average i think it would work out that i have been at one surgery or another twice a week for a year. This is for allergy and leg problems.

All they do is steroids, abs and metacalm/shampoo/creams etc etc. I have done all this and am currently out of insurance money to use. I am already paying off £140 for leg treatment that went over are insurance policy, after paying £400 already that went over. So i really don't want to pay another £30 just to walk through a door at the moment. I already have a backlog of steroids, abs, metacalm etc so i could treat her the same way as the vet would do but just wanted to try something different.

Sometimes i want to just take a step back and have a look at other options, i remember mentioning piriton once before but he never went into it with me. i can ring my vet as they are very good, but i think they would tell me to come in and again i am back to charges.

Sudocream is something i use which works fantastic on jess better than any steroid cream i have had off the vet which a friend told me to try and i just wondered if these tablets may work as a lot of people seem to use them for the same condition.

Ooo never thought of using sudocream on a dog. I somethimes bath Tonks' pits in salt water, which definately helps.

sudocream is my miracle cream, jess has had some really bad huge sores through itching, i have used everything from vets and it kinda works eventually.

sudocream is messy but we went past that stage a long time ago, i plaster it over any wound, or red raw area she has and within 24hrs it scabs and heals..... i love it and should have shares in it really Friend of mine her dog has a rash like you described and she puts sudocream on it and it works well also, give it a go...worth a try and cheaper than anything a vet will give you.

We're just starting down the allergy route with our pup. She's not bad at all, and hopefully it will stay that way!

Fortunately, our vet agreed to send of blood tests. Apparantly many vets won't do it until a dog is a couple of years old as normally the antibodies haven't built up in the blood until then. The first round of blood tests have just come back showing that she does have allergies. Now we need to wait for the results of the next lot which will tell us precisely what she's allergic to.

Currently, we're :

- removing likely allergens from her environment (dust mites)
- giving her fatty acid supplements (work well for some - I think 40% although it takes up to 3 months)
- switched her to wafcol food for allergic dogs.
- piriton (although it only works for 20% of dogs - not ours it seems). We were told 1 a day for our 10kg pup, but the vet did say they could handle much more than humans and that 1 a day was a very low dose.
- watching her closely for signs of skin infection and cleaning with tea tree.
- if she's itchy oatmeal baths work wonders. Just pop oatmeal in a blender and put a cupful or two in a shallow, lukewarm bath. 24 hours 100% relief for our pup! (apparantly it actually draws allergens out of the skin so it has an accumulative effect).

Plan of action when we have the results:

- our vet says she's had excellent results with chinese herbs. Don't know any more than that, but when I do find out I'll post up here

- Immunotherapy (sp?). The lab that's doing the blood tests will prepare special injection for Beanie that will gradually desensitise her to the allergens. Works well in 70% of dogs (as in significantly reduces symptoms). Although takes about a year.

Our vet promised that steroids would be an absolute last resort and that she very rarely uses them. She says that she *occasionaly" finds steroid sprays useful for very short term use if a dog has a bad flare up. But almost certainly no steroid use for our pup!!!

I don't know if any of this is helpful to anyone, but I think it's always good to pool information on something like this.

Good luck!

Edit: And we've started taking her to the beach a couple of times a week. I figured that if she's allergic to pollen this will cut down her exposure, but also the salt water will be great for keeping skin infections at bay. Obviously it's hard to say, but it's certainly not doing any harm and she loves it!

Yes i will definately give it a go, i was going to keep an eye on it and then go back to the vets, but i don't really want to get on the route of courses of antibiotics, anti inflamitories and i definately don't want to get on the steroid route if at all possible. Oddly enough it rarely seems to itch Tonks but the spots are fairly evenly spaced and do become puss filled (nice!). Then they start spreading down her legs. This time round there are only about 10 - 12 spots in one armpit....so goodness knows what she has been doing!

Hollys been a bit itchy poor girl, I may give piriton a try for her too, Its defo not fleas so not sure what it is with her,

catrinsparkles - that sounds EXACTLY like beanie's problem.

It seems that when a dog has allergies their skin looses some of it's self-protection/healing ability. What you're describing sounds like pioderma. It *can* be treated topically with regular washing and cleaning. However, our vet did say that it's often best to nip it in the bud with a short course of antibiotics as if the topical treatment doesn't work you end up needing a much longer dose of antibiotics to clear it up.

Beanie's had two outbreaks now and both times we tried the topical route without success. Antibiotics cleared it up in a day! Our vet swears blind that antibiotics won't do any harm.

But I'll try the sudocream if it happens again!

When I was told I was allowed to give him 4 a day (Piritons that is), I spread them out but only give him ONE at a time? Considering they act on the immune system, I sort of thought this was the way to do it, rather than give him say 2, 3 or 4 in one go? I.E. you give him one, it works on the immune system for say 4 hours as do most drugs, then by lunchtime you can give him another, and so on? Surely that's better than giving 2 at a time or more? I don't know, I just assumed when my vet said I could give him 4 a days I should spread them out so they work throughout the whole of the day?

Another vet told me years ago when I said I was using them, he said there are 3 different types and if one doesn't work, he could give me another option, because only one of them will work on your particular dog, so you may do well to ask for another version at the vets if you don't think the over the counter ones are doing the job? Remember, if you're buying your own, you must only use the "drowsy" type and not the expensive "non-drowsy" ones coz dogs can't have those! All the best, I know how frustrating all this is, I've had it for 5 years now with Georgie.

All mine are itching like mad and have been for about a month. The vet cant find any sign of infestation and it seemed unlikely that theyd all have an allergy.
Its really weird my friends Welshies are at it as well but her cockers are fine.
I was speaking to the vet at CLA and she said it could be somewhere we've been and picked up an allergen and know there all stuck in the itch scratch syndrome.
ive got Spence on piriton to see if ti helps.
By the way I wouldnt be without sudacream, ive been told its got similar ingredients to Thornit not sure if its true.

jess had 4 tablets yesterday, split into two lots and 2 more tablets this morning. She is still itching franticly, how long before they kick in or should they have done so already.

also gave her metacalm (pain killer and anti inflamatory) yesterday and this morning.

We have this all the time it seems to peak and then lessen and i feel like we are at the worst at the moment, she won't sit still and is scratching and biting all over her at the moment. Should piriton be working by now.