Itchy skin

My ESS, has been suffering from itchy skin. It became apparent a couple of years ago and occurred from Spring until Late summer, so we kind of concluded, with the vets assistance, that it was possibly a skin allergy to something outside, grasses/pollens. When he starts itching it is so frustrating for us as he then starts to chew at his skin and makes sore patches. This does not happen in any particular area, but all over him, especially the areas that he can reach! So a treatment of antibiotics along with steriods has been the process so far. We've had skin scrapes done and confirmed that he has no mites, lice etc on his skin, so we're back to allergies. Vet also indicates that its not likely to be food allergy either, though I am starting to have second thoughts about this. He is recommending Axiom or Atopica for treatment. Has anyone any experience of either of these two treatments? I believe Atopica is a pill form where Axiom is a vaccine that is prepared especially for the dog after tests to ascertain the actual cause. My immediate actions have been to give him antihistamine tablets and also he's having yumega to help, will research foods that are wheat gluten free as this has also been suggested by friends, but if anyone has any other thoughts/advise/experience in this area, please let me know, Daniel would really appreciate it!

my sisters dog suffers from spring to late summer too, the vet's are fairly sure it is the pollen from the fields of crops grown, she has changed the dogs diet about 3 years back but its made little difference, Im not sure what meds she is on, but my sister does salt baths and uses aloe vera on her skin which seems to help.

hope you find a solution xx

Atopic a is very very expensive - are you insured...

I've heard the vaccine works well the first year and thereafter it isn't always so successful

Ask your vet about Atarax - it's a stronger (prescription) antihistamine which ours are/were on

Ours are allergic to the grass during the growing season

We were told allergies were not food related however due to another issue (dietary) our boy is now on Hills D/D prescription diet and his skin problems are 98 - 99% better
so it's maybe worth asking your vet about this food - just to see. You can buy it online without a prescription. They also do one called Z/D which apparently has nothing at all in it which a dog could be allergic to. We were lucky in that the D/D has been successful

There are several routes you can follow but it should be systematic approach rather than expensive and time wasting experimentation.

First of all, you can ask for a referral to a specialist.

Secondly, you can consult a homeopathic vet who may be able to provide you with a bespoke treatment after a consultation.

Homeopathic vets are allopathic vets with EXTRA qualifications in homoepathy.

You can mediate (not cure) reactions by attention to supplements

The addition of Fish Body Oils plus Vitamin E plus Vitamin C is a good start.

FBO is a natural anti inflammatory and you must give Vitamin E if you add this; Vitamin C is a natural antihistamine.

The majority of allergic skin reactions are due to environmental causes and these are harder to control than diet for obvious reasons.

The dust mite is the number one trigger, do you treat your house with Indorex or Acclaim? Both of these control dustmites. You can get testing to see if this is the cause.

You could then look at overall diet.

Most dogs are not "allergic" to foods, just intolerant (true allergies present in an acute fashion).

So you can try an exclusion diet by giving a novel protein such as duck, capelin that the dog has not been exposed to before.

There are very few TRULY hypoallergenic foods out there, and these are very expensive as the protein is hydrolysed to prevent an allergic response.

These are things like the Z/D diet by Hills. If you go on this for a very short time and the symptoms alleviate, then this may indicate an allergy to a protein source so then you can usually change to a very simple diet with one protein source and one carb source.

HTH

Thank you all very much for your help, certainly gives us some other options to consider. We are insured, but even so would far rather try other options that the expensive and seemingly "quick fix" which as you say, aren't necessarily a better long term solution. Thanks again
FiandRich