Skin issues and tummy troubles, not convinced its an allergy??

Since he was 10 months old Rupert has had about eight flair ups with his ears (he is 3 in a few weeks). By flair ups, on his vet notes it says ear otitis which is irritation/inflammation it didn't start as infections and was in both ears. They thought it was an environmental allergy. About five of the above needed veterinary treatment (sometimes Thornit was enough to help it along in the beginning?) and its been a steroid shot, antibiotic shot and sometimes ear drops like Surolan too.

Anyway, last October (2010) he got an ear infection in one ear. Then this January an ear infection in the other ear. Then he went all the way to June and got this horrendous rash on his groin which needed 18 days of antibiotics, 13 days of steroids and a few days of steroid cream to shift.

October last year I thought he had bloat. 8pm one night he was pacing and desperate to go out. Started to wolf grass down but had a soft belly. Couldn't get through to emergency vets and he seemed OK. Had another episode in November around midnight, again couldn't get hold of vets.

Changed vets early this year around March time and through April and May he had terrible tummy issues in this regard. Not any diarhoea or sickness really just the bloat like symptoms minus the hard belly.

Vet gave me Zantac, didn't seem to help. Now have Buscopan but since being on Pro Texin Pro Fibre which is a prebiotic the belly problems have stopped, hurrah! It was prescribed for the fibre content as my vet thought that could be the issue.

Roo had a full blood panel in January as well as a thyroid test which all came back fine. He had an environmental blood allergy test a few weeks ago which also came back clear.

My vets want him on a hypoallergenic diet like the Hills Z/D diet but I have refused because I had him on hypo foods since he was 10 months old and he still had problems, I really don't think its food related. He also struggled a lot on commercial foods in terms of energy, raw really seems to have helped him get his personality back so I would like to keep him on that if possible. I started raw amongst the tummy troubles in May.

He has also lost weight since last October. He has gone from 32kgs then to 27.5kgs now, in the process of upping his food to try and get him a bit heavier. I am trying to exercise him more but he does struggle stamina wise its not proving easy to build him up

Sorry its so long, thought I would post on the off chance anyone has any ideas or suggestions for us. We're at our wits end right now my first vet about 18 months ago did think he could have an auto immune issue from the nature of his skin reactions and would have referred us on but we moved not long after. Current vets just want to see how he goes but I'm not really happy with his reactions getting so much worse

Also written this as its handy for me to have a good 'story' of Rupert and his issues. Any ideas/suggestions welcome if anyone happens to read this

Have you eliminated ALL carbs from the diet eg grain, potato?

Have you had him tested for Malassezia?

And deffo no allergy to dust mites?

Thanks for reading and replying

I am aware of the Hills one (and I think Royal Canin?) being hydrolysed but my dilemma is the way he was on kibbles/wet foods I don't think it would be possible to keep him on them full time

All carbs are out of his diet yes. For the last 10 weeks ish he has had only raw lamb tripe, bones, chicken wings/carcasses/meat, rabbit and offal (lamb) and his treats were carrot throughout that time. He had a reaction about 5 weeks in on that but it was way overdue, he'd gone from Jan to June he's never gone that long without a flair up since before his first one.

Also, I am confident he could go six weeks with no problems. After steroids like the other week he can normally go about 3 months without a flair up if not longer. And the fact he lasted six whole months on a diet of Fish4Dogs, Natures Harvest and raw food says to me perhaps his food isn't a problem?

Its just hard because I know if he goes 6 weeks my vets (or at least one of them) will say he is fine on that keep him on it but I know give him 3 months he will have a flair up, but worry they may blame it on something else. Plus being a golden retriever it is hard to make sure everything is out of his reach on walks and the like. Someone dumped cooked chicken bones in our garden a couple months ago

Dust mites were on the allergy test yes, it was just an environmental one sent to Holland. I'm actually quite cross because my vets lead me to believe it was a food test, there is no way I'd have paid for a blood environmental allergy over intradermal. They reckon there is no test accurate enough to test for food so why bother, but I just think with Rupert being a golden and so greedy an elimination will be very hard as well

Don't think so re Malassezia no. His groin rash from a few weeks ago looked like this. The vet said he has terribly sensitive skin and that he could see it getting worse as he was clipping the fur off. He has two patches on his front legs clipped where they tried to take blood and they are a bit iffy looking now...

I would demand a referral to a specialist, are you insured?

Yes we are. Argos Platinum up to £7,000 a year.

Someone did suggest to me re the belly issues about the Cambridge vet hospital. I'm based in Essex so that would be doable, I am a bit worried of what the right thing for Rupes is to be honest.

I have talked myself in and out of this Hills/Royal Canin diet but honestly he was so, so lack lustre, tired and lacking sparkle on his Fish4Dogs and Nature's Harvest since the end of summer 2010 and he had been fine on the food before, I think its something in his body struggling not a particular food if that makes sense? He had been on it since Feb 2010 and it was about September 2010 he seemed to be struggling.

With this last rash he was in so much pain, this is why I keep pushing my vets they said every 3 months is quite good really but the problems come so fast and he is quite nervous of the vets as it is

Worried that I don't see things for him as rationally as an outsider would and that how much he means to me might cloud my judgement.

Have you tried giving Fish Body Oil which is a natural anti inflammatory, along with Vitamin E and Vitamin C?

What about B 12?

This sounds very complex and I would deffo see if you can get to a specialist, what about the AHT?

Sorry what is AHT, is that the Animal Health Trust? My vet rang them and they said try the hypoallergenic diet via phone call.

My vet did say I could do white fish and potato but again I think I'd need to do 3 months of it and worry about him being on an unbalanced diet for that time or longer. And then again he is a greedy boy and could snatch something out on a walk

I've not yet tried any supplements, I will have a look into what you mentioned. He was on Protexin Pro Fibre which is a pre biotic but that has stopped now to see how he goes and there is a vague change I may do the hypo diet I am just reluctant right now and would rather do that on direction from a specialist because I feel only one of the vets where I am listens to me

I have been told good things about Colloidal Silver as well for skin problems, going to research into a few different ones.

Do you mention the vitamins in regard to him having a deficiency? He was on complete foods until mid May time. If I really have to do it I will stick him on a hypo kibble I just strongly feel the results wont be easy to interpret and worry it will waste more time when we could be running tests monitoring him on his raw diet...

Hi there,

Sorry to hear that you are having problems with Ruperts skin and ears.

Our 3 year old GSD has terrible skin, just like your Rupert, I could have been looking at a picture of her when looking at it.

We have been dealing with this horrendous problem since the day that we brought her home.

Has Rupert had skin scrapings or just the blood tests?
I would definitely ask for a referral to a specialist vet.

Ella had blood tests done at our own vets but they can be inaccurate and then when we went to the specialist she had the skin scrapings. The poor love is allergic to

beef, pork, chicken, grass, dust mites, pine trees, in fact I could go on and on.

We had a vaccine made specially for her but unfortunately that did not work.

So here is our regime at the minute

wafcol salmon and potato dry food.
4mg steroid daily
antibiotics for 3 weeks when skin is like Ruperts.
fuciderm cream nightly,
episoothe bath at least 3 times per week

We also have a spray that we spray her underneath with before going out.

This is the worst time of the year for her allergies, she usually gets a little respite in the winter months.

Our next step and one we are holding off from is using the drug atopica # read up about it.

We have tried every lotion and potion, herbal tablets, you name it we have tried it, if I was you I would hold off using them until you have seen a specialist.

Thanks for the reply MichaelM, very informative and sorry to hear about Ella having skin problems too

Can I ask if you just asked your vet for a referral or if they suggested you go, and also what kind of one you went to? There is the hospital in Cambridge but I know there are individual people with dermatology qualifications who have their own practice sort of thing as well..?

He hasn't had skin scrapings no, just the blood test. The thing is to start with both ears flairing up seemed like an environmental allergy, mostly in summer etc. Then he had an ear infection in one ear, then three months later one in the other ear through autumn/winter time which doesn't fit the pattern. Then this groin rash where his ears were 100% fine but as soon as he came off the steroids his ears did flair up then too

Part of me feels bad for doubting my vets re this diet but I really don't think we'd get very good results with the nature of his breed and reactions in his life so far

Its Fuciderm that Rupert has had a fair few times and it does seem like good stuff, apparently very strong! Someone on another forum mentioned they worked in a hospital and had to use it incredibly sparingly because of how strong it is.

Hi,

It was our vet that suggested we go to the specialist.

We had a choice where to go and went with a vet a few miles from us who specialises in skin problems.

We left her at the vets for a few hours as she had to be sedated for the skin scrapings.

Even though we have no relief as such from her problems, we now know what she is allergic to and try and avoid it as much as possible. The worst thing she is allergic to is Scottish Pine Trees, and where do we live ?????? And what surrounds us ?????

We take each day as it comes with Ella, put the cream on her spots if and when they suddenly appear, and when they are unmanageble with the cream she goes straight on the anti biotics.

But the skin scrapings will give you a definite answer to the allergy question, as Ella's blood results said she wasnt allergic to grass but when we had the scrapings the grass was one of the ones that came up the worst.

Good luck and feel free to ask any questions.