anti-allergy injections-should i persevere?

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missieh

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My Newfie is 6 1/2 and been having these for the last couple of years. Doesn't seem to make much difference recently as still frequent itching particularly feet and a few other hot spots. On Aurizon for ears and steroids every couple of months. Fuciderm for feet when they get bad but anti-everything feet bsths. Vet is now talking about Atopica (sp!), but very expensive apparently. She is insured but it already costs me £55 per month and is up for renewal in December. Any experience re abandoning the injections/atopica?? She now has fish4dogs and hadn't made much difference although food was not an allergen...just everything else...
 
Atopica is meant to be very good.
Would you consider going raw or a raw type diet like DUCK or Natural Instinct or Prize Choice?
Personally speaking if you are paying through the nose for something that is not working, then I would not bother.
I take it you have had a full allergy work-up? Discounted EVERYTHING in her environment? Second opinion?

My dog's triggers are pollen/tree pollen/pine trees (we live in a pine forest *sigh*) and high levels of protein and the bacteria on his own skin, which is caused by all of the above, he is on a low protein food (for oldies, he is only four) Epiotic for his ears once a week or fortnight, four Piriton a day and occasional Malaseb baths. He is relatively stable (had a blip last month when mumsie bought the wrong food, grr!)
 
yes, she had a thorough analysis and is allergic to lots in the house and outside. Controlled what i can inside, but things like dust mites are hard to eliminate. Would consider raw. Is yours on piriton permanently? I gather atopica is a low level antiinflammatory. Does it always work do you know?
 
I think KellysHeroes on here has experience with Atopica.
I would say my fella will be on anti-histamines for life, bearing in mind the environment around here. I ran out a few months ago and decided to see if he would be alright without, after a couple of weeks of them going out of his system, he was itching again.
Similarly, he only has to be on the wrong food for about two weeks and he is off again.
I changed vets because I was unhappy with the constant pushing of steroids, new vet is a firefighter as opposed to a mopper-upper and the dog has stabilised immensely as a result.
 
Hi - always around for an itchy dog thread! ;)

Our late shepherd, God bless her, cost us about £8,000 in a total of 10 years of itchiness. Began when she was 2 and she reacted to 48 out of 50 patch tests which they performed - house dust mites, grass, pollen, hay, straw, you name it, she had it. She had large bald patches all over her, and we had to keep her belly and armpits clipped right down to allow air flow which seemed to make a little difference.
We had Malaseb shampoo and a Malacetic spray for her coat.

We tried natural diet - it gave her the squits and made no difference to her itchies.
Went onto the vaccines and I hear what you're saying they're so expensive and we perservered for maybe 6 months (one injection a month) and nothing changed - our vets did say that they don't always take well, but when they do work they're brilliant.

We started on Atopica - from what I understand its a low level immune system suppressor and works by basically 'dampening down' the allergen response (it inhibits T lymphocytes, for more technical terms! ;)) This DOES mean that your dog is slightly more susceptible to infection but if boosters etc are up to date, there's no problem (Tara never had an issue). Certain things do counteract e.g, most vets aren't happy administering Kennel Cough vaccines to a dog which is on Atopica; I presume because of the immune system levels.
She started on a rather high level of Atopica (I vaguely remember it being about £5 per tablet, although I may be wrong!), steroids and antibiotics to break the itch-bite-scratch cycle and it was hell for a few years - she ended up having laser surgery on her elbows, with suspected Pseudomonas (luckily it wasn't) and being seen every few months by a dermatologist, we were very close to losing her maybe 4 years ago.

However, towards the end (we lost her 3 weeks ago) she was on the dose a mildly irritated Cocker Spaniel would be on, no steroids no ABs. Vets were amazed - please bear in mind, she wasn't a text book dog, everything with her had to be different, or challenging!! Most dogs go onto Atopica have a few odd weeks and then settle down - for us, it was the best thing we ever did putting her on it.


I hope this helps in some way and if you want to ask anything else, feel free :)
K x
 
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Hiya,

Never had a dog on Atopica as turned out she had bigger issues so was put down-but from my research it's incredibly expensive (something like £5 a tablet), but you start on one a day, then one every two days, then every three days etc until you get to a level where they are stabilised.

I've never heard anyone have a bad word to say about it-except COST! but insurance do cover.

Hope it works for your dog xx
 
If dust mites etc are a factor then that may be another advantage to going down the raw food route...no matter how careful you are with dry food storage mites are hard to avoid completely.

The Atopica is definitely worth considering. As KellysHeroes says it works by suppressing the immune system - and it is expensive especially at the higher doses and in a big dog - but it can make an enormous difference.

Good luck with getting her sorted out :)
 
Oh bless you :( as CC says you will get there lots of us have been through it. Its difficult but its just trial and error and unfortunately that takes time :(
Please feel free to PM at any time if you want to x
K x
 
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