Labrador Allergy Photos

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Grey_Eventer

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Ive posted about our labs allergies previously but I wanted to post some photos to show you how bad it is.... they don't really show up very well as I took them tonight, so I will try and get some more in daylight, but her back paws are so so swollen and one seems to be weeping. She has been referred to a dermotologist and her appointment is on wednesday...guess how old she is? nearly 5 and it has taken us about 4 years to get to this appointment. She now has to wear a flower pot hat the whole time as if she doesn't she literally eats herself with nibbling/gnawing. Its horrible to watch. She drags her bum along the carpets the whole time and has some really awful scar tissue around her tail because of this. Biscuit (new puppy) has been so good for her, as we do try and take the hat off so she can clean herself, but as soon as she starts being excessive the puppy leaps on her and gets her to play. Anyway, enough rambling. Here are some photos:

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Weeping paw

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Both are swollen

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sore on her chin- actually look quite good at the moment, but a lot of scar tissue and always very itchy

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front leg

So there you go- the photos don't show how bad it really is, but if anyone has any ideas on what we can do to help her we would appreciate it so much! She is the most loveable dog in the world and is a real softie but she always seems upset/sad. :( She is currently off steroids due to dermatologist request but even when on them she was a similar badness (gr?!) if not worse at some points, although she didn't have weeping paws.
Shes had allergy tests and shes allergic to beef and grass- all types which basically means shes allergic to everything outside. It doesn't improve with winter, shes on all the dermatologic feed etc. etc. and weve tried the BEEFA (?) diet to not much success.
 
What food is that, she is on?

Is she on any anti-histamines?

Have you excluded EVERYTHING? I mean, if you have to keep her in a concrete kennel and throw her food on the floor, for a couple of weeks, at least it would show you if it is a contact/environmental allergy or an immune system/nervous thing.

Dogs can develop allergies to the simplest of things, carpets, household products (especially those containing pine) smoke, trees, grass, plastic bowls....we found one of the triggers for our dog was the fir trees which grow around here - because at the boarding kennels we use, everything was the same, except for the lack of fir trees, and he cleared right up.

Bless her, it sounds miserable. Been there, but for no longer than a few months, please, please, ask every question, push every way you can to get to the bottom of it - my dog had no hair at all from his chin to his tail, underneath, and on his paws, and we managed to crack it, fingers crossed for you x

We manage the dog by 4x Piriton a day, low protein, no grain food, Malaseb shampoo every couple of weeks and aloe vera on any hot spots that crop up.
 
SusieT said:
Have you tried AtopicA? What tests has she had? Has she been skin scraped?
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What is AtopicA? Shes had allergy tests (£500) told us shes allergic to beef and grass...vets didn't take these findings any further and she was put on steroids. Is skin scraping the same thing as this?

CaveCanem said:
What food is that, she is on?

Is she on any anti-histamines?

Have you excluded EVERYTHING? I mean, if you have to keep her in a concrete kennel and throw her food on the floor, for a couple of weeks, at least it would show you if it is a contact/environmental allergy or an immune system/nervous thing.

Dogs can develop allergies to the simplest of things, carpets, household products (especially those containing pine) smoke, trees, grass, plastic bowls....we found one of the triggers for our dog was the fir trees which grow around here - because at the boarding kennels we use, everything was the same, except for the lack of fir trees, and he cleared right up.

Bless her, it sounds miserable. Been there, but for no longer than a few months, please, please, ask every question, push every way you can to get to the bottom of it - my dog had no hair at all from his chin to his tail, underneath, and on his paws, and we managed to crack it, fingers crossed for you x

We manage the dog by 4x Piriton a day, low protein, no grain food, Malaseb shampoo every couple of weeks and aloe vera on any hot spots that crop up.
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Shes fed on Wafcol, and we have the malaseb shampoo and some other shampoo which ends in eze (can't remember the name!), shes also on 4x piriton a day and we have tried aloe vera but this had no affect, we also tried itch relief cream (human) which also had little effect.

We know its something in the area as when we went to Norfolk and Scotland she was fine. My horse also suffers from breathing problems whereas he didn't before so there is definitley something around us, we live very cloes to a RAF base so not sure if it could be the fumes from the planes or something.
Vet visit is today- THANK GOD. she went for our other dogs food this morning (old lab) and he had a good growl at her- thankfully no fight broke out but I did have to scream at them and then told her to go to her bed. Its horrible because that isn't the real B, but the pain shes in is making her act very horrible- she now snatches food from us, she eats her food very very quickly but she like dives at it- can't describe it very well and shes just generally not comfortable which makes her badly behaved and we do try to keep her in check, but like this morning our poor old lab had clearly had enough. thankfully both ok and puppy just ran away!
 
You need to try baby shampoo before using the Malaseb - Malaseb is a good treatment but can leave an itchy scum unless you pre-shampoo before applying the treatment.

What wash powder do you use on those blankets? Even if you haven't changed brands different water can affect the chemistry.

Does she never pick up any other food? one toast crumb can set of an allergy if wheat is part of the problem.
Which Wafcol is she on?
 
s4sugar said:
You need to try baby shampoo before using the Malaseb - Malaseb is a good treatment but can leave an itchy scum unless you pre-shampoo before applying the treatment.

What wash powder do you use on those blankets? Even if you haven't changed brands different water can affect the chemistry.

Does she never pick up any other food? one toast crumb can set of an allergy if wheat is part of the problem.
Which Wafcol is she on?
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I didn't know about the baby shampoo before the Malaseb- we will try that out.
We use one thats specifically for horse/dog bedding/rugs etc.
Shes on the salmon and potato wafcol adult stuff...
We generally don't drop food- were as careful as possible and hoover as much as possible. I don't know if wheat was one of the things on her allergies- can't remember... :S
 
I would try a different wash solution - one specifically for babies and then an extra rinse.
Actually I would get some pure cotton sheets, rinse them several times and use them over the blankets too.

Allergies are strange things - my skin gets similar lesions after contact with neoprene and as I'm handling dog shampoos & kennel cleansers daily I have to be alert which products I go near.
I have have many successes with dogs with problems like yours coming into the kennels. Two weeks away from carpets can give a huge improvement.
 
s4sugar said:
I would try a different wash solution - one specifically for babies and then an extra rinse.
Actually I would get some pure cotton sheets, rinse them several times and use them over the blankets too.

Allergies are strange things - my skin gets similar lesions after contact with neoprene and as I'm handling dog shampoos & kennel cleansers daily I have to be alert which products I go near.
I have have many successes with dogs with problems like yours coming into the kennels. Two weeks away from carpets can give a huge improvement.
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Where are you based? We are desperate for anything to work :(
Ill go and buy some cotton sheets and see if that helps. Have you ever tried a non-allergenic bed? do they work/help?
 
Grey_Eventer said:
Where are you based? We are desperate for anything to work :(
Ill go and buy some cotton sheets and see if that helps. Have you ever tried a non-allergenic bed? do they work/help?
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I use vetbeds - wash at hottest with a tiny amount of fairy.

Carpets & the treatments on them are a major allergen.
 
Atopica is an expensive, but often very effective drug, might be worth asking your vet regarding it. Is she insured?
Skin scrapes aren't part of allergy testing but are normally done before allergy testing-as this could equally be caused by parasites!
 
VERY helpful vet appointment yesterday with a fab vet- basically no BS and just getting on with it.
The diagnosis is sever allergic dermatitis with secondary bacterial infection so the plan is to wash her all over with malaseb, shes on antibiotics at the moment for the bacteria and this has already seemed to have made some improvements as she isn't trying to itch non stop and is out in the garden in the sun. Basically the dose of steroids she was on was a quarter of what she needs to be on for her level of itchyness. The vet said on a scale of 1-10 of itchyness shes 11 poor girl :( But were getting it sorted and this vet seems really very good. So fingers crossed were going to be able to manage this for the future :)
 
Supertrooper said:
Skin disease is always a nightmare to get on top of!! I assume the vets have ruled out sarcoptes or demodex mites??
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Yup, everything else ruled out and definitley a skin disease, so although its not a great diagnosis in the sense that its a nightmare, at least we know for sure what were dealing with. She seems to be better on the antibiotics, still itching but nowhere near as manic as she was before so thats good.
 
I would put her onto Promeris spot on fortnightly for six weeks to absolutely rule out any mites of any sort. No dried foods whatever and stick strictly to a home made version avoiding her allergens.An excellent product that has cured many a skin thing is KernelCoat on the food daily.
For topical use I swear by Povidine/betadine dilute washes..standing those feet and legs in it to soak,any fungal/bacterial stuff will be stopped in their tracks.Do it daily for a week and monitor the results.
 
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