My poor boy wolf

blackcob

blackcob

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20 March 2007
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This dog can't catch a break, can he? He started with a snotty nose again last week despite being on antihistamines (two types) since the last infection he had. I thought he was a bit quiet this morning but he was keen for a walk so thought nothing of it. I've just looked up at him to find that one side of his poor snout is all swollen. :eek:

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He has both pollen and house dust mite allergies, was sneezing up rusty thick snot last time he had an infection and was on antibiotics for eight weeks to knock it on the head. The swelling is a new one though. :confused: Managed to get him booked in at 4pm but not with his usual vet, fingers crossed there...
 
Have you looked into having immunotherapy vaccines? I presume you've have blood tests to find out what your dogs allergies are? They can put upto 10 allergens in each vial and to start with they are given in small doses and with short intervals between, then eventually its normally 1ml of vaccine monthly. We use axiom's vaccines and see really good results. xxxxxxx Its not cheap but it might be worth seeing if it helps.

xxxxxx
 
My horse chiro swears by acupuncture to rid her of her hay fever allergies, don't know if that might help? Poor doggy :(
 
He's had a whole battery of blood tests over the months (he has urinary ishoos as well so has been tested for pretty much everything at one time or another) and came back positive to house dust mite (severely so, can't remember the figures) and pollen to a lesser extent.

Obviously it's impossible to eliminate either of those, all bedding and sofas are encased in mite-proof covers, regular Indorex spraying etc. but he's basically allergic to both the house and the outdoors. :o

The vet did mention something about a vaccine last time but warned that it was very costly and he personally hadn't had a great success rate with it - at the time he was improving on antibiotics so we didn't give any more thought to it, will discuss it with them again today, thanks. :)
 
Our insurance covers alternative therapies so acupuncture could be a goer. :)

Frankly I'd try anything at the moment, poor lad has been variously leaking wee or choking on snot about 50% of the time we've had him, we've got some serious races booked in this season and he just will not be fit or well enough to compete if we can't get this sorted, never mind the day to day misery of him being full of snot. :(

ETA: The swelling has increased even since I posted, have had a good poke around inside his mouth, no pain or anything there, it wouldn't be an abscess would it? He has no gum disease or tartar.
 
He couldn't have been stung could he? With his history you are bound to think of it being allergy related, but normally a sting would be my first thought with a swelling like that.
 
A sting could be the cause actually, I wouldn't have thought of that.

Either that, or the hay fever thing my OH has (after having all the drugs and steroids over the years) is these, could maybe work for a dog - they desensitise the histamine producers in the back of the nose, is our anatomy similar enough?! lol

Sticking the prongs up a dogs nose oculd be tricky? Think my OH got it from boots, about £15

http://www.davita-shop.co.uk/shop/light-therapy/ir-light-anti-allergy-device/rhinofit.html
 
Poor lad. In a way, I hope it is just a sting or something easily resolved.

For his house mite allergy, do you have to be super clean around the house?
 
I hope it is something as simple as a sting but it's too much of a coincidence that he started filling up with snot again last week? Plus the one time I saw him be stung by a wasp he screamed like a thing possessed. :o

We (try) to be super clean CT, windows are open all year round, hoover with HEPA filter daily, all dog bedding and sofa cushions encased in miteproof covers, outer covers all washed at 100c once a fortnight, damp dusting every other day, shifting out beds/sofas to hoover and dust behind every few weeks and so on. House is doused in Indorex every couple of months. Obviously with two hairy shedding dogs in a small house it's a bit futile. :(

As soon as we can move they will be kenelled outside, I'm praying we can find somewhere with a tiled utility room to be the 'dog room' that we can wipe down every day and have access to an outside run from there, it would be ideal.
 
poor boy :( Hope the vet can sort him out and he gets better quickly. He does deserve a break the poor lad.
 
If it's any help the only thing Jakey's allergy responded to was nasal steroids, basically an inhaler. They don't have the same nasty side-effects as oral steroids so he can take them long term with no problems.

I remember Jakey had had a barage of tests to rule out foreign objects, infection, tumour and fungal problems before they diagnoses unspecified allergies by default! However the steroids worked really well and when he got too congested a bit of anti-mucoid helped open up the passages so the nasal steroids had a chance (if you want to give this a try and your vet is OK I have a huge tub of anti-mucoid left over I can send you).
 
He had some of the decongestant stuff last time Booboos, not quite so thick and gunky this time but thank you for the offer. :) He also had the full barrage of tests, camera up the snout to rule out tumours and foreign objects etc., then the bloodwork came back and confirmed the allergies. Poor lad has had cameras in several sensitive orifices. :eek:

Anyway, visit resulted in a steroid injection and week's worth of the same antibiotics that knocked it last time. Vet (it was our usual good vet in the end, hurrah!) said that he's had all of his usual allergic dogs in this past week, all the itchy-skin-pollen dogs, and that perhaps his swollen snoot was just another symptom of his ever present allergies. He had a little bit of a temperature as well. He's got to go back on Friday if the swelling hasn't gone down but hopefully it will and the anti-b's will just help give his immune system a bit of a break from the pollen/mite barrage.

Might not make our show on Sunday, I'll have to take my non prize winning dog with the dodgy conformation. :p
 
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