Dog allergies any tips or advice?

[Mrs J]

Hi
Today I took my little french bulldog to our Vet, thinking he had an ear infection. It turns out he has allergies, which is causing the ear problems. £197 pounds later I left armed with Apoquel, dermacleanse shampoo and surolan ear drops, with a plan to keep him on Apoquel for the foreseeable future at £62 a month. I’m not a big fan of pumping medication etc into him and I was wondering if there is another option ie vitamins, herbal that work? Or has anyone encountered anything similar and has any tips or advice? Thanks in advance

 

[LizzzyJo]

Were they specific to the type of allergy? Maybe you could keep him away from those things or get an allergy filter in your home? I have heard that Frenchies are sickly little guys due to their breeding, maybe there are frenchie specific allergy boards online where you can get information?

 

[Mrs J]

Were they specific to the type of allergy? Maybe you could keep him away from those things or get an allergy filter in your home? I have heard that Frenchies are sickly little guys due to their breeding, maybe there are frenchie specific allergy boards online where you can get information?

Hi
Thanks for your reply he’s has always been really fit and healthy, we also have a saluki whippet and they charge around the fields chasing each other. I did ask our Vet about finding out what allergies he has, but he said the testing is a waste of money, it’s not always accurate, if we do food allergy testing, we would have to do it in 6 week blocks etc so he would give him something that will be effective for all allergies, I’ve never had any problems like this with our other dogs, I’ve done quite a bit of research today, but there is all kinds out there and I wouldn’t want him to suffer while I’m trying to find a “cure” I could also do without the big vet bills

 

[LaFleche]

You could start your own testing.

What do you usually feed him?

Allergies and ear infections etc. often are caused by thyroid problems. So you might want to have this checked first before spending such an amount of money on Apoquel, which might not even help in your case.

How old is your dog and what does he weigh? Apoquel is not to be used with dogs younger than one year of age or weighing less than 6 pounds.

 

[Mrs J]

You could start your own testing.

What do you usually feed him?

Hiii
We feed him Harrington’s dry food, he has dentistixs of a night at bed time, his treat is ice cubes…they all love them And he gets the occasional left over scraps, mainly veg or meat. He is 6yrs old. No breathing problems, snoring or anything.

 

[LaFleche]

Could you post a picture of the listed ingredients? And of the ingredients of the dentastixs too.

 

[tripletfeb]

I would personally start by eliminating grain from his diet. See how he does with that after a few weeks. Grain(esp corn) is a huge allergen in dogs. Watch the treats too, make sure they say grain free on the package

 

[Mrs J]

I would personally start by eliminating grain from his diet. See how he does with that after a few weeks. Grain(esp corn) is a huge allergen in dogs. Watch the treats too, make sure they say grain free on the package

Thank you I’m just checking the nutritional information on the Harrington’s and his dentistix

 

[Mrs J]

I have checked the food, it seems ok, but I could be missing something.

Also the dentistix we are using is a different brand to what we normally use, probably for the last 2-3 weeks. Looking at the ingredients, they contain cereals maybe this could be the problem?

 

[LaFleche]

I'd stop the dentastix, nothing good about them.

And even the kibble contains lots of cereals: rice, maize and barley. Maize and barley are just cheap and unhealthy fillers, that cause inflammation in a dog's digestive system.

How do his faeces look and smell? How about flatulence?

For testing, you could start feeding him home cooked meals consisting of cooked grated carrots, rice and some chicken meat (protein) for starters. Add some grated egg shells (1/" teaspoon) for calcium.
After one week of only feeding the above, add 1/2 teaspoon of linseed oil and wait another week before adding a new component to the meal, and so on.

Keep a diary about what you feed him and if/how he reacts. Best to thoroughly deworm him too.

It is quite time consuming, but the best you can do, as in commercial feed not all the ingredients will be listed and you will never really know what exactly is triggering him.