After a long journey to uncover the reasons why Maddie has been itching and scratching herself, and us, to near insanity we seem to have landed on an approach that has been working for the last 6 months.

First to recap.

The first phase was the elimination diet.

Which was accompanied by trying to use Benadryl to cure the scratching.

There was the Cushings scare.

And let’s not forget the Atopica treatments.

Finally we went for the dog allergy blood test.

And learned that Maddie was most allergic to us!

So, I did what any die hard dog owner would do, I ordered the serum that would allow me to give Maddie the allergy shots that she needed to hopefully desensitize her to the things she was most allergic to.

After getting a short lesson in how to administer shots to my dog I faithfully went home and started the process.

And it lasted for ONE DAY.

Why?

After I read all the accompanying documentation and learned that the success rate was under 60%, and that these shots could possibly be a part of our regular routine FOREVER I simply couldn’t commit to the challenge.

So here is where we are as of this writing:

Maddie remains on Royal Canin limited ingredient food – both wet and dry.

She is on an antihistamine, Hydroxzine 25 mg, which she takes once or twice per day.

In addition she is on a low dose of  Medrol 2 mg – a steroid that she takes 2-3 times per week.

Also, we find that Maddie is one of these dogs that really doesn’t do a great job of expressing her own anal glands so I make sure that this is done at least once per month.

And heaven help us if she gets a flea bite as that will assuredly lead to a hot spot – so we make sure her flea meds are given monthly.

Lastly, as you have likely read that her #1 allergen is Human Dander, we make sure to keep our bed linens as clean as possible.

So far we are doing fairly well and although Maddie does have occasional flair-ups her condition is under control for the time being.

Meanwhile, her brother Oliver has never had an ichy day in his life.

Luck of the pound puppy draw I guess…..

So it has been another 5 weeks since I started the amended elimination diet with Maddie.

Today the vet and I had our call to evaluate the progress.

Note that I called her today for a few very specific reasons:

1. Venison roast at $10.99 a pound is not sustainable for this family’s budget
2. I have boiled and chopped enough potatoes to feed the National Army of Kazakhstan (pretty flag, no?)
3. Last night, for the 5th (or was it 50th) night in a row Maddie has awakened me licking and scratching her vulva and accompanying regions

The conversation went something like this:

Doc: How’s the scratching?

Me: On the margins somewhat better but she still wakes me up scratching.

Doc: Next step would be an allergy test.

Now at this point I am waiting for her to describe the scratch test. You know the one where they inject small amounts of the allergen and monitor the bumps that form.

But noooooooo……

Me: So the scratch test right?

Doc: No, they now have a blood test that looks at 40 different allergens and it is specific to Southern California (grasses, plants, etc.)

Me: How long have they had that test?

Doc: About 15 years.

What? Wait. WAIT! I have been doing the whole elimination diet thing as a way to try to figure out what is causing Maddie (and me) to be miserable and to save the $1800 plus dollars for allergy testing.

Me: So how much is the blood test?

Doc: $231.00

Me: WHAT? WHY DIDN’T YOU TELL ME THIS $231 TEST WAS AVAILABLE BEFORE I FED THE ENTIRE ARMY OF KAZAKSTAN POTATOES AND VENISON???!!!

Maddie went for her $231 allergy blood test today.

The results are back in two weeks.

My money on still on the fact she is allergic to the cat.

It’s been six weeks since I started Maddie on the elimination diet in the hopes of controlling her itching and scratching.

And for that six week period I have been diligently making the food mention in Dog Food Allergy Elimination Diet.

Maddie loved it.

Could not wait to eat.

Licked the design off the bowl!

Yesterday it was time for a chat with the vet to discuss the progress of the diet. It was during this discussion that she asked exactly what I was making.

As soon as I said ‘chicken’, she interrupted to inform me that chicken is the number one protein that causes allergic reactions in dogs.

What?

You mean that was six weeks of cooking dog food for no results?!

She went on to tell me that the true elimination diet had either duck, rabbit or venison as the source of protein.

And, no, chicken would not work.

Well I don’t know where you live but duck, rabbit and venison are not real prevalent in my local supermarket.

The vet suggested that Pinto beans are a great source of protein and that I could substitution a meat protein with Pinto’s.

Faithfully I remade the recipe mentioned above and replaced the chicken with Pinto beans. It was actually easier to make since there was no chicken to cook.

I dished out a batch to Maddie and instead of licking the bowl clean she looked at me with an expression that simply said “Really? You expect me to eat this?”

So there I am with a HUGE pot of potatoes, pumpkin, peas and Pinto beans with a dog that has no interest in eating any of it.

So I start to Google local meat markets to see if they had duck, rabbit, or venison.

Fortunately I found a shop up the steet that sells venison patties.

So I microwaved (sorry folks, that the method of cooking I’m left to after this fiasco) the patties, poured the juice into the pot, and crumbled in the venison.

Whoa! Home run!

She loved it.

Only 4 more weeks of this until the next vet discussion.

You watch. It will turn out that she isn’t allergic to any food – she’ll turn out to be allergic to the cat!

Previously I’ve shared the challenges of Maddie and her rather recent flair up of scratching.

Last week, while I was at the vet for the cat I asked the doctor about food allergies.

Mind you, I’m no rookie when it comes to dogs that can’t stop licking, scratching, creating hot spots, or otherwise making themselves, and me, miserable.

This time out the vet and I spoke about diets that would help to eliminate the causes of food allergies that Maddie might be experiencing.

In the past I was used to switching the overly aggressive scratcher, or a dog who was suffering from gastrointestinal issues, to a diet of only boiled chicken and whole grain rice.

The doctor explained that a true elimination diet would consist of a protein, namely rabbit or venison, and a starch, potato. This limited diet would be fed for 6-8 weeks after which we should be able to determine if the scratching had stopped.

She recommended Royal Canin Limited Ingredient food.

Knowing that the likelihood of Maddie liking this concoction was slim I still bought 6 cans of the rabbit formula. At $2.91 per can I already knew that, even if she adored it, it was a not an affordable alternative for the next 6 weeks – but I committed to giving her a taste.

As I suspected the reception was, well, unenthusiastic.

You know when you feed your dog something and they look at you with expression that says, “That’s it? That’s the best you’ve got?”

I knew it was time to make my own ‘limited ingredient’ batch of food.

Here’s what I made:

• 2 packages Trader Joe’s frozen chicken breasts (approximately 20 breasts)
• 2 – 13 oz. cans of Libby’s Pure Pumpkin (note that this is not the garbage filling that you make pumpkin pie out of)
• 8 medium Russet potatoes
• 3 tablespoons of olive oil (I’m not sure of this was the right amount as I think a bit more would have also been o.k.)

Boil the chicken until cooked. Then, in the same water as the chicken boiled in, boil the potatoes.

It’s important not to boil the potatoes too much. The cut potato should be able to hold a firm ½ inch dicing without crumbling.

The chicken was chopped until fine in a mini Cuisinart food processor.

In the same pot that the ingredients boiled in, after the water has been removed, mix the chicken, potato chunks, olive oil and the two cans of pumpkin together.

As all of this was being cooked Maddie stood by my side trying to control her excitement and the drool.

When I served it to her I thought she was going to eat the bowl that it was served in!

We’re on day three of the diet and it’s clear that I need to make more.

I’ll keep you posted on the results.

flickr credit

As if one dog in the house was not enough fun, recently we added a second.

Meet Maddie.

As a rescue from the Orange County Animal Shelter (aka Death Row), she was in beat up condition when I rescued her. Not that she was injured per se – she had just had a rough life to that point.

Since she was a rescue of course there is no way to plan for any of the health concerns that might be plaguing her. After all the shelter simply guesses her age, does a cursory health examine and then either adopts her out or kills her.

For the first 3 months of her time in our house Maddie was as normal as most rescue dogs could hope to be.

Tired, scared and simply getting used to her new surroundings.

At about that three month mark she began to get skin rashes.

And then she began to scratch.

And then she began to lick her vulva.

Multiple trips to the vet have yielded the following insights:

1. Through a couple of courses of antibiotics the rash has gone away – and mostly stayed away. As a result it does not appear that her scratching was being caused by a single incident skin ailment, such as a run in with a pack of hungry fleas or contact with a plant like poison oak.

2. After an unsuccessful course of steroids I determined that a bitchy, thirsty, constantly peeing dog (who was still learning house training) was not the right solution.

3. The food she is eating is top of the line. She and her partner in crime, Oliver, only eat Evo or Merrick. Recently they have also added Homemade Doggy Dinners to the mix. This recent addition has had no effect either way regarding her scratching and licking.

4. She gets shampooed once per week with either earthbath Tea Tree Oil & Aloe Vera or earthbath Oatmeal & Aloe. These baths seem to calm down the scratching and licking for a day or two but not more.

5. She is on a 25mg dose of Benadryl per day. Maddie is a, how do I say it, nasally dog. She sounds like she needs to clear her throat and cough up a phlegm ball. It seems that this treatment is helping – if only on the margins.

Our most recent trip to the vet ended with her suggesting that Maddie had allergies of varying varieties. And, like humans, those allergies can manifest themselves in a host of ways.

Scratchy throat, watery eyes, runny nose, skin itches, ear itches and eye itches can all be signs of allergies in people.

All of these and itchy vulva, ear irritation, skin irritation and more are signs of allergies in dogs.

The worst part about her scratching and licking, for both of us, is the fact that for some reason it is worse at night and Maddie sleeps on our bed. That means that at least once per night I wake up to the sound of a dog aggressively licking her vulva and scratching herself. Needless to say it irritates me and it is making her miserable to.

Hopefully we’ll get to the bottom of her skin allergy issues soon. I need the sleep and I’m not sure her poor vulva can take anymore of the licking!

Over the last 6 months Annie (pictured at right) has been in, what we thought, was a simple aggravating battle with skin allergies. Just another annoying case of dog allergies that often plague our pets, right?

Her symptoms at various times were:

• chewing herself, primarily around her rump
• dandruff which would not be washed away
• skin pustules: small round spots all over her back that would flake, turn red, and then potentially bleed and get infected
• increased water intake
• increased food intake
• abdominal enlargement

We explored solutions that included:

• testing her diet for allergic reactions by eliminating treats, canned food and dry kibble and moving to a rice and ground turkey diet
• periodic treatments with prednisone – steroids
• ten day doses of Cipro – antibiotic
• medicated shampoos

While most of these provided some form of temporary relief, none of these resulted in sustainable solutions to Annie’s problems.

Shortly after the loss of our Golden Retriever we decided to get more aggressive with finding out what was causing these outbreaks.

Annie was taken to a veterinary practice that specialized in animal dermatology and was given a blood workup, to check liver value, along with biopsies of 3 of the skin sores. The results showed signs of Cushing’s disease. As a follow up, and to confirm the diagnosis, an ACTH Stimulation Test was performed.

This lead to a positive diagnosis for Cushing’s disease.

In order to identify whether the disease was caused by a tumor on the adrenal gland, 20% of cases, or over secretion of ACTH by the pituitary gland, 80% of cases, additional testing was required. There are a number of possible tests including an abdominal ultrasound to determine the size of both of the adrenal glands and to compare the glands against each other.

Abdominal ultrasound is helpful in three respects. First, it is a good test to evaluate all of the abdominal organs in the dog. Secondly, it is used to study the size and shape of the adrenal glands. The adrenal glands in pituitary dependent Cushing’s are usually normal in size or enlarged. If a tumor is present however, one adrenal gland is often abnormally large or of uneven shape. Finally, if a tumor is suspected, ultrasound can help identify any metastasis to other organs.

In Annie’s case the ultrasound had good news…..and bad.

The good news was that the root cause of the disease was not based on a tumor on her adrenal gland.

The bad news is that during the ultrasound a mass was detected on her spleen

Splenic tumors are treated as a fairly serious condition as the spleen can rupture due to the mass and causes massive bleeding. This meant Annie would need immediate surgery to have her spleen removed, a splenectomy.

The operation was complicated as the mass had grown in a star shaped pattern over and around her spleen. The fortunate news is that no other organs appeared to be affected by the mass.

The patient is resting comfortably as we nervously await the results of the biopsy that was performed on the mass to determine if it will be benign or malignant.

All dog owners are recommended to have their dogs properly evaluated by veterinary professional for root causes to allergy symptoms. What may appear to be one heath issue related to dog allergies may reveal another issue that may save your dogs life.

Years ago when I was a kid my parents send me to an allergist to get allergy shots. This was an effort to cure mold, mildew and ragweed allergies.

Now as a ‘parent’ of Annie I am tempted to try allergy shots to cure her dog allergies. So just as people have this treatment, so can pets. The process, however, is not without difficulty and one should not expect hypo-sensitization to end all itchy skin concerns.

• Allergy shots take time to work. It is not uncommon for results to take 6 to 12 months
• Not all dogs will respond. In fact 25% of atopic dogs will not – they are frequently the gogs that are allergic to multiple allergens
• Up to 25% of dogs will require the steroid prednisone at some point during the course of treatment
• You will have to be prepared to administer the allergy shot yourself

Is Your Pet A Viable Candidate?

Testing is best done during your dogs non-itchy season. This is so that the skin responses of the test will not be influenced by any active inflammation.

In order to test, a small amount of allergen extracts are injected into the skin. Reactions from these injections are then are compared to reactions produced by two control groups (injections that are sure to produce results): pure histamine which is extremely inflammatory and pure saline which is not very non-inflammatory).

The proper outcome for these tests will be incumbent upon following a medication withholding schedule. Your dog may not have:

• had any Depomedrol injections over the last 8 week period
• received Vetalog injections over the last 6 weeks
• been administered Antihistamines over the last 1 week
• received a Topical steroid for 1 week
• ingested Oral steroids for 4 weeks

Note that these are requirements from one board certified dermatologist – other dermatologists may have other requirements. Further, it is useful to have ruled out dog food allergies with an elimination diet trial prior to the skin test as food allergies/intolerance responds much more rapidly to diet correction than atopy does to hypo-sensitization.

Interestingly both food allergy and atopic dermatitis present a similar pattern of itchiness and can be difficult to distinguish from one another.

For complete options about treating your dogs allergies call your local trusted veterinarian.

Recently, as in the last 12 month or so, our dog has developed really painful and annoying itching, scratching, chewing and skin rash issues. During this time we have tried medicated shampoos, endless courses of antibiotic treatments, steroid therapy, and now vegetarian dog food.

We arrived at this new food experiment during research of traditional dog food.

As you are likely aware dog food contains any number of left over animal parts that are not appropriate for human consumption. As well, manufacturers are not required to list ingredients on their packaging so there is simply no way to know what you are feeding your beloved pet.

The home made food choice was not recommended by our vet as the exclusive nutrition source, even when supplemented by Pet Tabs. Although the combination of ground turkey, whole grain rice and eggs proved delicious to our dog, we remained concerned about her overall health.

Enter vegetarian dog food manufactured by Royal Canin. The ingredients are clearly labeled and include:

• oat flour
• brewers rice
• potato protein
• canola oil
• yeast culture
• tomato pomace
• beet pulp
• flax seed

and approximately 30 other ingredients. This is fed in combination with the aforementioned turkey and rice combination and the mixture receives two paws up from our dog. In the search for remedies to dog allergies, vegetarian dog food is a helpful alternative to standard food choices.

Annie had been scratching like crazy. She was trying so hard to get to the base of her tail that she was spinning around in circles!

We had heard that there was a process called an elimination diet that would help determine if the food she was eating currently would be causing her allergies. During our research we learned that one of the problems with trying to determine if food allergies are present is that dogs are usually allergic to only one ingredient, or to a small number of ingredients and not to the whole diet.

This means that the real challenge becomes isolating the food that is really causing the problem.

Historically the way to determine the root cause, which ingredient, was to move to a simple diet that would not often be found in traditional dog food. The reason is you need to make sure your dog has not already been sensitized to a particular food. The most frequent choice was lamb and rice. Unfortunately these two ingredients are now found in common dog food so the combination is less likely to help determine an allergy.

Alternately there are more exotic choices like ostrich meat, duck, venison, rabbit, alligator used in combination with potato and peas. Note that use of these diet components over the long term without supplemental calcium or vitamins is not a wise idea. Short term use in adult dogs should be OK.

If signs of allergies disappear while your dog is on the diet, which can take 8 weeks or more, then it can be assumed that a food allergy is likely present.

Over time you can add back in one ingredient into the diet to see of the symptoms reappear. These would include beef, chicken, milk, corn, wheat, etc.
Future diets should exclude these ingredients if after having been added back they are found to cause a return of symptoms.

Annie loves treats and like most people with dogs we enjoy giving them to her. We have cooked her dog food when we thought she was suffering from allergies and needed to get her away from store bought cans. We couldn’t help but think that there were foods that we should not be feeding her. In fact there is the risk of your dog not getting the proper nutrition from the home cooked meal.

Worse though is that some foods we as humans love are in fact dangerous to dogs.

Unfortunately dogs love the flavor of chocolate, just like so many humans. The reason this is unfortunate is that in sufficient doses it is lethally toxic to dogs. Chocolate contains the chemical stimulant theobromine that together with caffeine and theophylline, belongs to the group of methylxanthine alkaloids. Dogs are unable to metabolize theobromine effectively. If dogs eat chocolate the theobromine can remain in their bloodstreams for up to 20 hours and can result in:

• accelerated heart rate

• hallucinations

• severe diarrhea

• epileptic seizures

• heart attack

• internal bleeding

• eventual death.

If your dog, especially smaller breeds, should eat chocolate, contact a veterinarian or animal poison control immediately; it is frequently recommended to induce vomiting within two hours of ingestion. Larger breeds are less susceptible to poisoning from chocolate, but still are far less tolerant of the substance and therefore it should be avoided.

Note: Many pet gourmet stores sell carob treats. These are not related to chocolate and are safe.

Other foods and their potential interactions are:

• grapes and raisins can cause acute kidney failure in dogs

• onions, and to a lesser extent garlic, contain thiosulfate which causes hemolytic anemia in dogs. Thiosulfate levels are unaffected by cooking or processing. Small puppies have died of hemolytic anemia after being fed baby food containing onion powder. Garlic is also known to cause diarrhea and vomiting

• macadamia nuts have been found to cause stiffness, tremors, hyperthermia, and abdominal pain.

• alcoholic beverages pose problems for dogs just as to humans. A drunken dog displays behavior similar to that of an intoxicated person. Beer presents its own issues.

• Hops, a primary beer ingredient, can cause a condition called malignant hyperthermia in dogs, usually with fatal results. Hops should be kept away from all dogs. Even small amounts of hops can trigger a potentially deadly reaction

• Xylitol is a sugar substitute used in chewing gum, chewable vitamins, candy, toothpaste, and other products. Toxic or fatal liver damage may result

• Dogs can have food allergies just like humans do. This is particular to the individual dog and not of the species as a whole. Just as humans may be allergic to seafood, dogs may have an allergy to seafood

• Dogs should avoid eating the pits of fruits like peaches and apricots, they can get cyanide poisoning due to cyanogenic glycosides.

Needless to say there are many potential downsides to giving your beloved pup too many unfamiliar human treats.

Perhaps the best suggestion is to stick with store bought treats.