German Shepherd with terrible allergies, nothing is working, what have you done to help your dogs with allergies?

[johnfish211]

My 9 year old GSD has been having terrible allergies for the past 4-5 years. She chews up her legs to the point where she bleeds and gets infections. She’s also been on steroids for so long and she keeps drinking too much water and peeing in the house.

We started with Benadryl, which made her sleepy but she was still itchy. We’ve tried her on apoquel, which never worked. We’ve tried her on Temaril-P, which semi-worked, and then a mixture of cytopoint and temaril-P, and the cytopoint worked at first, but it also seems like its effectiveness has been dwindling. She was even in a cone for a long long time but eventually she figured out how to chew around the cone, but so far it’s been the most effective.

She’s on a specific food that won’t give her diarrhea, but I’m wondering if we should try something new? Her allergies are year round.
I was even thinking of maybe getting her a doggie onesie so it would be harder to chew her legs. Should we bathe her more? Sometimes It helps but sometimes it makes it worse. I’m at a complete loss as to what to do because she’s so miserable in the cone but she keeps chewing up her legs.

 

[keb1990]

@johnfish211 My dog had a bad allergies for a while and it turned out that he's allergic to chicken and wheat. Switched his food and now he's a happy boy.

A surprising number of dogs are allergic to poultry.

 

[gladysrivera]

@johnfish211 My dog does the same thing. Also 9. She has food allergies, so I would visit a dog dermatologist. A blood test can tell you exactly what she's allergic to and then you can feed her/medicate her appropriately.

 

[brodri91]

@johnfish211 Ask your vet about derm defense or z/d food.
Also, allergy testing.

 

[pmichel]

@johnfish211 You should ask for a referral to a board certified veterinary dermatologist. They can figure out what your dog is allergic to (if environmental) and formulate an allergy medication that is specific to your dog's needs. They can also guide you further on coping with the allergies with a combination of medications and topicals. A food allergy is less likely given her age of onset, but you could also do a hydrolyzed food trial to rule out food allergies.

Find a dermatologist here: https://www.acvd.org/tools/locator/locator.asp?ids=16_Find_Dermatologist

 

[iphonetrabaohanh]

@johnfish211 No use in your situation, but might help someone else who finds this post: when there's a lot of pollen in the air our dog starts having eye issues and we give him a human telfast (Fexofenadine Hydrochloride). According to our vet they don't help dogs very often but they are safe to use when they do.

 

[refei]

@johnfish211 Sounds like food. Have you tried grain free? Tested for allergies?

 

[timmaboy97]

@johnfish211 I know a GSD who has the same issue, they tried everything and so I told them to try Addiction kangaroo as almost a last resort, and they said they noticed a HUGE difference within the two week transition period. Maybe worth a try?

 

[mfinnergab]

@johnfish211 So a couple questions to start:

Do you know what the allergies are, or at least whether they are dietary or environmental?

What food are you feeding her? If it’s a dietary issue and the vet recommended a food (most likely a “prescription”) I’m going to have to guess it’s doing more of nothing, or even hindering, rather than helping. Unfortunately most vets don’t have very good nutritional education and often prescribe things based on what food company reps tell them, rather than what is actually biologically appropriate for the animal.

As far as bathing is concerned it may help or hinder, depending on the root of the problem. A normal dog shouldn’t really be bathed more than about once a month, but special cases call for different frequencies. It’s likely that your pup would benefit from some spa service, whether it’s a mud bath, hypoallergenic, or whatever would be most appropriate for the condition.

 

[chesterthesecond]

@johnfish211 My dog's allergies aren't that bad, but she scratches to the point of baldness. Putting her on a limited ingredient food really helped. I don't think apoquel made much of a difference. We've been giving her Brewer's yeast which helps too. We also tried out another allergy medicine, I think it was generic Claritin but check with a veterinarian of course. We also do frequent(every two weeks or weekly off she's having an itchy spell) baths and use a 'rinse' which has oatmeal and salicylic acid in it which helps.

 

[dom_williams]

@johnfish211 Atopica

 

[ready2thrive]

@johnfish211 Hi, I know that post is really old, but I having the same problem with my 1.5 year old GSD. Did you find any solution?

 

[johnfish211]

@ready2thrive Claritin ended up working pretty well for her and cytopoint shots, but it had to be very regular (4 weeks) and Claritin twice a day I believe.

 

[ready2thrive]

@johnfish211 Thank you

 

[johnfish211]

@ready2thrive I would also look into switching up her food. What have you tried so far?

 

[ready2thrive]

@johnfish211 Right now she is on Monge hypoallergenic also she was on royal canin anallergenic for 3-4 months

 

[johnfish211]

@ready2thrive I know it’s not always recommended but grain free did help a little bit with our dog. What other treatments have you tried? I can see if I can list off everything that kinda worked for us.

 

[ready2thrive]

@johnfish211 Prednisolon, apokvel and one more, but I can't find its name right now