Question:
My baby (3yo F Lab) for about a week or so has had little red spots (not
puss filled and very barely raised) on her belly mainly (if they're
elsewhere it's harder to tell because of her coat). I started two days ago
treating her with a cortisone cream and one benadryll a day. There's one
hot spot on her neck where she's also losing hair. Anyway. . . . are there any signs that put to which type of allergy it may
be? She got switched to Natrue's Recipe Vegetarian Allergy formula about a
month ago. Before that she was on Nutro Weight Loss. I suppose it's also
possible that it isn't an allergy but an infection (fungal or bacterial).
Ideas?
Answer:
one time it was b/c of fleas. now we had her tested and discovered she's
allergic to acharids.
you might want to have your girl checked before starting useless diets or
benadryl, which caused j a gastric hemorrhage. When in doubt call your Vet. No one here is really qualified
to diagnose a dog they haven't seen. Well if we have seen
the dog many still wouldn't be qualified. Your Vet is your best resource for keeping a healthy
happy dog. If you don't have a good relationship
with your Vet search until you find one that you
will have a good relationship with. That is my motto.
For now it is safe to give benedryl to see if that helps.
If it does it is probably an allergy but that does not
mean your Vet should not be contacted. JMO. She had the 2 things you mentioned, plus more. Her issues started
this past summer after some crystal in urine problems. The doc
switched her to Science Diet WD and CD diets. We used the WD because
of its fiber content (she got a bug and had loose stool for a bit).
Over the corse of the summer/fall/winter her allergy symptoms
progressed and finally we took her off the WD and put her on Nutro
Lamb/Rice. Within days many symptoms cleared up and now after a bit
over amonth, she is symptom free.
BUT - a warning from my vet. Yes, the allergy symptoms could be
food. but it also could have been something else. Switching foods
on a dog can upset other things. So, just proceed with caution.
One way to find out would be to put the dog on a very basic diet and
slowly add foods back in until you find what is causing it. But, as
you've noticed (and what happened with Chloe) those allergies can take
a while to show up. And they can take a while to get the hystimines
back out of the system. Sometimes up to 4 to 6 weeks.
