Hi everyone. My dog is 9 years old now and never had skin or ear issues up until this past June. He had minor hair loss and itching in June, got progressively more annoying for him so we took him to the vet in July where they chalked it up to seasonal allergies and sent him home with apoquel. That worked but it came back after his last dose, so took him back to vet in November, they again gave him apoquel and said seasonal allergies should calm down in December. Still no ear infection at this point.
Got much worse in December into January(I live in the Northeast where it's cold and snowy). Biting on legs, hair loss due to biting. Got a bad infection in his left ear within the last 2 weeks. Made appointment with the dermatologist and he went yesterday. Here's where I hope someone can help me out.
Zero fleas, zero ticks. Other dog and cat in house are perfectly fine. They said it's likely a food allergy because it is uncommon for a dog at his age of 9 years to all of a sudden develop a seasonal/environmental allergy, especially since we have never moved since having him (had him for 9 years). How true is this? I've always heard allergies become worse the older a dog gets or that they can pop up any time. They did skin tests and all came back negative for bacteria and yeast....just the ear swab came back positive for both so he is being treated for that. He is now on a trial diet of hydrolyzed protein for two months. They also gave him a shot called cytopoint to stop the itching while on his two month food trial which has already helped. My question is, how can this be a food allergy when I have rotated his proteins literally every bag of food I'd buy for him over the past 7 years? He has only ever eaten high quality grain free foods both canned and kibble such as Nature's Variety Instinct, Fromm, Merrick, Orijen, Acana, Earthborn, etc. I've given him so much variety over the years including pork, salmon, duck, chicken, rabbit, lamb, venison, beef, turkey, even kangaroo. I always thought a rotational diet was supposed to prevent allergies from happening! Any thoughts or experience on this? Thank you for reading.
Got much worse in December into January(I live in the Northeast where it's cold and snowy). Biting on legs, hair loss due to biting. Got a bad infection in his left ear within the last 2 weeks. Made appointment with the dermatologist and he went yesterday. Here's where I hope someone can help me out.
Zero fleas, zero ticks. Other dog and cat in house are perfectly fine. They said it's likely a food allergy because it is uncommon for a dog at his age of 9 years to all of a sudden develop a seasonal/environmental allergy, especially since we have never moved since having him (had him for 9 years). How true is this? I've always heard allergies become worse the older a dog gets or that they can pop up any time. They did skin tests and all came back negative for bacteria and yeast....just the ear swab came back positive for both so he is being treated for that. He is now on a trial diet of hydrolyzed protein for two months. They also gave him a shot called cytopoint to stop the itching while on his two month food trial which has already helped. My question is, how can this be a food allergy when I have rotated his proteins literally every bag of food I'd buy for him over the past 7 years? He has only ever eaten high quality grain free foods both canned and kibble such as Nature's Variety Instinct, Fromm, Merrick, Orijen, Acana, Earthborn, etc. I've given him so much variety over the years including pork, salmon, duck, chicken, rabbit, lamb, venison, beef, turkey, even kangaroo. I always thought a rotational diet was supposed to prevent allergies from happening! Any thoughts or experience on this? Thank you for reading.