Prednisolone

I have a dog here right now that's the same way -- Rosie, a 2 year old dachshund. She was diagnosed with severe environmental allergies, and had lost half her hair, and her skin was black and full of scabs. She itched *constantly* and was miserable.

The vet put her on Prednisone/Prednisolone and it didn't work too well at first at a lower dosage. Then he doubled the dosage, and between that and her being on benedryl twice a day, it's almost completely relieved the itching. Her hair is growing back and she's starting to look and feel normal.

She's also on this stuff -- QuickDerm (http://www.vetcare.us/) for her skin.

So far, the Prednisone has only given her the typical side effects, which are increased thirst and hunger, and increased urination because of her increased water comsumption. I really don't see any mood or activity level changes, she's still as hyper as ever. And she's been on this a couple months now.

With that said, the vet has tried to take her off the Prednisone, and within a few days, the severe itching and scratching until she bleeds comes back with a vengence. So we (the vet and I) gave up trying to take her off the Prednisone, and have come to the realization that she will live on it the rest of her life. And it will probably shorten her lifespan, but I'd rather she live a shorter life and be happy, than a longer life and be miserable. Because without that medication, miserable doesn't describe her. She scratches until she's bleeding and blistered.

You can also maybe talk to your vet about Atopica. My vet said in the future we may try this on her. But be warned, it's a very expensive drug. http://www.atopica.com/

Before we moved our vet was talking about allergy shots down the road, he wanted to wait until Taylor was older since some dogs can grow out of the severity and also because being a military family and moving we may end up somewhere where he doesn't react as badly. Which did happen, we moved twice since then , although this will be our first year at the new home so we're holding our breath, but our last place was great for him. No reactions whatsoever to any ragweed.

When we talked about allergy shots it was because we didn't want to have him on the meds for the rest of his life because of potential long term health effects, it was more to our benefit to consider the shots. Maybe down the road it's something we'll have to look at for now though he's doing fine.



side note: when Taylor was on the meds the first time the husband was a way for the first bit and didn't really know all the details. When he came home from travelling and the dog peed all over his combat boot as soon as he walked in the front door, that's when he found out *LOL. Poor dog had a hard time at first because he new peeing in the house was bad and always got a suckie face, it was hard trying to let him know that it was o.k. because he was dopey *L.