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Skin issue-tips or ideas needed

885 views 4 replies 3 participants last post by  momof3 
#1 ·
We have an 11month old lab. We have had him about 5 months. He was perfectly fine and had a great coat. We have been to the vet 3 times and no closer to knowing what is going on. When we first got him we lived in a home with hardwood floors,our new place has carpet. We have fed him the same food from the start. We used to let him swim everywhere but we stopped that after going to the vet to find out he had a really bad skin infection. The vet seemed to think that because the infection was really bad that the hair would regrow once that was cleared up. So we are on our 2nd round of temaril-p with 1000mg of cephalaxin(sp) a day. The vet flat out said they didn't know what was going. They first said food allergy so we switched him to Taste of the Wild dog food which is grain free,and no change. The next thing is they want to do an allergy test to see if he is allergic to carpet or what or they talked about doing a bio. on him to see if it is his thyroid( though they said it would be a rare thing because it isn't common in dogs this young). I feel like we are just stabbing in the dark. Our guy without the Temaril is itchy but fine with it. We asked if we kept him outside most of the time and then crate him when inside would that show if he was allergic to the carpet and they said no,so I don't understand. If he isn't laying on it wouldn't the hair come back if he was allergic. His hair loss is only on his belly and from hip down on his back legs. We are also using a special shampoo and oatmeal conditioner on him. The skin doesn't appear to be red but it does seem dry. We are also giving him salmon oil to help.:(
 
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#2 ·
Changing foods won't help if the food you change to still has the ingredient that the dog is allergic too.

Just because a dog is on grain-free food doesn't mean the dog doesn't have a food allergy. It just means the grain wasn't what was causing it. It could be chicken, or beef, or lamb, or something else entirely that the two foods had in common.

If you want to do a true food allergy test you would need to have the pet on a Limited Ingredient Diet food like the Wellness Allergy line PLUS giving the dog no other food besides that, so no treats, table scraps, etc... for at least 6 weeks.

It could be the carpet but it could also be the grass outside or something else entirely. Just because you keep the dog off the carpet won't really rule anything in or out for sure. I'm gonna assume that's why they just want to go ahead and do the test. It's the only way to really know what allergies you are dealing with. On the other hand with your pet currently being on the Temaril-P it would make any test completely unreliable. A pet has to go, err I believe 30 days (might be 60, it's late and I can't be 100% sure) off of any steroid for a test to be accurate.

What tests have they done? A skin scrape, skin impression, fungal culture? Those would check for mites, bacterial/yeast infection, and ringworm. It's really once those are ruled out that you can be pretty sure that you are looking for an allergen and it's worth doing the allergy test.
 
#3 ·
Well they first did a skin culture thing and he did have a really really bad case of bacterial skin infection. But the vet said if the med given didn't help they would want to run a battery of tests such as allergy. Well all the little sores went away,the itching stopped,but the hair continues to fall out in HUGE handfuls. So back to the vet again this time there was no talk of allergy it was putting him to sleep to do a biopsy,thyroid test,allergy test,and full blood panel. The price given for the allergy test alone was over $400.
I wasn't told about the waiting because of being on the temrail so that is concerning. There are 2 more vets in my area and this one is suppose to be the best but I am now second guessing that. I just don't know what to do and it is so distrubing that I can't even take my dog out to play because people think he is sick and I get dirty looks.
 
#5 ·
Just wanted to update, hair is starting to come back in. I have stopped the tamerial-p. I called and spoke to the vet and he said that he was glad I didn't spend money on the allergy test because it was more than likely a side effect of having such a bad skin infection.
I'm so happy and no I don't have to worry about spending all that extra money.
 
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