Another Newf with Allergies Problems

[tsunami]

Well it seems that Nami's little hotspot a couple of months ago was the precursor to a full tilt allergy. We are not sure to what but he just got home from his 4th vet visit related to this. He has been shaved again in a couple of new places and is now on more massive antibiotics and steroids. We have pretty much ruled out his food and shampoo. Early indication (vet speak for wild-a** guess) is it is environmental, probably airborn. We suspended all SAR activity after the first visit in the hopes it may have been related and would clear up but no change. We live in the woods so we hope it is not grass, trees, or water.

Poor guy is pretty miserable -- would love to crawl out of his skin if he could.

The vet has recommended us to another dermatology specialist but his next available appointment is in 6 weeks. We'll see what he has to say.

Any suggestions (prayers too) would really be welcome.

Frank & Tsunami

 

[sarnewfie]

oh gee frank i am sorry to hear this, i hope they find out what it is, really though, how can they rule out diet?
allergies can crop up at any time of their life no matter if fed the same thing since a pup.i hope you find out what it is, what a let down when he was doing so well in his training

 

[Jeannie]

Frank, This is long so beware

Sam has terrible enviromental allergies. We had her allergy tested and she tested postive for 25 different things with 11 being bad enough to need a serum. So we got the serum and it helped for about 1 1/2 years. We have tried everything--even Atopica which she had to take for 3 weeks to see if it would help. She needed 2 pills per day at $10 per pill. ($420 worth) Needless to say it didn't help her at all. Then we tried the holistic route. I can say I think it helped but not enough to justify the cost. So we finally went back to prednisone. She gets 10 mg a day during high allergy season. Then during the "off season" I wean her down until I see her to start to itch then I give her some. Usually I can get her to 10 mg twice a week. Every vet we went to told us they tried everything and had no further thing to do. Nothing but the preds would give her relief. The decision to put her on prednisone for an extented period of time (the rest of her life) was not an easy one to make. We decided it may shorten her life a bit but at least she will have good quality of life. She was absolutely miserable scratching all the time and chewing her whole body.

Aother thing we did is get her thryoid tested (again) She has been on medication for low thyroid for about 4 years. After testing again I noticed her "Free T3" was off the charts low. I talked to my vet and she said it is usually not treated. After researching this I found the body makes T4 which is converted to T3 which is absorbed by the body. The conclusion was she was not converting the soloxine to T3. So my vet and I decided to give her a one month trail. I was amazed at the results. Within two weeks the hair started growing back around her eyes and she started getting the long glossy coat again. Needless to say she in now on Soloxine and Liothyronine for the rest of her life.

The reason I added the thyroid is so many of the symptoms of thryoid and allergy are the same. Right now even though this is moderately high season for allergies I have Sam on 5 mg of pred a day. I feel most of her problems (ACL and Allergy) are due to thyroid.

 

[Jeannie]

Thought I should add that we do not allow Sam to swim because even if we bath and dry her she has a terrible reaction. I also use either Chlorhexidine shampoo or a hypoallergenic shampoo.

 

[BoundlessNewfs]

Sorry to hear about this. Did he get any vaccinations within a week or so of his breakout?

Lucy seemed to react (badly) to her rabies vaccination. Last year she got her puppy shots, and within a few days she had hot spots all over her belly and the insides of her legs. It took a couple of months to get it under control...and the whole time I thought it was just allergies to something outside.

This spring, her skin was clear and beautiful...UNTIL I took her for her required rabies booster. I insisted that we only get the rabies and wait on the other shots. I'm glad I did, because I wouldn't have known what caused her reaction otherwise.

As soon as I got her home that day, she began itching and scratching. Within two days, she was one big hot spot. I put a message out at Newf Tech, and got several surprising answers. One lady told me that she had newfs, and knew of others, who have reacted very badly to the rabies vac. She believes they have tracked it down to the preservative used in the vaccination: thimerasol(sp?). Something that used to be in eye solutions, until many people had allergic reactions to it...and now you can find plenty of plain saline and preservative-free solutions.

If that IS what Lucy reacted to, then I guess the only good news is that she won't be required to have another rabies vac for three years.

Anyhow, after a month of steroids and a course of antibiotics, her tummy is clear again.

 

[Sound Bay Newfs]

So sorry to hear about Nami's allergy problem! Have you tried switching foods? I hope you find out what it is soon!
That is an interesting theory about the rabies shot, Laurel! So how do you continue to give the rabies shot without any ill effects in the future?

 

[bigdoglover]

i also would be happy to know how to give the rabies after a reaction since my lab also had a reaction after her rabie shot last year. we ended up at the emergency vet with her after her rabies shot.

 

[skinsey]

Frank,

I understand what that's like. We had a golden retriever who seemed to be one big hot spot. It seemed like every few months we had to have him shaved in several spots and that he lived on drugs. The vet recommended regular "allergy shots" - I passed on that.

Then we changed his food to California Natural and he never had a hot spot again. Coincidence? Maybe. But it made a believer out of me. Maybe you've tried switching foods already, but food allergies are the number 1 problem - environmental??? mmmm - sounds a bit out there - even for someone in California. I vote food. Good luck and keep us posted.

 

[Varmint]

Have they searched for bug bites? Since this seemed to happen so quickly, I would look for some sort of new bug in your area. Call your local exterminator to find out if they are seeing something that might be causing this. I remember a case like this, and it ended up being a reaction to "wood spider" bites.

Also, as stated above, food allergies can happen very quickly. It wouldn't hurt to also explore that option as well. Maybe a couple of weeks of a new protein. Wysong has many foods that can be hypoallergenic....Duck, Rabbit etc......

 

[sarnewfie]

Environmental is not unheard of, for instance, when we moved an hour and a half south, emmett who had lived way up nort for his first six years, was put in a yard with moss on the ground.
different moss than what was up there.
anyway, the first summer here, his feet inside would break out in hotspots, to cure them, they were kept shaved and animax for ears was applied and it dried it right up, this happend the whole summer, the next year never an incidant.
he must have built up his own immunity, and since than he has never had one.
how about the frontline, we put that on, and never have i seen such a horrible reaction, one huge huge hotspot within hours of application.
happened again next summer with an application.
forget that, if it can make a dog break out that horribly, i wont use it on anyone.
anyway, anything is possible.
environment as in humidity and bacteria, all he has to do is scratch once, and lay a small scratch on his skin, there it goes, it can escalate into what he has now, bacteria enters the skin in that one spot and spreads like wildfire.
good luck frank, let us know how he fares.

 

[Jeannie]

A dermatologist (spelling?) told me. If the dog responds to prednisone then most likely it is an enviromental allergy. If they have ear problems (infections) or rear problem (anal glands) then is it food so:
Preds (responding to) = Enviromental allergies
Ears & Rears = Food allergies

 

[Newfs Forever]

To help ease the ill effects of rabies shots, you can dose the dog with thuja and lyssin.

 

[Ksullivan]

My ****zu that I had for almost 15 years, was highly alergic all his life. They had him on medication alot, he would itch his stomach till it almost bled. Over the years of alot of doses of steroids, led to Cushings disease (cancer). I told my husband if this ever happened again to one of our pets, it was going to Purdue Universities Vetenary school to be tested for alergies, and treat whatever alergy instead of using steroids again.
Also, the people I bought my Nefie from told me that if you shave them, not only could they burn, but their experience has been they develope alergies. They have alot of Newfies, and St Bernards,

Kennel name removed because it's in violation of NN rules.

Ksullivan

[ 07-25-2005, 01:16 PM: Message edited by: Annie Milliron ]

 

[tsunami]

Thanks everyone ... We have an appoint with a dermatology/allergy specialist on Aug 19th so until then, it is Keflex (antibiotic) and Prednisone with a steroid buffer.

For the food side, we were on Welness with no obvious problems and shifted to a non-hypo neutral kibble (rabbit & potato). Didn't seem to affect the allergy but he sure seems to like it so we're gonna stay with it for a while.

Jeannie - I like your Pred/Ears&Rears analysis. The exact same thing the university said but it took them 14 pages ... I'm inclined to believe environmental but hoping it is something like mushroom spores that I can do something about.

I'll keep you all updated as we go ... Thanks.

 

[Leslie]

Okay, silly thing here but have you tried giving a daily teaspoon of local honey? It has a ton of the local pollens, allergens, stuff in it and is helpful to build immunities to some environmental allergies.

Can't hurt anyway.

 

[ardeagold]

Leslie...that's a great idea, as long as the recipient isn't allergic to bees. If they are, honey isn't alway so good...it can set off severe reactions. Really severe......

 

[Leslie]

Interesting, I'm allergic to bees and have an epi-pen but never had a problem with the honey. Call me lucky.

[ 07-26-2005, 01:32 AM: Message edited by: Leslie ]

 

[ornella]

Frank,
I'm very sorry to hear this. As you might have read my dog has also an allergy, a pollen allergy. I started to treat him with homeopatic meds, but we hade to add prednisone because he was getting worse and worse every day. He was scratching himself so badly that he was bleeding and full of hot spots.
Since we added the prednisone, combined with homepatic meds to reduce the side effects of prednisone is is doing much better. No scratching at all, hair is growing back (his tail is still half bold, but it will grow back). So I know how you feel.
I hope you can find out what he's allergic to, and find a solution for this.
Good luck and give Tsunami a big hug!
Ornella

 

[KS Newf]

Really sorry about Nami's problem. I know these allergies are tough to deal with. Prayers and positive thoughts coming your way!!

 

[NewfMom]

my 2 cents worth

Kimber seems to fly in the face of the ears=food. You know there's always an exception. When we were in PA she had such goopy ears I had to clean them twice a day and put drops in daily. When we moved it stopped, with no change in food. Seemed to be something in the yard bothering her.

What has worked very well for us is Chlorhexiderm shampoo and Gentocin on the hot spots. I tried switching to regular hypoallergenic shampoo last year but she broke out all over. As long as I keep her on the Chlorhexiderm she only gets occasional hot spots. I have to treat them for her with Gentocin. Betagen is supposed to be exactly the same thing but it doesn't work on her. Gentocin seems to dry faster on her and I wonder if maybe it has a little more alcohol that makes a difference.

We've only had to do prednisone for hot spots once. After letting her stay wet from swimming at Jeannie's for three days (bad Mom). Normally, she's just fine.

Prayers will definately be coming from here for one of our favorite newfs. Here's hoping he can go back soon and get the rest of his qualifications.

[ 07-26-2005, 11:11 AM: Message edited by: NewfMom ]