piriton for staffs .. and advice on steriods please

so my dog is still chomping at her feet after numerous useless vets visits we have recently changed vets due to moving and took her to our new one,

they want to give her antibiotics, and steroids for her feet. i am really against the steroids, for numerous reasons and am looking for more holistic/homeopathic kind of equivalents to steroids, dose any one have any suggestions

also she was prescribed piriton last yr and despite ringing up our old and new vets neither of hem seems to know how much of a dose she was recommended or be able to tell me how much to give her

i think it was 1 twice a day but am not sure can any one tell me.
shes 3.5 yrs olf and weighs 24.5kg (shes a cross btw not sure what wiv as shes a rescue and looks more staff than anything)

any advice would be great
Thanks

Hi i do feel for you i went through similar with my girls my pup had this redness on her paws and the vet tried too give me steriods etc for it then wanted too treat for mange which it wasn,t after skin scrapes its just a allergic reaction i use 1 piriton daily plus a anti his cream mixed with aloe vera does help alot hope this helps. x

what creams exactly do you use and how do you mix it. dose she not lick it off,

sometimes beau isant too bad with it other times she chews till she splits the skin right open, we have tried rulling basics out

its not seasonal as its all year round
its not a house might thing as she did it in our old house which had no carpet and shes no worse now we do have carpet plus they spend most of their day in the kitchen .

we stopped giving her scraps and dog treats

we changed her food they are now on James well beloved which is meant to be great

i just dont know what it could bean allergy too and we cant afford to have the allergy testing done as our insurance wouldn't cover it as we had to hve her health checked before insuring and it was flagged up then that she had skin problems form the kennel she was in.

she was initially prescribed surolan for her ears which is anti fungal and at one point we started using this on her feet and it seemed to help quite a bit, its just stopping her chewing when were not around. i have 3 month old twins and shes still adjusting to not being number one any more and not being in the same room constantly. my boy adjusted fine shes just not that impressed that shes bin 'replaced' lol

My girl gets sore between her toes and generally itchy.

I give her a tesco own brand Loritadine antihistamine tablet with her breakfast (not everyday only when needed)

Sudocrem for inbetween her toes, only applied at night when she's sleepy so she won't lick it off. Sudocrem is a good all round cream for many things, it's antifungal too so ideal.

Hope this helps.

I've got this same problem with Zeus, as JackieB does, I give him loritadine and use sudocrem on him but it never seems to stop. Think an allergy test might have to be done, I feel sorry for him at times, hes just constantly biting/scratching.

Jackieb wrote:
I give her a tesco own brand Loritadine antihistamine tablet with her breakfast (not everyday only when needed)

Sudocrem for inbetween her toes, only applied at night when she's sleepy so she won't lick it off. Sudocrem is a good all round cream for many things, it's antifungal too so ideal.

Hope this helps.

This is exactly what I give Rocky for allergic reaction, it works a treat for him.

Sudocreme, where would we be without it

It SO difficult trying too narrow down an allergic reaction, i went through years of trying too work out a reaction with my older girl i tried everything and it turned out too be stress shes abit of a nervous girl, the reaction on my younger dog sounds similar too yours has been all year sometimes she bites her feet and makes them sore interesting that you mention the anti fungal cream, where i walk my dogs is marsh land so can get very wet and i think its that which she has a reaction too, i have dermovate for myself patched test that and it cleared it up, but i only use that when its very flared up, daily i use a basic antihistimane cream, and aloe vera gel just mix together it seems too calm it and stop her biting so much x

goldie87 wrote:I've got this same problem with Zeus, as JackieB does, I give him loritadine and use sudocrem on him but it never seems to stop. Think an allergy test might have to be done, I feel sorry for him at times, hes just constantly biting/scratching.

Hi haven,t been on here for a while just have too say Zeus has grown up into a gorgeous boy just as i said he would hope your both well x

i keep asking the vets if it might be like stress/anxiety as she went really well before my girls were born wen she was constantly with me but whenever shes alone she dose it, at night, when were out, even if we leave her in the car for 5 mins while nipping in to a shop we come back and the car seats will be soaked where she has bin chewing. i think she has got a lot of deep issues from her previous owner who was clearly very abusive to her, she freaks if you make a loud noise in the kitchen eg of a metal bowl falls over on the drainer or something she will cower and shake in her bed
yesterday when i went to take her to the vets i grabbed the first lead outo if the cupboard which was a short chain link lead, not the kind that goes on like a chokie just a normal chain lead with leather strap for handle, ive never walked her on this i bought it wen i first got my boy as a pup but as soon as it went on her she went a bit weird and i dropped the lead to go and kiss my girls good bye and she freaked out big time having it banging against her as she moved around she got really scared by it makes me think her last owner may have chained her up or beaten her , i feel so sorry for her i wish i could heal her emotional scars too she was in such a poor state when we got her

i have a tub of sudocrem upstairs so im going to try and get some of that on her

sorry to sound reli dim but what brands of antihistamine cream do you suggest, i dont know of any, i thought antihistamine's just came in tablets

thanks for all your replies, the doggies in your pix are gorgeous

i love your lil ones face JackieB, shes got the same kinda nose as beau, nice and chunky , i do love a chunky staff lol

crystel wrote: Hi haven,t been on here for a while just have too say Zeus has grown up into a gorgeous boy just as i said he would hope your both well x

Thanks crystel, appreciate your comment!

Ah thanks shes alovely little thing shes only 7mnths old, your two are beautiful too i love brindles they can have such beautiful markings, well i,m no vet but we have had staffords in our family going back 80yrs and they can get very stressed which can cause skin problems in various ways, and with the incident with the lead does sound like she has anxiety problems, your not dim lol, i just went too a local chemist and asked for a basic anti his cream they all stock them i,ve had afew different named ones all work the same you want a cream not a lotion mine doesn,t lick it off aa i,m sure it doesn,t taste nice lol keep us updated x

What James Welbeloved is she on?

My lab used to chew his feet (vet also wanted to put him on steroids) but changing to a grain free food did the trick for him.

Indeed you could switch to a hypoallergenic food, my 2 are on Wainwrights complete trays from pets at home.

Others here are on fish4dogs.

Foods with grains can cause all sorts of issues, so if she's on a hypoallergenic food then u can rule out the food being an issue or contributing factor.

X

Jackieb wrote:Indeed you could switch to a hypoallergenic food, my 2 are on Wainwrights complete trays from pets at home.

Others here are on fish4dogs.

Foods with grains can cause all sorts of issues, so if she's on a hypoallergenic food then u can rule out the food being an issue or contributing factor.

X

It's certainly what I'd try next.

Be careful about foods labeled hypoallergenic as a lot of them still have grain in them, just not wheat.

Wainwrights trays are good but do contain rice so they're not grain free.

Another thing to look at if the grain free doesn't make a difference is storage mites; they can often be found in dry food but not in wet.

ok now i feel dim after the last coment. i didnt reli think of rice asa grain...
shes on lamb and rice.. here is the info on the food

Composition:
White rice (min 26%), Lamb meat meal (min 26%), ground whole barley, whole linseed, lamb fat, lamb gravy, sugar beet pulp, alfalfa, sodium chloride, natural seaweed, calcium-carbonate, chicory extract, lysine, D,L-methionine, yucca extract, threonine, JWB special ingredients

Analytical Constituents:
Protein 20%, Oil 10%. Ash 8.5%, Fibre 4% Omega-3 fatty acids 1.1%, Omega-6 fatty acids 1.1%

i shal have a look in to the wainwrights trays and fish4dogs as recommended,

before being on James welbeloved they were on collards salmon and potato but we were told that welbeloved was better and more natural hence the switch

just lookign at fish 4 dogs

what do people think si better

fish4dogs complete
http://www.fish4dogs.com/Products/Fish-Complete-4-Dogs.aspx

or

finest salmon 4 dogs complete

http://www.fish4dogs.com/Products/Salmon-Complete-4-Dogs.aspx

I find Burgess Sensitive very good for dogs with allergies, there is only British lamb, white rice and sugarbeet in with chickenfat to bind it all together. Most dog foods have quite a lot of cereals in, wheat and maize are known for causing alergies in dogs. Some dogs are allergic to brown rice but ok with white, I had one that was allergic to brown rice.

Other foods that dogs can be allergic to is all dairy food, raw beef and with some dogs all raw food.

Many dog foods have a long list of additives in, dogs are like our children with these additives, I won't touch a food that has a lot of additives in.

The fewer ingrients in a dog food the better.

The protein source in the food can also cause problems, most dog foods the protein is very suspect and it is this poor protein that causes problems and not the % of the protein. Dogs fed a raw diet take in a lot of protein but don't have the problems that poor protein causes.

If your dog looks like he has allergies, look at his food first, vets will string you along with all sorts of steroids and creams.

I had a dog that was allergic to so many foods that it was difficult to find one suitable which is how I found Burgess Sensitive. He used to have a lot of seizures caused by his allergies, once on this food the seizures stopped except if he was frightened of something.

Troy has this problem.

he can chew his paws sometimes until they re raw and blister. I am not sure what causes it, could possibly be grass. Even after waking up first thing in the morning, I let him out and he starts licking his paws straight away.

He was on James Wellbeloved, but I have since changed to Fish 4 Dogs and he actually has some hair back inbetween his 'toes' now!

It is still an on going issue now and I am not sure if I want to give him an allergy tablet every morning for long periods. Are there any side effects or anything to worry about doing this long term?

I may test him on some for a while to see how it works out. If he stops chewing I guess it definately is an allergy.

Ps. Which allergy tablets are safe as I know there is a specific one to avoid?

I use Piriton, mainly because I know it's safe. I don't think there are any long term side effects that need to be worried about.

My oldest bitch has the exact same thing. Terrible atopic dermatitis on her paws. We are basically at our wits end as everything I do seems

Sulphur is quite good, I give skibadee this about 3/4 times per day. We also use a holistic shampoo and a spray which coats the feet some pollen can't get on them (til she licks it off). We have tried bitter sprays to discourage her from biting feet and have been through various vet- treatments the only one of which worked being prednilosone (sp?) I refuse to use steroids on my dog for long periods of time and so am in the same boat. Will be interested to see the answers