Allergies, Advice needed

Good Morning Guys, hope everyone had a fantastic weekend.

Please can someone offer me some advice.

Leo suffers from allergies which is very unfortunate and uncomfortable for him, and very expensive for us (that is not the issue). A few weeks ago we took him to the vet as he had been licking and nibbling his paws until they were red raw, this lead to them becoming infected. The vet gave us some anti-biotics for the infection and some steroids to try and clear up the allergy issue, and suggested some foods for him to have moving forward.

This all seemed to be working, however he has now decided that he does not want to eat the food and has started licking his paws again. This has meant that we have to put a Cone on him whenever he is left alone to stop him.

I'm getting slightly worried as he has lost a bit of weight due to not eating. Can anyone offer any advice at all? We don't really want to put him on more steroids as apparently they can shortern his life expentancy, but obviously we dont want him to be feeling uncomfortable.

If his allergy is from a grass or pollen have you tried wiping his paws down after he has been outside? This would reduce his licking of the paws.

As above try wiping his paws after being out.. My girl suffers some allergies to grass as well as other things and I find an antihistamine (Claratyne) one a day also helps

Did it seem better when you changed his food?

We always wipe his feet when he comes in after his walks, so i don't think its that. He suffered quite badly as a puppy but it was a rash all across his chest and belly instead of his paws.

Well we cant really tell if the food has made a difference yet as it hasnt been six weeks and he is refusing to eat it at the moment!

My OH has spoken to the vet today and they have prescribed more anti-biotics and steroids. Not overly happy about it, but if it makes him feel better then so be it. If this doesnt work we need to arrange blood tests.

I wonder if it might be worth your while considering a raw diet?

Sounds like allergy - I'd give him a piriton a day, put sudocrem on his sore paws at night when he's sleepy and put him either on a raw diet or a hypoallergenic diet.
Give salmon oil daily on food too.

Caryll wrote:I wonder if it might be worth your while considering a raw diet?

It definately helped with my girls allergies, the difference is amazing

Polly has similar allergy problems, she was supposed to go for the blood tests last year but she had to be clear of steroids and antihistamens in her blood for a month, we managed to get to almost 3 weeks and she had a massive allergic reaction to something resulting in me breaking al the local speed limits to get her to the vets as her face and body were swelling up very quickly.
We changed her diet to raw last spring and it has made a huge difference to the strength of her skin, and her coat is amazing, she no longer gets the rashes as bad, and she no longer drags herself around the floor on her belly taking all the skin off and getting infections, but she does still chew her feet raw on occasion, we are trying to stay drug free with her again at the moment so we can go for the blood tests but it is hard when you see then feeling uncomfortable. We have even changed where we walk her to avoid long grass and nettles ( we live in a very rural area so no street walking for her)
Good luck with Leo I hope you get him sorted out fast.

I know a lot of people use sudocrem on their dogs but Polly licks it all off and then throws up I am a bit wary of using anything else on her so she just gets her feet dipped in luke warm water and rinsed quite a bit to try to stop infections.

Polly Pocket wrote:I know a lot of people use sudocrem on their dogs but Polly licks it all off and then throws up I am a bit wary of using anything else on her so she just gets her feet dipped in luke warm water and rinsed quite a bit to try to stop infections.

You could also try adding a few drops of Apple Cider Venegar to the water & see if that helps.

Sounds exactly like my boy, I did have the blood tests done & it turned out he's allergic to house dust mites! So lots of vacuming & wiping paws, did have him on very expensive pills for a while (thank god for insurance!) but have taken him off those now. Incidently though changed his food to fish 4 dogs after people on the forum were raving about it & his skin has been much better since.

Thanks Caryll I'll try that after her walk today

Well, we have been given a fresh prescription of steroids and advised not to use the cone.

He seems to be getting better. He is eating his food now and his paws have all cleared up, just hoping it stays this way.

Thanks for the advice

The trouble with steroids is that they mask the problem, but don't clear it.