Allergies or Self-soothing

Welcome to PA, and please let us know how your Bear is doing. My Penny Lane has major allergies to grains - corn, wheat, soy - so she's been grain-free for about 5 years now, and her coat is like silk. Softest and smoothest coat ever. She gets Taste of The Wild, rotating through the proteins. I am a whole lot picky about her treats - major label reader. No grain, no by-products or parts. She also gets Benadryl (well, the Target generic version) 25 mg twice a day. She's been on it since before she came to me (August 2005). It doesn't slow her down a bit.

Pugsaunt wrote:Welcome to PA, and please let us know how your Bear is doing. My Penny Lane has major allergies to grains - corn, wheat, soy - so she's been grain-free for about 5 years now, and her coat is like silk. Softest and smoothest coat ever. She gets Taste of The Wild, rotating through the proteins. I am a whole lot picky about her treats - major label reader. No grain, no by-products or parts. She also gets Benadryl (well, the Target generic version) 25 mg twice a day. She's been on it since before she came to me (August 2005). It doesn't slow her down a bit.

I usually get the Costco label of Benadryl. CHEAP!!

Rebecca and the Pugs wrote:

Pugsaunt wrote:Welcome to PA, and please let us know how your Bear is doing. My Penny Lane has major allergies to grains - corn, wheat, soy - so she's been grain-free for about 5 years now, and her coat is like silk. Softest and smoothest coat ever. She gets Taste of The Wild, rotating through the proteins. I am a whole lot picky about her treats - major label reader. No grain, no by-products or parts. She also gets Benadryl (well, the Target generic version) 25 mg twice a day. She's been on it since before she came to me (August 2005). It doesn't slow her down a bit.

I usually get the Costco label of Benadryl. CHEAP!!

Me too, cheap and industrial size!

RaeMahoney wrote:Got the benadryl today ~ it's only been an hour, so we'll see how it goes. Will hit Tractor Supply for Taste of the Wild tomorrow ~ I had no idea there were so many different kinds. Does anyone have any suggestions?

I use the fish based one--called Pacific stream or something like that. Given that you are starting from scratch here with no idea what he could be reacting to, I'd start with fish based(pacific stream) or lamb (sierra mountain). the others have chicken in them. I'd also watch in case the eggs are an issue. My only issue with TOTW is that it has a lot of ingredients which can make it hard to figure out what's going on if he does still have the itchies.

If he can tolerate rice, the Wellness Simple Solutions are often useful for narrowing down what he can and cannot tolerate. Also, watch what cleaning products you use--especially laundry detergent as they can have allergic effects on dogs as well.

RaeMahoney wrote:Thank you ma'am! I already use hypo-allergenic cleaning products because I'm weird like that. I will take all your suggestions with me tomorrow and try to narrow it down. By the way, he hasn't scratched once since giving him the Benadryl! I'm so thankful to all who suggested it......I'm just thankful period! Don't like seeing my puppy unhappy!

Oh, I had another question, too! About bathing every 3-4 months versus once every two weeks which is what I do now. He's an indoor dog and I keep his bedding and blankies clean, but he still has a not so pleasant odor after a couple of weeks. My Mom told me about wet-wipes (for animals) in between baths ~ any thoughts?

My guess is it may be a yeast smell you are getting--kind of like an old gym bag or musty socks? Really common with allergy dogs. Once you get the allergies straightened out, the smell will abate. And dogs just do have some odour to them. the bathing every couple of weeks really won't help with the smell and may make his skin issues worse. If you do need to bathe him for the itchies, then see if you can find Nizoral shampoo for humans. Usually in the with the dandruff shampoos. This will help kill off the yeast as well--again, I'd only use it for the first couple of months and not continue with it for long periods of time.

I have a house full of allergy dogs and have learned all the tricks of dealing with them.

You are now my go-to lady! (Hope ya don't mind?!) And it's really just a dirty dog smell ~ weird thing is, all I have to do is say the word 'bath' and he runs (hauls ass) right to it ~ he'll do it even if I don't say 'bath'.
Thanks again! (Will keep you posted)

RaeMahoney wrote:You are now my go-to lady! (Hope ya don't mind?!) And it's really just a dirty dog smell ~ weird thing is, all I have to do is say the word 'bath' and he runs (hauls ass) right to it ~ he'll do it even if I don't say 'bath'.
Thanks again! (Will keep you posted)

My bet is it's yeast. And sometimes the frequent bathing increases the dirty dog smell as the body has to work overtime to replace the oils stripped by all the bathing.

I have one pug who is allergic to virtually everything and my shih tzu, now deceased, also had multiple allergies. Start with a food change and we'll go from there.

Or you can go total elimination. There are some foods out there that are VERY limited. We had Gidget allergy tested after years of not finding the right food. (allergy testing is hit and miss, but I wish we did it earlier.) Since we have a list of food to avoid we do serious label reading. But during our search we found foods with three ingredients in it. It was chicken, rice and something else. We stayed away from it because we wanted total grain-free since she has yeast issues.

We did Taste of the Wild for awhile. My other pug did great on it. Gidget not so much. But Gidget's problems are a different beast. Don't get discouraged if the first food doesn't seem to help and keep a copy of the ingredients for next time you shop so you know what to try to avoid.

Although I feed raw to my own dogs, I'm feeding Taste of the Wild Venison & Bison to my foster pug with allergies. I chose that as a "novel protein" - something he had never been exposed to. He's doing well on it.

pugpillow wrote:Although I feed raw to my own dogs, I'm feeding Taste of the Wild Venison & Bison to my foster pug with allergies. I chose that as a "novel protein" - something he had never been exposed to. He's doing well on it.

Like Hilary, my own dogs are mostly raw fed. The only reason I'd be cautious with the Venison and Bison formula of the TOTW is that it does have chicken meal in it--third or fourth ingredient.

northernwitch wrote:

pugpillow wrote:Although I feed raw to my own dogs, I'm feeding Taste of the Wild Venison & Bison to my foster pug with allergies. I chose that as a "novel protein" - something he had never been exposed to. He's doing well on it.

Like Hilary, my own dogs are mostly raw fed. The only reason I'd be cautious with the Venison and Bison formula of the TOTW is that it does have chicken meal in it--third or fourth ingredient.

Didn't know that - should have read the label.

So much information to take in and I thank you all for offering your advice. Bear hasn't been scratching nearly as much as he was ~ thank goodness. And you can see it in his eyes he's relieved. I did buy the TOTW fish-based and have mixed it in with about half of his Iams ~ maybe 1/2 cup total. So far, not interested, but that's not unusual for him. Sometimes he won't eat for two days ~ and I'm not a big treat giver.

Time to be couch potatoes!

Just catching up on this and glad he's getting some relief. My Bear has allergies too as does Annabelle. She is on prescriptive dog food from the vet for her issues. His are more seasonal allergies as he gets itchy when he spends more time in the grass than normal. My Bear is also a weird eater and will skip a meal here and there fairly often but will come around. Hopefully yours will too! Its so difficult seeing them miserable!