Itchiness, skin infection

We had Tandie at the vet there during the week. Basically she's always been quite scratchy, but we were on holidays for almost 3 weeks there and my mum had the dogs. They got on great but my mum said that Tandie scratched CONSTANTLY when we were gone and she really needed to see a vet. My mum asked her own vet and he said that Tandie should get a blood test immediately to see what the problem was.

When we took her home she was scratching an abnormal amount, seemed irritated and was rolling about on her back trying to get at it. We noticed a sore on her back, just above the tail. We brought her to the vet last Tuesday and she got an injection and a dose of antibiotics. The vet wasn't too concerned at all. He squeezed her anal glands, which were quite full and suggested that this might have been the cause. We advantage them on a regular basis so it wasn't that. The vet also said that if it was an allergy it would cost a fortune to try and find out the cause, and that there'd be a low chance of success.

Right now she's much improved. Back to scratching her usual amount :/ For example when she gets up in the morning she scraches a bit and then 'tends' to herself for a while. Whenever she gets up from her bed she usually has a short scratch and that's the end of it for a while. I'm not sure whether I should get a second opinion on it, or if it's something to be worried about.

Did he do a skin scrape? This sounds like it could possibly be mites.

You can also try elimination diets -- try putting her on something like James Wellbeloved fish or duck and cut out all treats with wheat, corn, chicken, dairy, soya in them. It can take many weeks to see a dietary allergy improvement.

It could perhaps be anal glands.

If the injection was steroids that would settle a lot of different thing short term, which might then return.

It sounds like she enountered something in your mum's house that she was allergic too -- from a chemical, a carpet, a food she gave her -- could be so many things. Or that she picked something up which got worse while she was there -- maybe rabbit mites?

See how she does and if she doesn't improve I'd have him check for mites, definitely, as they often congregate around the tail and ears and they drive them *crazy* -- Jaspar had them and scratched like mad. You use the Advantage or Frontline *spray* to get rid of them (can't remember which it is). Dosage has to be very precise so should only be done with vet supervision.

Poor little thing. I hope it clears up fast.

Karlin said:

Did he do a skin scrape? This sounds like it could possibly be mites.
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See how she does and if she doesn't improve I'd have him check for mites, definitely, as they often congregate around the tail and ears and they drive them *crazy* -- Jaspar had them and scratched like mad. You use the Advantage or Frontline *spray* to get rid of them (can't remember which it is). Dosage has to be very precise so should only be done with vet supervision.

Click to expand...

No skin scrape. I can ask him to check if we need to go back. If she had mites would Dougal have them too? He doesn't scratch much at all. Can they get mites even if they're advantaged regularly (once a month)?

I think it may have been an allergic reaction to something at my mums house. She has a huge enclosed garden that the dogs spent a lot of the dryer hours in!

Where would I get James Wellbeloved food? I've never seen it. They certainly don't have it anywhere in Navan. Does anybody know if it's in the petshop in Blanch?

We are having allergy problems with teddy. Antihistamines don't help, but a short course of steroids did. We've had banks of blood tests and the onlt result was a slight dust mite allergy. The mites have been dealt with but the licking and scratching go on, so , after the requisite break , after vaccination, we are going to try Atopica.

Having two dogs with allergy problems my advice would be to bypass the vet and seek out a dermatologist.
Allergies with the symptoms you describe are rarely food related in my experience and having talked to many other allergy dog owners. Often trying to rule out or determine food allergy can take a long time. I found with a few sessions with the dermatologist I had answers and solutions and options and yes it cost a few hundred dollars but it can easily cost this mucking about with a gp vet, changing foods, using topical treatments trialing this and that and then often you get refferred to a derm specialist anyway.

We are using the atopica that Barbara mentioned and it is a wonder drug for my baby, it does cost me a small fortune but it has improved Harry's quality of life 100%. For Tandie though I'd try other things first as this is an expensive drug to start off on (unless of course your loaded!!)

Good luck

Another thing to consider is what sort of washing powder/liquid does your Mum use? If it is a Biological one then this may have caused a skin reaction too, I always use non-Bio on my dog bedding and with no softener just an extra rinse before drying, just a thought?

I think since you only really had this problem while she was at your mum's, that it isn't something that is a general problem, and most likely not a food allergy, but was related to something she encountered while there.

Allergies are notoriously hard to pinpoint. You can do skin testing but I know from personal experience that this isn't always very accurate in identifying what the problem substance is while identifying lots of things that aren;t causing the main reaction. In my own experience, allergy symptoms are pretty similar regardless of what you (or an animal) are allergic to (aside from gastrointestinal problems being part of the symptoms!). This is why it is so hard to determine what the source of an allergy is -- it would be a lot easier if you could distinguish if sonething is more likely to be due to one set of symptoms than another. General reactions that are very common for everything from pollens to food include sneezing, scratching, chewing at paws and limbs, chewing at base of the tail and so on. Scratching in the morning, at night, and on waking could all be symptoms of some mild syringomyelia as well as these are typical times when dogs scratch with this condition.

Regular treatment with Frontline etc does not prevent rabbit mites as far as I know. Usually all animals in a household would eventually have them but I have had cases where only one animal had them bad enough to react. Also various parasites might cause a more severe or even allergic reaction in one animal than another.

James Wellbeloved is available at the Blanch Petstop. Dog Training Ireland carry it as well and will deliver.

If Tandie is not as itchy now I'd just assume she got into something, had a treat that caused a reaction, or something along those lines while at your mum's.