allergies or sm?

I took my 10month old puppy Sammy to the vet today because there are were lots of scabs on his right hind leg. The vet found more scabs on his paws and front legs. He chews his legs quite a lot, so I think the scabs came from the chewing. I first noticed him chewing his leg quite a bit a few months ago, but although I checked for ticks, I really never noticed that he had sores. He also has had quite a sad look sometimes lately and has started going into the bathroom during the evenings to sleep.

The vet took a scratch test and didn't find parasites, so she said it could be food allergies. She gave me antibiotics and cortisone. But she didn't really have any more suggestions than that. I was wondering two things:

i) Does it sound like sm? He does sometimes try to scratch behind his ear, also when out walking, but not that often and not for more than a few seconds. He doesn't yelp or anything. But he does sometimes jump and look round at his back leg like something is crawling there (no insects found!). He doesn't rub his face on the floor, but he does rub and scratch his face with his paws sometimes. I can't afford a scan, so I can only go off symptoms at this point.

ii) If it is food allergies, I have no idea where to start in finding out which ingredient is the problem. He is currently eating Purina One chicken and rice puppy food, and he gets rawhide bones to chew quite often. I've read a few criticisms of Purina One because it contains Corn meal, but I've been reading the dog food packets at the pet store and vet, and they all seem to contain corn meal. The foods that are available to me here are:

Royal Canin
Hill's Science Diet
Nuttra Nuggets
Proformance
Mastery
Brit
Bozita Robur

Any experience with these? Any ingredients other than corn that Cavaliers are typically allergic to?

Any advice would be appreciated!

Laura

Sorry to hear about your concerns for Sam - it would be worth printing off the information about SM to take in for your vet from here, and also reading through the site yourself - http://sm.cavaliertalk.com/

It is possible that it could be food allergies - usually you get lesions of some kind with allergies. To exclude food allergies, you need to give a food for 8 weeks that Sam has not tried before - ie something without chicken and rice in the ingredients. You only give this food, nothing else at all, and see if there is any reduction in symptoms.

Different dogs are allergic to different things, not just one ingredient.

Sending lots of positive thoughts for you - please keep us posted.

If you can find a quality food with duck & potato or venison & potato, that might help. You have to watch the ingredients in all dog treats as well.

Royal canin do a special hypoallergenic diet. My vet suggested it as part of a , failed, food trial for Teddy. Over here, you can't get the 'vet'diets in shops, but besides vets, themselves, you can use cheaper internet sources ie those who sell veterinary medications.

Thanks!

I have been reading through the SM information now for a couple of hours and it is worrying. I've also been watching Sam more carefully and his symptoms do seem to be similar to what they describe. But I hope I'm overreacting - hopefully his itchiness is caused by something else. I'll just have to see if anything comes from treating it as an allergy.

I checked the Royal Canin vet diet and golly it's expensive! :yikesAnd unfortunately if I ordered it online, I would have to spend another 30e per bag to have it sent to Finland. Am gonna have to try to find another option. It's a pity that all the 'natural' dog foods haven't made their way to Finland yet. Perhaps I should try to cook for him, although I don't even cook for myself...icon_whistling I'll do a little search and see what people generally give dogs, if they don't buy dog food. But I know if it's complicated, I won't be able to keep it up.