So Lucius has had a history of allergies since the day we got him home when he was 8 weeks old. He would vomit after every meal and was very skinny when we got him home from his breeder. We found out from his vet that he had a good allergy but at the time an allergy test wasnt needed as we switched him to raw chicken and veg and since then we've had very few tummy upsets apart from a few on and off when we tried switching him to a hypoallergenic dog food while we were on holiday. He has a suspected beef allergy as whenever he eats anything with beef his stomach flared up (not a severe reaction like with the wheat but we kept him off it anyway) . Everything has seemed fine but sober the last couple of months (since August last year) he has been itching like mad! Our vet has tried so many medications and nothing helps the itch. We've been bathing him weekly in a medicated bath and it helps for a few days then he goes back to itching. It got to the point where he was itching so much he was cutting his skin open and causing bad skin infections. He was on apoquel but this made his skin thin and peel off in some places so we took him off it. The weekend was the final straw for our vet and he said we need to do an allergy test. He'd been brought in with sore skin, an outer ear infection and very sore paws. The allergy test was a blood test and they had to take quite a lot of blood out of him as if he has something like a pollen allergy they are going to try something called immunotherapy. The vet is suspecting a chicken allergy so he has said keep to raw but don't feed him chicken or turkey. He is currently on duck and fish until we find out what he is allergic too which may take a week or two. They did say there was a possibility he might be allergic to both pollen and chicken so we shall see. Anyone else had an allergy test for their dog? How accurate are they? Really hoping we get an answer for my boy
We’ve being seeing a dermatologist for Toby’s allergies. His response is the blood tests aren’t accurate and will probably throw up a whole list of things. Raw chicken is a known allergen and a lot of dogs don’t tolerate it. I got Toby to a good place using a combo of duck turkey and salmon. The other thing you could do is an elimination diet to see if it is food at all. 8 weeks on an Anallergenic dog food(we are using Royal Canin) then you reintroduce normal food. If it flares up again you know it is food and set about introducing proteins every 2 weeks. Or you go from the 8 weeks to introducing proteins every 2 weeks. If there is no improvement with the Anallergenic food then the allergy is environmental not food. However in a very allergic dog it could be a combination of both. No easy answer sadly.
Yes we are waiting for his allergy test to come through so hopefully it will atleast tell us if there is any foods he cannot have at the moment the vet has told us to put him on a raw duck or fish diet to help him out as fish tends to be the least likely allergen compared to chicken. He seems to be doing ok but at the moment he is on steroids and antibiotics so he isn't itching anymore (well except in the mornings when he gets sleep in his eye) . Will update on his results when we get them. Hopefully should be in the next week or two
