Advice needed for dog with chronic allergies/skin problems?

We need advice for our dog -he's a rescue, estmt 5-6yrs old, mut mix likely pit/chow. Our dog has frequent skin-related issues - gets "hot spots," smells constantly even right after baths, NON STOP itching and scratching. The vet says it's allergies, and we go through the yearly cycle of buying pills that sometimes work, sometimes don't. We just started him on Dynovite about a month ago with no results as of yet. Today we discovered almost his entire back is raw and red, so we shaved the hair, as the vet has done in the past. Has anyone encountered anything similar with their dog, and if so, what did you do??? Thanks!

Advice needed for dog with chronic allergies/skin problems?
Identical issues with my present girl. Switching her to home made raw, made a HUGE difference!


Research BARF.


Good luck!!
Reply:You switch to a good quality dog food.
Reply:Our lab is like that, he's been on every drug there is to no avail. make sure you're not bathing him TOO often that can dry out the skin and make it more irritating. We were given Tritop, a topical solution that has a steriod, anti-itch and antibiotic in it. It helps give relief fairly quickly. Sometimes keeping the dog in rooms that aren't carpeted and giving him a blanket to lay on that's cleaned regulary can help as carpets can be irritable.


Also, u should start shelling out the bucks on the high quality dog foods from your local pet store...no more Iiams, Purina, Science Diet.
Reply:Diet. It's all about diet. High quality, human grade foods (no grocery store cr*p) or the raw diet will help your dog IMMENSELY.





'Freedom' has amazing information and is very helpful in this area. I hope he/she will give you an answer soon. If not, just check out their previous answers to similar questions.





Also, check out Nupro Supplements:





www.nuprosupplements.com





This product has been wonderful for my little guy.





Good luck with your dog!





**See? Told you Freedom would set you up! :-)


Now take that excellent advice and run with it!!!





***Rob B - will you do us all a favor? If you decide to take all this advice and change your dog's diet (for the better), after you start will you post again after a month or so and let us know how he's doing? I think we all would like to hear his progress, mainly because we all believe that this is the answer to your dog's prayers.





Thanks.
Reply:Raw feeding is your answer. Also stop using heartworm meds and flea and tick topicals if you are and also NO more vaccines ever for this dog.


I just answered a question similar a few minutes ago so I will copy and paste the same answer here for you.


If you hang out on Y Answers daily you will see litterally hundreds of people talking about their dogs chewing on their feet and legs and everyone saying its bla bla bla allergies etc, my dog does it too and on and on and on.. What these people do not realize is that these behaviors are caused by something. Stating its an allergy is all well and good but WHY?


Here's why... Vaccines cause skin problems and allergies. Cheap grain filled foods that dogs are NOT meant to eat cause allergies. Heartowrm prevention and flea and tick topicals cause allergies. People always want to fix the symptom and refuse for some reason to look at the cause and go from there.


The first thing you need to do is change this dogs diet. RAW feeding would probably be the answer to your prayer here. It has litterally saved thousands of dogs from self destruction. You also need to get this dog off of any so called 'preventative' medicines for fleas, ticks, heartworms until you get this problem under control.


For the life of me I do not understand why people will not wake up and smell the coffee here and realize that these things are FAR from NORMAL in dogs and should NOT be excused as.. oh its just an allergy.


If you really want to help your dog then I suggest you start at the core of the problem and feed him the best money can buy with no grains and preservative. This would be a raw diet.


http://www.rawlearning.com


http://www.rawfed.com/myths


http://www.rawfed.net


This dog and thousands of others need relief.. not a bandaid on the symptom.


Seek the help of a Holistic vet.. Many do phone consultation. You can search for a vet here by state. Look for one that practices many modalities.


http://www.holisticvetlist.com


Feel free to e-mail me if you want to know more. I have a whole arsenal of info about vaccines and the damage they cause, commercial foods and the damage they cause and much more!


Good luck. I hope you can get your dog the relief he deserves.





The suggestions are well and good if you just want to put a bandaid on it, but if you want him cured it will take a lot more then a drug to control itching and as drugs go... more side effects. This dogs immune system needs healed, not masked with more drugs.





THANKS K9!! That was nice of you to say. I have done a ton of research and have helped many people change their dogs lives forever! It's very rewarding.
Reply:Yes, Both of my Sharpeis had skin issues, keep up with your vet, but do you feed your dog "soy based dog food?. try to figure out where your dog is more comfy, house or outdoors, allergies are everywhere. Soy based dogfood can cause skin problems. this would be my last resort but maybe your pet needs a form of steirod shot.