I'm Dr. Clayton Greenway with
healthcareforpets.com and we're
answering questions this morning.
This one's a bit of a long one, it says "hi
Dr. Greenway I'm fostering a guide dog
now six months old. She has allergies no
outward signs of hot spots which are
infections on the skin but she's
itching all the time. She was on
steroids and cured the itching but then
it just came back. [Dr. Clayton Greenway] They removed her from
the program and she, this owner has
to decide whether she wants to adopt her.
They've read or watched the videos about
allergies and she's wondering if I've
come across such a young dog with
allergies and if we think she can get
her comfortable.
They've changed kibble to a certain skin
and digestive health but they're also
wondering about raw food, this owners
feeling conflicted because] I believe
she'd be better off in household with
another dog. If she's distracted she will
not scratch as much, we love her and
provide lots of exercise but it's just
me and my husband so the dog spends time
on her own scratching. Thanks for your
time."
Ok this is a big question and I'll try
to plod through some of it.
First off allergies at this age are kind
of uncommon, I mean they can happen but
at six months old,
usually we actually see, people think,
people, dogs are born with allergies but
they actually usually develop between
the ages of 2 and 5. So at six months
old I'd worry that maybe there's something
else going on. Sometimes it's really hard
to detect things like fleas, you might
want to look for mites. This is a dog
that's probably been housed with other
dogs so there might be something
contagious that's causing itchy skin and
I'd really recommend you go that route
first. Then she goes into changing diets
and if we don't know what the issue is
to start with, we may not have success
from that and it'll lead you down the
road to more frustration. So what I'd
recommend as you go to your veterinarian
and you have something performed called
the skin scraping. It's not very
expensive and this is where we scrape
the skin with a scalpel and it's very
simple test, you want to do it in a
number of places. I usually bring the dog
in for a couple hours to do it
thoroughly but a lot of vets will do it
within the span of an appointment and
you look at those scrapings under the
microscope.
You look for mites, fleas, bacteria, yeast
things like that and if you find it, you
can treat that. You have to get rid of
all those possibilities before you
decide, okay now my dog has allergies
because allergies, you can't there are
tests for allergies but we don't really
have diagnostic tests for them. They are
rule outs of exclusion, so you have to get
rid of all the other possibilities of
itching and then you get down to allergies
and really the history has a lot to play
into it, in that diagnosis.
Yes you can change the food, you can try
some things. When you talk about bringing
in another dog just to get them away
from scratching, again I go back to we
got to figure out why it's happening and
I'd recommend that you do that first. I'm
very suspicious that something is
happening here other than allergies and
the other thing I'm going to say is that
she's talking about whether she wants to
adopt this dog or not and my strong
advice is that you should because it
sounds like this dog needs you. If you've
reached out to talk to me, it means that
you care and I'd really like to see this
dog in your care and let's face it when
you go and adopt a dog it brings such a
wonderful angle to the relationship. It's a
great thing to do, and a great place to
start and I think if you address this,
yes it's a little frustrating but I
think it will feel great when you get it
under control and you give her a lot of
comfort. Don't feel that this may be
allergies for certain and you'll be
dealing with them for her life, really do
the medical tests first and dive in, take
her home
take care of her, I think you want to do
it and I think it's a great thing to
do. So if you're still have a problem
send me another question,
thanks for coming to healthcareforpets.com
where we are dedicated to
your pet's health and keep those questions coming.