Crested Posted January 13, 2003 Share Posted January 13, 2003 I found out today that my little poor Ben is allergic... :cry: I have fed him for like 6 months allredy Nutro Choise Maintance Mini and now he has become allergic to it... Poor little guy. The picture on the left shows just how much he likes to have his throat itching. (took it today) At friday he started to scratch his throat like a madman and I put some 2,5% Hydrocortison on it and decided that if it wouldn't get any better I'd go to the vet on monday (today). Well... It started to get better and on sunday it wasn't that red anymore, but he wouldn't eat at all last weekend. And sunday night he started to run around the house and acting really weird. He even tried to tear down my little armchair that I have in my room (I mean REALLY tryeing to tear it down...) scratching and biteing it as hard as he could. Poor little boy... :( So I went to check on him. He was just fine a moment ago and he was eating about 10-15 minutes ago and now his skin on his throat was scratched so that it even started to bleed a couple little drops. So I put again the Hydrocortisone on it and it helped him so that he slept the night a bit easyer. This morning I called the vet and explained the whole situation and she thought it would be best if I would come with Ben to see her this evening. So I did. And within a couple minutes afterwards it was clear that it was allergy. So we talked more about what could be the cause of it and we came to the conclusion that it is Bens food... So Ben got 10 days of antibiotics and then allso salva to ease the itching and redness and to prevent any infections that might come out of that and she allso put some salva on for Ben to sleep easilly tonight. And then she allso recomended some allergy food. I never remember the name of that (yet), but it was something like Hill's Egg and Rice... Something like that... And so she orderd that and I'll get it within 2 weeks... And now Ben can't get any bones to chew, no treats... nothing. Just his food for the next 4-6 weeks. If he doesn't get anything of that, we can try one thing at the time to see what is the cause for Bens allergies. Poor boy will probabely think he has done something wrong when he suddenly will not get any bisquits, dried meat balls, dog chocolate, chease or anything else he's used to get from the time he was a pup... I'm really heart broken for him, but the main thing is to try to make him better... But still... It's not easy to see your dog whineing and scratching himself. :cry: But I have noticed that during this day, the connection and trust between Ben and me has grown. Ben has allways seen me as the "big bad boss" in the family. I have allways been "the bad guy" who does everything that he hates (washing him, cutting his nails, washing his teeth... you get the idea...) while my parents have allways showerd him with treats and acted like he's the little prince in the family who gets everything he wants whenever he wants it... But now he has understood that I want the best for him, but that I don't want him to think that he's "the boss" over me. So now instead of him sleeping in my parents bed, he is sleaping in mine. You can never believe how good that feels. But still I feel sorry for him. I just wish that his allergies will NEVER EVER get any worse as they have a tendency to do... /Crested Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alicat613 Posted January 13, 2003 Share Posted January 13, 2003 I would go to an allergy specialist to find out exactly what he is allergic to. Many dogs are allergic to a lot of foods and live pretty normal lives. The life your vet is prescribing for your dog does not seem like a normal life and it does not sound like she identified the allergen but instead is removing most foods from his diet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crested Posted January 14, 2003 Author Share Posted January 14, 2003 Well actually... what Ben will go through is about the same thing that I did a few years ago when my allergies became worse and it's not such a big thing for me. I know what Ben has to go through and because I have done the same, I think that will calm Ben down. I know how angry and sad I was for the first couple of weeks thinking it's my death sentence because I can't eat the same things as I did before, but with time we experimented with diffirent foods and saw what I am allergic to and what I am not. See I'm too allergic for a "Prick test" (they put a tiny hole in your skin and drop one drop of liquid containing things that might be allergy causing. Then you see by the swelling what you are allergic to and how much) so we had to do it this way. So I'm still on my diet but now it's not because I have to, but because I like it. Sure, I can't eat that many things but I'm still doing experiments with diffirent things and I'm still finding more about myself. And with Ben it's the same thing. He will just have his food for a while and no treats (that is to see if he has any allergies for this food. If we would give him treats and bones and such, he might be allergic to them instead of the food... So we would take the food away, but have the allery causing bones and treats to give him still). After 4-6 weeks we can start testing diffirent things one by one to find out what he is allergic to and what he isn't. It's a pretty simple thing actually... [quote]I would go to an allergy specialist to find out exactly what he is allergic to.[/quote] Well... There aren't that many allergy specialists here in finland that I know of (for dogs). Actually I haven't even heard that there are any, but probabely there is only a couple in Helsinki and I do not live that close to it... I still feel bad for Ben... :cry: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alicat613 Posted January 14, 2003 Share Posted January 14, 2003 I feel bad for him too. There are a lot of recipes out there to make homemade treats, they are not difficult at all. I would go for one meat and one grain sources of food and treats, like Chicken and Rice, to start and see how he does. Poor baby. What was he eating before? What were the main ingredients (before the fat)? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crested Posted January 15, 2003 Author Share Posted January 15, 2003 alicat: Right now I'm giving him home made food and he has eaten a LOT of that. Seems like he has tried to starve himself with his old food (Nutro Choise Maintance Mini - Chicken and rice) and now it seems like he's aftaid that that food will disappear if he doesn't eat it at once. Yesterday he ate [b]three times[/b] more then normally. Thanks to the salva Ben got, the itching area has become only half of its original size and it doesn't itch anymore either. And we started with the antibiotics last night so that hasn't started to take any effect yet. Only that he has started to feel more tired, so whenever someone goes on the couch to watch TV he jumps up and starts sleeping in ones lap. And if someone goes to bed to take a nap, he's there and goes under the same blanket next to ones tummy. When he's comfortable, he gives a big sigh and falls asleep. If no-one is watching TV or takeing a nap, he sleeps in front of our fireplace or on the sofa. But he has shown that he doesn't feel so ill as he did before. I'm so happy for that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alicat613 Posted January 15, 2003 Share Posted January 15, 2003 So glad to hear he is on the mend! It will take some time. My kitty had serious allergies that manifested in her skin in awful hot spots, bare patches, scabs. It was horrible. With work, time and patience, she is a healhty cat now (finally!) with a magnificent fur coat. I also feed a homecooked diet and it has worked great for me. Hope you'll keep us up-to-date on progress![/list] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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