Testing for Dog Allergies

by Katherine
(Canada)

My dog has always been an itchy dog since she was about 1 year old.

It started off beeing a seasonal thing...you know, spring or fall so I would have to put her on antihistamies and prednisone. This maintained her for a couple of years and I had not then explored food options as it seemed to only affect her seasonally.

This year she had developed a severe staph infection and was itchy even when the ground was snow covered. I played arround with "hypo" diets and she was still SOOOOO itchy and her skin infection kept comming back, even after several courses of antibiotics and prednisone. I finally gave in to the idea of allergy testing her because I could not stand to see her like this.

I was offered 2 allergy profiles but only decided to do the food allergie pannel and not the environmental one. My reasoning behind it is that if she is allergic to a grass or a kind of tree, what am i going to do, put her in a bubble? So we went with with the food allergy pannel and finally last month her allergy testing came back and guess what...she is allergic to wheat, brewers yeast, vennison, peas, eggs.

She is now on Hills W/D (veterinary diet) and is on the mend after 3 weeks of the new food. I am thankful that I commited to allergy testing - it took the guess work out of it for me and it sped up her road to recovery. I can see that she is even more playful and happy. Her skin is not always on fire.

I hope that sharing my story will make owners contemplate allergy testing.

Ella and Luigi say:

Katherine, thank you so much for sharing Kara's story. We are so glad she is on the mend now.

I am sure your story will help other owners of dogs with allergies to make the decision to take the tests. Thank you.