Natural remedies for dog with allergies..?

[theoneandonly]

Hey,

I have a westie she is two years old and she has terrible allergies, itches constantly.
The vets have tried lots of things and she is on some sort of immuno-therapy programme at the moment which doesnt seem to be working.

I know westies are prone to getting skin problems, but is there any natural remedies that people have tried i
am willing to try anything on her, the poor dog is itching herself crazy!

Thanks in advance for any advice

[lemonique]

Hi, Apple Cider Vinegar seems like it could help. Have a good look around this site,


http://www.earthclinic.com/Pets/allergies.html

Cheers,

Say Hi to your westie, for me

[theoneandonly]

Originally Posted by lemonique

Hi, Apple Cider Vinegar seems like it could help. Have a good look around this site,


http://www.earthclinic.com/Pets/allergies.html

Cheers,

Say Hi to your westie, for me

Cheers i will have a look thankss

[troubled]

bathe your dog with a oatmeal based hypo allergenic shampoo. let second lather stay on for 10 min. also if you can feed a holistic human grade kibble, wet food drys a coat. a good kibble is wellness whitefish and sweet potato. dogs like humans have wheat allergies. if its bad have your vet run a full thyroid panel. westies are cool

[21_12_2012]

Check this out:-
http://www.grammasintl.com/html/prod...oducts_zht.asp

Also try googling BARF diets (raw and bone)

[sativa]

definatley check diet.
commercial pet food is garbage!
neem oil is great for relieving the most
stubborn skin ailments, from excema to
psorisis.

detoxing the liver may be of help, imbalance
of this organ can manifests as skin ailments.
dandelion or milkthistle can be given to your dog
through a siringe. i've done this with my cat b4.
it works!
you must know how much your dog weighs
though and then i can post how many drops
if you're interested.

[theoneandonly]

Just to give a bit more background info... we have had an allergy test done on her which showed up 5 things she was allergic too; 2 different house dust mites, 2 types of grass and i cant remember for the life of me what the last one was. Also been giving her anti histamines regularly, these dont seem to work either.. poor doggy gave her a 3 day injection of steroids and she was itch free for 2 weeks but then it came back.. but obviously steroids are not the way to go! lol

Originally Posted by troubled

bathe your dog with a oatmeal based hypo allergenic shampoo. let second lather stay on for 10 min. also if you can feed a holistic human grade kibble, wet food drys a coat. a good kibble is wellness whitefish and sweet potato. dogs like humans have wheat allergies. if its bad have your vet run a full thyroid panel. westies are cool

The shampoo i am using on her at the moment is called epi-sooth and looking at the ingredients it says it has colloidal oatmeal, but also a few other ingredients which i would rather not be using on her. So will have a look for a more natural alternative.

With regards to the diet we have tried putting her on a hypoallergenic diet for 6 weeks to see if the itching stopped but it didnt. I have had a quick look at the wellness whitefish and sweet potato food and it does look good, going to have to see if there is somewhere in the UK that sells it

Westies are awesome

Originally Posted by 21_12_2012

Check this out:-
http://www.grammasintl.com/html/prod...oducts_zht.asp

Also try googling BARF diets (raw and bone)

This looks very interesting thanks for the info

Originally Posted by sativa

definatley check diet.
commercial pet food is garbage!
neem oil is great for relieving the most
stubborn skin ailments, from excema to
psorisis.

detoxing the liver may be of help, imbalance
of this organ can manifests as skin ailments.
dandelion or milkthistle can be given to your dog
through a siringe. i've done this with my cat b4.
it works!
you must know how much your dog weighs
though and then i can post how many drops
if you're interested.

Thanks for the tip about neem oil.. my dad has psoriasis so will suggest that to him too! lol

Yeahh that would be good.. she weighs 9.2kg.. any advice and help is welcomed cant stand to see her itching so willing to try anything!

[grenadene]

Hi there, sorry to hear about your little westie, they are lovely little dogs. You could try keeping her covered up on walks with a coat it would stops the grass pollen and seeds getting lodged in her fur. I know they can look a bit naff but there is quite a range of dogwear out there....a burka for dogs would be ideal but I think you can get dog 'overalls' ? maybe check out some showing sites

[deetox]

If anyone knows what you (and your dog) are going through it is me. I also have a westy with extremely serious allergy problems, so bad that he literally chewed off most of the fur and skin on his hind legs. We took him to several different vets, had all the tests, tried several shampoos, topical creams, antihistamines, several different diets and nothing seemed to work except for the steroid shots which only gave him about 3 days of relief. This went on for about 8 months and we became so distraught and hopeless over it that we decided to have him put down.

As a final desperate attempt I did some more internet searching and stumbled upon a skin condition called Atopic Dermatitis. The symptoms sounded a lot like what my dog was going through so I decided to tell the vet about it and requested she prescribe us a medication called Atopica, which she did.

It didn't seem to help for the first couple weeks but then all of a sudden to our amazement he stopped itching and biting himself and has been fine for about 10 months now. Unfortunately Atopica is not a natural remedy but if you're that desperate you might want to give it a try, I'll bet you pretty much anything that your westy has the same condition. We're currently trying to get ours off of the Atopica now, it's been a week and a half without it and aside from a scratch here and there he seems to be doing ok.

Heres a link for you to read.

http://www.dogsincanada.com/atopic-dermatitis

I would also highly recommend that you try out the BARF diet, I've been doing research on that and have read many testimonials from people who rave about how healthy it made their pets. Apparently it can cure pretty much any health problem, including serious allergies and diseases. I'd like to start feeding my dog that way but I haven't been able to convince my family members to give it a try yet.

Heres a link to some good books on the subject.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss?ur...f+diet&x=0&y=0

I sincerely hope that helps, good luck!

[lizzy]

hi deetox and all dog lovers....
I remember chatting to you detox about this....... turning these compalints around sometimes takes some time.

I am having to leave Chloe with my daughter for a couple months while I return to the UK and I want to purchase a new high grade dog food for whilst I am gone as I don't think she will be getting as much exercise as she is used to or regular brown rice.

Thanks for the thread. and to you troubled for the info on kibbles.

[theoneandonly]

Originally Posted by deetox

If anyone knows what you (and your dog) are going through it is me. I also have a westy with extremely serious allergy problems, so bad that he literally chewed off most of the fur and skin on his hind legs. We took him to several different vets, had all the tests, tried several shampoos, topical creams, antihistamines, several different diets and nothing seemed to work except for the steroid shots which only gave him about 3 days of relief. This went on for about 8 months and we became so distraught and hopeless over it that we decided to have him put down.

As a final desperate attempt I did some more internet searching and stumbled upon a skin condition called Atopic Dermatitis. The symptoms sounded a lot like what my dog was going through so I decided to tell the vet about it and requested she prescribe us a medication called Atopica, which she did.

It didn't seem to help for the first couple weeks but then all of a sudden to our amazement he stopped itching and biting himself and has been fine for about 10 months now. Unfortunately Atopica is not a natural remedy but if you're that desperate you might want to give it a try, I'll bet you pretty much anything that your westy has the same condition. We're currently trying to get ours off of the Atopica now, it's been a week and a half without it and aside from a scratch here and there he seems to be doing ok.

Heres a link for you to read.

http://www.dogsincanada.com/atopic-dermatitis

I would also highly recommend that you try out the BARF diet, I've been doing research on that and have read many testimonials from people who rave about how healthy it made their pets. Apparently it can cure pretty much any health problem, including serious allergies and diseases. I'd like to start feeding my dog that way but I haven't been able to convince my family members to give it a try yet.

Heres a link to some good books on the subject.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss?ur...f+diet&x=0&y=0

I sincerely hope that helps, good luck!

I am sorry to hear your dog got so bad with the itching... but great news about him stopping now.. must be such i relief, cant wait till that happens to mine

Yess she has atopic dermatitis.. just looked at the information given to us by the vets, had completely forgotten about it! definitly going back to the vets and asking about this Atopica stuff.. sounds like it should work a treat!

That BARF diet sounds really good and just what i had been looking for.. changing the diet hopefully will help her condition too.. Thankss for the info

Originally Posted by grenadene

Hi there, sorry to hear about your little westie, they are lovely little dogs. You could try keeping her covered up on walks with a coat it would stops the grass pollen and seeds getting lodged in her fur. I know they can look a bit naff but there is quite a range of dogwear out there....a burka for dogs would be ideal but I think you can get dog 'overalls' ? maybe check out some showing sites

Thankss yeahh they are sooo cute, i love her lol.. but yeahh that is a good idea about a coat, will stop her getting dirty as well which is always bonus!

[deetox]

Originally Posted by theoneandonly

I am sorry to hear your dog got so bad with the itching... but great news about him stopping now.. must be such i relief, cant wait till that happens to mine

Yess she has atopic dermatitis.. just looked at the information given to us by the vets, had completely forgotten about it! definitly going back to the vets and asking about this Atopica stuff.. sounds like it should work a treat!

That BARF diet sounds really good and just what i had been looking for.. changing the diet hopefully will help her condition too.. Thankss for the info



Thankss yeahh they are sooo cute, i love her lol.. but yeahh that is a good idea about a coat, will stop her getting dirty as well which is always bonus!

My God yes was it ever a relief, it really is a miracle that he's still alive. My whole family had given up on him except for me, if I hadn't made that discovery at the last minute he wouldn't be with us right now. I'm still pretty bitter towards the vets though, you'd think at least one of the three we saw would have recognized it was atopic dermatitis but none of them did. And to top it off one of them also made my dog blind in one eye by prescribing the wrong eye drops to treat an eye infection. And this was a well respected holistic vet that did that.

Sounds like your vet is probably better than any I had but if theres one thing I've learned from all of this it is not to trust them with your dogs health. Do your own research and take her health into your own hands as much as you can. (Which you are obviously doing and I commend you for it)

Anyway glad to hear you're gonna try the Atopica, I'm very confident it will help your dog tremendously. The only side effects my dog experienced from it was occasional vomiting and a loss of desire for drinking water. He used to drink gallons of it but after putting him on Atopica he wouldn't touch it anymore. To get him to drink we ended up having to spike the water with chicken broth all the time to make it taste good lol. Hopefully you don't have the same troubles but I thought it worth mentioning.

[sofa king]

I get a little frustrated when reading stories like this.

people will spend hundreds if not thousands on treating an allergy that isnt the problem.


9 times out of 10, when dogs get very severly itchy skin its mange or other fungal infection.

And yet so few vets even look for it.

[theoneandonly]

Originally Posted by deetox

My God yes was it ever a relief, it really is a miracle that he's still alive. My whole family had given up on him except for me, if I hadn't made that discovery at the last minute he wouldn't be with us right now. I'm still pretty bitter towards the vets though, you'd think at least one of the three we saw would have recognized it was atopic dermatitis but none of them did. And to top it off one of them also made my dog blind in one eye by prescribing the wrong eye drops to treat an eye infection. And this was a well respected holistic vet that did that.

Sounds like your vet is probably better than any I had but if theres one thing I've learned from all of this it is not to trust them with your dogs health. Do your own research and take her health into your own hands as much as you can. (Which you are obviously doing and I commend you for it)

Anyway glad to hear you're gonna try the Atopica, I'm very confident it will help your dog tremendously. The only side effects my dog experienced from it was occasional vomiting and a loss of desire for drinking water. He used to drink gallons of it but after putting him on Atopica he wouldn't touch it anymore. To get him to drink we ended up having to spike the water with chicken broth all the time to make it taste good lol. Hopefully you don't have the same troubles but I thought it worth mentioning.

Ohh my gosh that is terrible.. and to think we trust that these people always know best! I hate that we are treated like some sort of experiment and statistic.. now i am definitely going to research everything!

In my situation i only know what condition she has because we have insurance which pays for the treatment with a skin specialist, without that we would still be banging out heads against the wall at the regular vets! So if it wasnt for that i think i would be in a more similar position to you, even though it sounds like you have had some terrible luck with these people!

Yeah i hope it works.. i have read about the side effects and they dont seem to be too bad compared with the obvious benefits, hopefully changing the diet will help too.
Thanks for the heads up about the drinking water issue... i will keep an eye out for any changes.. but tbh she doesnt seem to drink much water anyway unless she drinks the water outside that is. lol chicken flavoured water never heard that one before, bet he loved it!