Thread: Archive through June 30, 2004

Evan, I'm sorry you took my post the wrong way. The smiley face was intended to show that the remark was in fun. My questions are very valid and counterpoints to your statement that dogs don't have allergies. If they don't have allergies, can you explain why the blood tests and skin tests show that they do, and the immunotherapy gives them relief? Jessie never has had prednisone. She is fed a dog food with no artificial...

Thanks for asking about Jetta! I haven't really mentioned her itchies for a while because I was afraid of what the people on i-dog would say about the way I am dealing with it. The vet put her on prednisone for two days, then one pill every other day, every two days, and then i will wean her off of it. According to her, if i give her a small dose of the pred right when she starts to have a really "bad day" with her skin then...

Ooooo, much better - *saved to favorites*

I have a dog on an all natural raw diet. He's been on it for two years. He is sensitive, allergic, whatever to chicken. A chunk of raw chicken eaten today would put him in the hospital tomorrow. No commerical product or snake oil would change that. I find it a little obnoxious when you, Evan, come on here and imply that there never is a reason to go to pharmaceuticals as a LAST RESORT, complementary to a holistic approach. Show me the...

Melissa, long term use of pred is awful. But, sometimes you've just gotta use it to get things settled down. I have a personal bias against it cuz of what it did to ME, but sometimes it's a very neccessary tool in getting things settled down enough so that some of the other stuff CAN work. Just be sure that the vet keeps a VERY close eye on her liver function since pred is pretty toxic to the liver. But, lots of human meds are too,...

Melissa have you had your dog tested to see what he's allergic to? As you're aware steroids only cover the problem,not cure it and very often the symptoms return worse than before when the steroids are stopped

Allergy Immunotherapy works the same way that giving a dog a rabies shot works. My point was, acutally, pretty simple. People, in GENERAL terms will spend a gazillion dollars on allergists and the like and still feed their dog Ol' Roy. Doesn't make much sense to me. We live in a lazy society that believes, for the most part, we can only feed our dogs what comes in bags. People have so many problems that they create for themselves...

Evan, if you're right, then why does my dog react within 24 hours to any poultry, but otherwise do fine. As soon as I stopped giving him chicken, he started to improve. Then I tried turkey - he started scratching. I stopped the turkey, whereupon he stopped scratching. Same with duck. Any red meat = no problem. So, my dog has an allergy. By the way, you were pretty hard on Janice. I don't believe her smiley face was even remotely...

Evan, I tend to agree with you to some extent. I feel there is alot of "human" interpretation on what's going on with our pets where "allergies" are concerned. Sure, there may be some dogs that are having true allergic reactions to some compounds (food, enviromental, etc), but alot of the symptoms that we interpret as allergies could actually be "sensetivities". For example, I am "sensitive" to...