Off to the vets with Squidge

[snowbunny]

She was ok for a couple of days but then the inflammation came back. It’s not been that hot, so my heat rash hypothesis is out the window. I’ve put her on the prednisone and ordered some food - I don’t like the ingredients of the “hypoallergenic” one the vet gave me. She’s on 30mg pred for a week then 15mg for another week. Meanwhile, I’m going to exclude beef and chicken from her diet. I think if it’s a food thing then beef is the most likely culprit. If it’s more complicated than that, I’ll go down the route of a total exclusion diet. I don’t relish the thought!

 

[HAH]

Eurgh, that's disappointing. Hoping it's something you can identify quickly and she's not too uncomfortable, poor little sausage.

 

[UncleBob]

Ahh, poor Squidge.

From memory Beef and Chicken are the two main culprits when it comes to allergies (which makes sense, I suppose, as they are two very common food sources!). I always thought that a dog either had a food allergy or it didn't but apparently they can develop - ie your dog could be fine with chicken for years and then all of sudden develop an allergic reaction. Weird!

Anyway, I hope that you get to the bottom of it quickly.

 

[Atemas]

Ah poor Squidge and poor you having to work out what’s causing it. What a pain. ?

 

[Joy]

That's a shame, but best to get it under control before it becomes infected.

 

[Selina27]

 

[snowbunny]

The prednisone is having an immediate effect; she’s still red and crusty but no longer seems to be itchy and the bumps have gone down, which is good.

Yes, @UncleBob, beef and chicken are by far the most common foods that dogs will be sensitive to, and I have a feeling it’s more likely to be beef. In hindsight, she started getting red spots on her tummy which coincided with us coming here to Spain. Because there are lots of black flies around in the spring, I put it down to insect bites, but maybe it wasn’t. Maybe it was the fresh food diet she had just been switched to, which has a good percentage of beef in it. Or maybe it is something environmental from here. In any event, it’s gotten far worse and I know it’s not black flies as they’ve disappeared now for the summer.
She’s not in any real distress so it’s more irritating than anything, but I’d obviously like answers sooner rather than later. So back on a very controlled kibble-based diet for her and we’ll go from there. Luckily she will work for anything, so no worries there. I think I’ll have to cancel all chicken carcasses for the rest of the team, though, because I’d feel very mean giving her a kibble kong while they had that! Poor pups!

 

[Oberon]

Pred does work extremely fast. We see a really rapid effect with Obi. Within hours. Would’ve been the pred working the first time with Squidge, I’d say. Glad you’ve found something that is effective in stopping the itch even if you don’t know the cause yet.

 

[Stacia]

Still could be insects!

 

[Cath]

poor girl

 

[snowbunny]

Would’ve been the pred working the first time with Squidge, I’d say.

I hadn't given it to her at the point when she started to get better, though, so unlikely

 

[Jacqui-S]

Poor pups indeed

 

[Natalie]

Sorry this has resurfaced, hope you can sort this out quickly for her.

If she can't have chicken or beef, some tasty king prawns? Monty recommends ??

 

[Oberon]

She's so much better today already - and I didn't give her the first prednisone until this morning, so I don't think it's that. It's a tricky one!

I hadn't given it to her at the point when she started to get better, though, so unlikely

Ok Thought from your first message that you’d given it to her in the morning and she’d shown inprovement during the day.

It does work fast.... But you’re right that the tablet has to be inside the dog first

 

[Lisa]

Glad she is getting relief any way. Hope it’s not too hard to figure out. My first pooch was allergic to chicken but i switched to a lamb-based kibble and he was fine.

 

[MellowYellow]

Catching up on this, hope the improvement is long-lived and that you get to the bottom of what is causing it.

 

[snowbunny]

Hmmm. The rash was doing really well. It had cleared up entirely in her armpits and she just had the residual scabs from the sores on her tummy. The medicated shampoo works really well; I'm using it once a week on her undercarriage. Luckily she seems to enjoy this, which is just as well because I have to shampoo her twice. the first time it gets washed off immediately, then I shampoo again and leave it for ten minutes before rinsing.
So she's on a restricted diet (no chicken or beef) and weekly shampooing, no more tablets. I thought we were making great strides until a few days ago when, wham, it all flared up again, worse than it's been in ages. There have been no environmental changes this week. The only thing I can attribute it to is that a) I mistakenly gave her a small piece of the wrong hotdog that contains chicken and b) I made a new batch of fish stew and used lentils which I hadn't in the two previous batches.

Now, I'm not inclined to believe it's the chicken because the piece of hotdog was very small, and anyway she snaffled four whole chicken breasts a couple of weeks ago with no effect.
Could it be the lentils? I mean, it would make sense - I started using lentils in their home-cooked food around the same time as the rash started.

It seems weird to me, but it's a running hypothesis. I've binned that batch of food and have made fresh without the lentils. I just want to get back to no rash at all.

 

[MellowYellow]

Is it only in Spain she gets the rash? Bones used to get a summer rash on his tummy and under his arms, eventually it turned out he was allergic to certain grasses!

 

[snowbunny]

Is it only in Spain she gets the rash? Bones used to get a summer rash on his tummy and under his arms, eventually it turned out he was allergic to certain grasses!

It started in the spring, but she didn't have it last year. I thought it was insect bites at first, then heat rash, now I'm not sure. The fact that the medicated shampoo is working makes me think it's environmental, but that doesn't explain why it suddenly flared up again in the last few days.

 

[MellowYellow]

It started in the spring, but she didn't have it last year. I thought it was insect bites at first, then heat rash, now I'm not sure. The fact that the medicated shampoo is working makes me think it's environmental, but that doesn't explain why it suddenly flared up again in the last few days.

No, that is really weird. At least you have something topical that works, which means you don't have to resort to cortisone creams etc.

Is there anything else environmental that you can think of? Rain, farmers spraying, anything that might seem totally unconnected but that happened in the spring/early summer and again now? Certain temperatures?