This is a long post, as I was trying to cover as much as possible and to give an overview.
I am not one to normally share things as such, but thought I would share our little journey of itchiness that has at times been a pain in the behind at certain times. We had times where there was literally nothing we could do to help or ease it for her apart from holding her so that she would not scratch or lick, then other times no signs of itching at all.
We noticed that she used to get infections around her girly parts in the early days when she was a little pup, but this was mainly due to her having an inverted vulva. It could be minutes of constant licking, which then started to move towards the bum area as it got worse. Of course in the early days we did not know this was down to allergies, as having an inverted vulva is an issue in its own. The vet we had at the time was excellent, she suggested to allow Vanilla to go through one season to allow the vulva to ‘pop out’. Of course having infections in that area was not ideal, and to try and keep on top of that area it involved wiping her with baby wipes and then applying cream. This would help with her inverted vulva. But how would we treat the itchiness, well that was a new challenge that we would deal with.
She was starting to scratch herself, but as she was moulting, we thought that was normal. But we soon found out that was not the case, her inside/under paws would be deep red, ear infections and eye infections galore where not uncommon in her early months. Tummy spots, arm pits rubbing that would then make the skin flake, pink skin that should not be that pink and getting multiple spots on chin that we caught just in time before turning into a hotspot. Plus plenty of other things that did not agree, which at times resulted in us being at the vets once a week. It sounds like you should notice these things early, and yes some you can, but others nope. You could go to sleep and next morning she would have come out in spots or a rash etc. Sometimes even after just a morning or afternoon nap of a few hours, she would wake up and have bright red skin or eyes being all gooey that just came on. I got better at reading signs after it happened a few times, which then allow us to deal with it prior to it becoming bad or even infected.
Anyhow, first of we ended up with a small doze of steroids (2 weeks), eye drops, ear drops and shampoo. Trying to get a dog used to ear and eye drops at the same time is not that easy. This cleared it and made it better, but only lasted for a few weeks. We then ended up with Apoquel for a couple of months, this was during the first summer. She was about 10months old by this time, for the ears we ended up with a liquid mixture that we had to apply once a week, and with the eyes we ended up with a tea remedy. Like the Vet said, can’t keep on giving the girl drugs all the time.
The Apoquel helped, but no magic as what some people believe. Even though she was under the 12months recommendation, which brought its own issues as such regarding Apoquel, but something had to give. We still had to do all the other stuff too, ie: wiping with baby wipes, applying creams, lotions etc.
Then of course as usual it all disappears as we move into autumn and winter. Still have to deal with her girly parts, but that is something different for now. Come the new spring and we are starting to move back into the itching and scratching. Not that bad and manageable with the creams and lotions that we had. Problem came when summer arrived and a hot day followed by a hot night and next morning was just like a train wreck. So back to the vets, and a course of Steroids to assist to clear it up. This was mainly because she was so bad overnight. Once cleared, nothing else required apart from the creams and lotions for a period, but as summer progressed, they did not help. So she ended up on steroids for a while to help in reducing the redness and soreness. Of course they had their own side effects like weight gain and hunger. To manage the weight, we reduced the food intake and increased exercise, but that did no help much. As of course she got hungrier and would savage whilst out and about. At the end of the day her metabolism was out, we accepted it and would deal with that later. Overall she gained about 5kg over a couple of months. Once she was off them it took a good 6months plus to get her weight back to what we wanted. She is still now a bit over, but I think it may just be more about toning up. But we are heading in the right directions for her weight/physique (can’t talk for myself thought).
Anyhow given that it was actually getting worse and we all wanted to get to the bottom the Vet referred us to a Dermatitis Vet. Of course the great thing of where we live is that only 2 exist and one is better than the other, and after that the next nearest one would be about an 8-9 hour drive away.
So off we go having waited a few weeks for the appointment. Initial visit was excellent and made another appointment for the week after to perform allergy tests on her. For those that are not aware of how this works a quick rundown:
Dog will get sedated and they shave a square area on one side of the chest. They then inject a small dose of a potential allergens under the skin. Then watch and see if it causes a reactions. This is scored between 0 and 4, with 0 being no reaction and 4 being highest. The skin testing does not diagnose allergies, but is done in context to allow immunotherapy treatment to be pursued.
As in the picture you can see the shaved area and the 60 little needle imprints. If you can and look closely you can see some that are really red and also some came up in lumps.
This result then allows the Vet to give guidance on the mix of serum that would have to be administered. You can mix a maximum of 10 symptoms discovered into the serum, and in most cases your results are normally within this range. Normally the test produces about 2-3 allergens with a score of 3-4, and then maybe a similar amount with a low score. Most dogs would get around 6-8 allergies so that a serum could be mixed.
Our case was not the norm, out of the 60 that she was tested for she was allergic to 33, with a high percentage being in the 3 and 4. No wonder she was starting to get worse. Because of this, the vet advised to go home and compare the result to the environments that live in and visit on a regular basis. As an example Vanilla had a score 4 for tobacco, but we don’t smoke and we avoid places that do. Her breeder does though, so we could discount this. Could not do that thought with Palms, as they are plentiful around. So we looked at each score, see what Environmental item it was and worked out where she would come into contact with these.
Once we had determined these from highest to lowest, we advised the vet and he reviewed and sent it off to get the serum made up. This takes about 4-6 weeks, due to in part it has to be sent to QLD. First injection is done with the dermatologist vet. He shows you what to do, what notes to take and how to determine her itching score. This score ranges form 0-10, with the 10 being constant itching, licking, not sleeping and stopping play/walk (needs to be physically restrained from itching) etc. to have a good scratch and 0 obviously being a healthy normal dog.
The aim of Immunotherapy is to provide an alternative to cortisone therapy by stimulating the pet’s own immune system so that it no longer causes allergic reactions. This works by introducing small amounts of what the pet is allergic to and gradually increasing the dose over time, so that the pet builds a tolerance to these allergens. With that in mind, our course started off for an initial 3 months, where the first serum vial is a diluted mixture. You start and administer by giving an injection just by the back of the neck of 0.1ml every other day for a week, then increase to 0.2ml every other day until you get to 1.0ml on the diluted one. This process takes about 4 weeks, as it is doubled and not incremented. Once you are there you then go to the full serum vial and start again on 0.1ml, 0.2ml etc. This takes about 2 months, and in the 3rd month with a constant 1.0ml every few days initially then turns into once a week. All this time you still have to give the medication like Apoquel etc. to keep the itchiness under control. You also score her between 0-10, to see if any improvements have occurred. In most cases, you won’t see any improvements for the initial 3months. Her score pretty much sat around the 5-7 on this scale. As per the scale this covers 7 - ‘Severe itching/prolonged episodes, Itching might occur at night and when playing, eating, excursing or being distracted’ to 5 - ‘Moderate itching/regular episodes, Itching might occur at night, but not when eating, playing exercising or being distracted’. At times she would have flare ups like once when we went out walking and she decided to sniff in a heap of clovers, she got a very pink snout which we had to control by creams etc.
Back to the dermatologist vet after 3 months for a check up to see how she was doing and to get our next 6months supply of serum. Not a lot of improvements, but it was not getting any worse. He recommended to continue and see through the course (normally lasts about a year then make a determination), our time will be up in February next year. So we now give her a 1.0ml every 3 weeks, keep an eye on her itchiness and score it accordingly. She is now down to a score of 5, and we are heading into the summer. So we will see if it goes back up, stays the same or hopefully reduce. We still have to give her the Apoquel and creams, including a bath once a month. We also must wash her beddings and blankets on a weekly basis, easily done in summer, not so easy in winter due to drying as some can’t go in the dryer. Aim is to get her of the Apoquel when she gets to a 3 on the score sheet. Admittedly the earlier the better, but we have to make sure she does not start to itch like a crazy dog again.
If this works then she will have to have these injections for the rest of her life. They don’t cure the allergies, but control them. But that is a small price to pay to see her not itching like a crazy dog. But only 60-70% of dogs will respond well to this treatment. If however this does not work then next cause of action is to try the new ‘Cytopoint’. This is only now becoming available here, but like with anything jury is still out with this one too, but early indications are it is better (especially given that it does not suppress the immune pathway, only neutralises one type of molecule).
So who knows, but hopefully we will get there in the end with her. We have to pick places we go to depending on weather/time of year. We don’t go to the oval in summer anymore, unless it has been raining for a couple of days. But even in winter we can’t go if there has not been any rain for a few days. We even got a new lawn at our place because she is allergic to certain types of grass, plus it gave us an excuse to replace it given that it resembled more of a dust bowl after last summer. Also meant certain plants had to go, and some are still in question. It does mean our garden is pretty much weed free, as she has bad reaction to certain types of weeds. Plus, I just love weeding…
Cost wise I would highly recommend having Insurance, as yes it is expensive if you don’t have pet insurance. The initial consultation was around the $400 Australian dollars, the test alone was around $1000 (including consultation), and the serum vial is near the $400 for each one and the consultation fee each time you go which are around $200. Plus in the meantime you have to pay for your existing medication, like Apoquel at over a $100 every 30 days, and cream, lotions, shampoo etc.
Our insurance covers all this now, given that it is diagnosed and for the rest of Vanillas life, as long as we don’t change provider. We have to pay a yearly excess of $150, but this out ways the costs involved for her treatment. We are fortunate in that even if we did not have a policy, we would still have paid this out. Plus there is no way I could not let her suffer for the rest of her life. Plus, if the itchiness does not get much better, then in the next year or so she will need an operation on her vulva to remove the fold to stop infections and itchiness as she gets older. But this may happen anyway as the inverted vulva can have its own complications, but that as they say is another story for another time.
I hope the above sheds some light on the itchiness that dogs can have, and if you do have a dog that is itchy which is more than just an itch from a flea or collar, then I would suggest finding a good dermatologist vet and get the tests done. They only take a few hours and normally get the results back same day. Even if you decide not to take it further because the results are not that bad, it will help with how you manage exposure that your dog will get against certain environments
Immunotherapy is at the end of the day a natural way of treating something, but it has to work and that is what makes it hard for most to go through this for a year. You can come out at the end of the year and find that it has done nothing for your dog and you are back to square one. As mentioned earlier it only has a success rate between 60-70%. But if it does, you can cut out tablets etc. and just inject once every 3weeks. This is what we are hoping will be the case. She now knows when it is time, and just lays patiently on her bed waiting for the injection. Plus I am sure a nice treat afterwards always helps.
I am not one to normally share things as such, but thought I would share our little journey of itchiness that has at times been a pain in the behind at certain times. We had times where there was literally nothing we could do to help or ease it for her apart from holding her so that she would not scratch or lick, then other times no signs of itching at all.
We noticed that she used to get infections around her girly parts in the early days when she was a little pup, but this was mainly due to her having an inverted vulva. It could be minutes of constant licking, which then started to move towards the bum area as it got worse. Of course in the early days we did not know this was down to allergies, as having an inverted vulva is an issue in its own. The vet we had at the time was excellent, she suggested to allow Vanilla to go through one season to allow the vulva to ‘pop out’. Of course having infections in that area was not ideal, and to try and keep on top of that area it involved wiping her with baby wipes and then applying cream. This would help with her inverted vulva. But how would we treat the itchiness, well that was a new challenge that we would deal with.
She was starting to scratch herself, but as she was moulting, we thought that was normal. But we soon found out that was not the case, her inside/under paws would be deep red, ear infections and eye infections galore where not uncommon in her early months. Tummy spots, arm pits rubbing that would then make the skin flake, pink skin that should not be that pink and getting multiple spots on chin that we caught just in time before turning into a hotspot. Plus plenty of other things that did not agree, which at times resulted in us being at the vets once a week. It sounds like you should notice these things early, and yes some you can, but others nope. You could go to sleep and next morning she would have come out in spots or a rash etc. Sometimes even after just a morning or afternoon nap of a few hours, she would wake up and have bright red skin or eyes being all gooey that just came on. I got better at reading signs after it happened a few times, which then allow us to deal with it prior to it becoming bad or even infected.
Anyhow, first of we ended up with a small doze of steroids (2 weeks), eye drops, ear drops and shampoo. Trying to get a dog used to ear and eye drops at the same time is not that easy. This cleared it and made it better, but only lasted for a few weeks. We then ended up with Apoquel for a couple of months, this was during the first summer. She was about 10months old by this time, for the ears we ended up with a liquid mixture that we had to apply once a week, and with the eyes we ended up with a tea remedy. Like the Vet said, can’t keep on giving the girl drugs all the time.
The Apoquel helped, but no magic as what some people believe. Even though she was under the 12months recommendation, which brought its own issues as such regarding Apoquel, but something had to give. We still had to do all the other stuff too, ie: wiping with baby wipes, applying creams, lotions etc.
Then of course as usual it all disappears as we move into autumn and winter. Still have to deal with her girly parts, but that is something different for now. Come the new spring and we are starting to move back into the itching and scratching. Not that bad and manageable with the creams and lotions that we had. Problem came when summer arrived and a hot day followed by a hot night and next morning was just like a train wreck. So back to the vets, and a course of Steroids to assist to clear it up. This was mainly because she was so bad overnight. Once cleared, nothing else required apart from the creams and lotions for a period, but as summer progressed, they did not help. So she ended up on steroids for a while to help in reducing the redness and soreness. Of course they had their own side effects like weight gain and hunger. To manage the weight, we reduced the food intake and increased exercise, but that did no help much. As of course she got hungrier and would savage whilst out and about. At the end of the day her metabolism was out, we accepted it and would deal with that later. Overall she gained about 5kg over a couple of months. Once she was off them it took a good 6months plus to get her weight back to what we wanted. She is still now a bit over, but I think it may just be more about toning up. But we are heading in the right directions for her weight/physique (can’t talk for myself thought).
Anyhow given that it was actually getting worse and we all wanted to get to the bottom the Vet referred us to a Dermatitis Vet. Of course the great thing of where we live is that only 2 exist and one is better than the other, and after that the next nearest one would be about an 8-9 hour drive away.
So off we go having waited a few weeks for the appointment. Initial visit was excellent and made another appointment for the week after to perform allergy tests on her. For those that are not aware of how this works a quick rundown:
Dog will get sedated and they shave a square area on one side of the chest. They then inject a small dose of a potential allergens under the skin. Then watch and see if it causes a reactions. This is scored between 0 and 4, with 0 being no reaction and 4 being highest. The skin testing does not diagnose allergies, but is done in context to allow immunotherapy treatment to be pursued.
As in the picture you can see the shaved area and the 60 little needle imprints. If you can and look closely you can see some that are really red and also some came up in lumps.
This result then allows the Vet to give guidance on the mix of serum that would have to be administered. You can mix a maximum of 10 symptoms discovered into the serum, and in most cases your results are normally within this range. Normally the test produces about 2-3 allergens with a score of 3-4, and then maybe a similar amount with a low score. Most dogs would get around 6-8 allergies so that a serum could be mixed.
Our case was not the norm, out of the 60 that she was tested for she was allergic to 33, with a high percentage being in the 3 and 4. No wonder she was starting to get worse. Because of this, the vet advised to go home and compare the result to the environments that live in and visit on a regular basis. As an example Vanilla had a score 4 for tobacco, but we don’t smoke and we avoid places that do. Her breeder does though, so we could discount this. Could not do that thought with Palms, as they are plentiful around. So we looked at each score, see what Environmental item it was and worked out where she would come into contact with these.
Once we had determined these from highest to lowest, we advised the vet and he reviewed and sent it off to get the serum made up. This takes about 4-6 weeks, due to in part it has to be sent to QLD. First injection is done with the dermatologist vet. He shows you what to do, what notes to take and how to determine her itching score. This score ranges form 0-10, with the 10 being constant itching, licking, not sleeping and stopping play/walk (needs to be physically restrained from itching) etc. to have a good scratch and 0 obviously being a healthy normal dog.
The aim of Immunotherapy is to provide an alternative to cortisone therapy by stimulating the pet’s own immune system so that it no longer causes allergic reactions. This works by introducing small amounts of what the pet is allergic to and gradually increasing the dose over time, so that the pet builds a tolerance to these allergens. With that in mind, our course started off for an initial 3 months, where the first serum vial is a diluted mixture. You start and administer by giving an injection just by the back of the neck of 0.1ml every other day for a week, then increase to 0.2ml every other day until you get to 1.0ml on the diluted one. This process takes about 4 weeks, as it is doubled and not incremented. Once you are there you then go to the full serum vial and start again on 0.1ml, 0.2ml etc. This takes about 2 months, and in the 3rd month with a constant 1.0ml every few days initially then turns into once a week. All this time you still have to give the medication like Apoquel etc. to keep the itchiness under control. You also score her between 0-10, to see if any improvements have occurred. In most cases, you won’t see any improvements for the initial 3months. Her score pretty much sat around the 5-7 on this scale. As per the scale this covers 7 - ‘Severe itching/prolonged episodes, Itching might occur at night and when playing, eating, excursing or being distracted’ to 5 - ‘Moderate itching/regular episodes, Itching might occur at night, but not when eating, playing exercising or being distracted’. At times she would have flare ups like once when we went out walking and she decided to sniff in a heap of clovers, she got a very pink snout which we had to control by creams etc.
Back to the dermatologist vet after 3 months for a check up to see how she was doing and to get our next 6months supply of serum. Not a lot of improvements, but it was not getting any worse. He recommended to continue and see through the course (normally lasts about a year then make a determination), our time will be up in February next year. So we now give her a 1.0ml every 3 weeks, keep an eye on her itchiness and score it accordingly. She is now down to a score of 5, and we are heading into the summer. So we will see if it goes back up, stays the same or hopefully reduce. We still have to give her the Apoquel and creams, including a bath once a month. We also must wash her beddings and blankets on a weekly basis, easily done in summer, not so easy in winter due to drying as some can’t go in the dryer. Aim is to get her of the Apoquel when she gets to a 3 on the score sheet. Admittedly the earlier the better, but we have to make sure she does not start to itch like a crazy dog again.
If this works then she will have to have these injections for the rest of her life. They don’t cure the allergies, but control them. But that is a small price to pay to see her not itching like a crazy dog. But only 60-70% of dogs will respond well to this treatment. If however this does not work then next cause of action is to try the new ‘Cytopoint’. This is only now becoming available here, but like with anything jury is still out with this one too, but early indications are it is better (especially given that it does not suppress the immune pathway, only neutralises one type of molecule).
So who knows, but hopefully we will get there in the end with her. We have to pick places we go to depending on weather/time of year. We don’t go to the oval in summer anymore, unless it has been raining for a couple of days. But even in winter we can’t go if there has not been any rain for a few days. We even got a new lawn at our place because she is allergic to certain types of grass, plus it gave us an excuse to replace it given that it resembled more of a dust bowl after last summer. Also meant certain plants had to go, and some are still in question. It does mean our garden is pretty much weed free, as she has bad reaction to certain types of weeds. Plus, I just love weeding…
Cost wise I would highly recommend having Insurance, as yes it is expensive if you don’t have pet insurance. The initial consultation was around the $400 Australian dollars, the test alone was around $1000 (including consultation), and the serum vial is near the $400 for each one and the consultation fee each time you go which are around $200. Plus in the meantime you have to pay for your existing medication, like Apoquel at over a $100 every 30 days, and cream, lotions, shampoo etc.
Our insurance covers all this now, given that it is diagnosed and for the rest of Vanillas life, as long as we don’t change provider. We have to pay a yearly excess of $150, but this out ways the costs involved for her treatment. We are fortunate in that even if we did not have a policy, we would still have paid this out. Plus there is no way I could not let her suffer for the rest of her life. Plus, if the itchiness does not get much better, then in the next year or so she will need an operation on her vulva to remove the fold to stop infections and itchiness as she gets older. But this may happen anyway as the inverted vulva can have its own complications, but that as they say is another story for another time.
I hope the above sheds some light on the itchiness that dogs can have, and if you do have a dog that is itchy which is more than just an itch from a flea or collar, then I would suggest finding a good dermatologist vet and get the tests done. They only take a few hours and normally get the results back same day. Even if you decide not to take it further because the results are not that bad, it will help with how you manage exposure that your dog will get against certain environments
Immunotherapy is at the end of the day a natural way of treating something, but it has to work and that is what makes it hard for most to go through this for a year. You can come out at the end of the year and find that it has done nothing for your dog and you are back to square one. As mentioned earlier it only has a success rate between 60-70%. But if it does, you can cut out tablets etc. and just inject once every 3weeks. This is what we are hoping will be the case. She now knows when it is time, and just lays patiently on her bed waiting for the injection. Plus I am sure a nice treat afterwards always helps.
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You really have all been through it. I hope Vanilla improves and gets her bounce back. Thank you for writing this for us. xxx 
