my 3yr old chinese crested dog suffers with many allergies, he is taking 5mg pred daily and antihistamine, he is also on hills zd ultra food. i am very worried that he has been on pred for almost 2 years, do you know of any safer medication we could try. he will be on medication for life.
Archies allergies
Posted on 2008/09/24 by Sheena Farmer
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ArchieSymptoms: itching & scratching -
Veteran Advisor David says:
Hi,
Has he been trialed at a lower dose now that he has been on zd food for a while to see whether he is still itchy? Is he on regular flea control?
David
Current Rating:
Every day I see pets come into my clinic injured and unwell. Its always so upsetting knowing that treatment could be taken a lot further only if the owner had taken out pet insurance. You have health insurance, so should your pet... Dr Brooks
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Sheena Farmer says:
Archie has been on zd since he was about 8months old, we held off steroid use until we had run out of options. He was on a much higher dose befor but he has settled on this dose for around 6 months now, i do try reducing it evey so often but his skin flares up again, 5mg seems to be his maintanence dose.He is flea treated every 6 weeks along with my 5 indoor cats and my other dog a border terrier. i also routinely treat my home every 6 months and have never seen any signs of fleas. i never use air fresheners, carpet freshners etc. i found Archie in a rescue centre in a horrendous state when he was around 4 months old. My vet tells me Archie is now as well as he will ever be and will need to be on the steroids for life, whilst i accept this is what will make him comfortable i do worry about the consequences of such a young dog being on pred for ever more.
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Veteran Advisor David says:
sounds like both your vet and you have approached his health very well. Has he had any intradermal allergy tests to look for specific atopy possibilities?
Current Rating: Every day I see pets come into my clinic injured and unwell. Its always so upsetting knowing that treatment could be taken a lot further only if the owner had taken out pet insurance. You have health insurance, so should your pet... Dr Brooks -
Sheena Farmer says:
hi David just seen my response to you, dont know where all the &nbsp came from sorry, hope this hasnt confused you too much sheena
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Sheena Farmer says:
hi again, my vet has told me as Archie seems to have so many allergies he does not advise blood testing as it would cost a fortune and may not tell us much more than we already know. He has had skin scraping done in the past when we were first trying to diagnose his problems to check for mites etc, all the test were clear. Sheena
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Veteran Advisor David says:
hmmm... it doesnt really give us many more options Im afraid. Low dose steroids whilst not ideal may have to be a long term therapy Im afraid. It might be possible to try alternate day dosing to reduce the dose futher...
Current Rating: Every day I see pets come into my clinic injured and unwell. Its always so upsetting knowing that treatment could be taken a lot further only if the owner had taken out pet insurance. You have health insurance, so should your pet... Dr Brooks -
Sheena Farmer says:
yes we have tried alt days but no joy yet. We will just have to continue with what we are doing i suppose and hope for the best. Thank you so much David for your time and advice. Sheena and Archie
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Veteran Advisor David says:
my pleasure. Please let me know how things go and any new developments. Just log into your account and you can always come back to this question thread. Cheers, David
Current Rating: Every day I see pets come into my clinic injured and unwell. Its always so upsetting knowing that treatment could be taken a lot further only if the owner had taken out pet insurance. You have health insurance, so should your pet... Dr Brooks
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