Talk On Dogs

Beautiful Nessa posing for a picture.

It was -11 degrees this morning. Hopefully today we’ll find the winter weather moderating a bit. It’s supposed to stay above zero for a few days after having a week-long cold snap. The dogs have been mostly staying inside. When they do go out to do their business they are ready to come back in pretty fast. Baby it’s COLD outside!

We’ve fought a battle with an allergy here for a while. This summer Nessa got a rash on the skin of her stomach. It would come and go at odd times seemingly with no rhyme or reason. I’ve taken her to two different vets and tried many, many things to get rid of it but nothing worked for more than a week. After a few days to a week the rash would come back.

In the course of trying to find out the cause of the rash and getting rid of it, we went through a few different treatments and ordeals. My first course of action was to treat with aloe. That did seem to help for a while but the rash kept coming back. We tried hydrocortisone creams, over the counter allergy meds, oatmeal baths, antibacterial baths, cremes and wipes, new cotton bedding, non-allergenic detergents, wipes for yeast overgrowth and oral antibiotics. All of which worked for a few days to a week and then the rash would return. We were getting stumped. The next step seemed to be allergy testing which I was not keen on. I’ve heard that allergy testing can be both expensive and non-conclusive in many cases.

Instead of going for the testing I chose to keep a very detailed journal of Nessa’s activities, food intake and anything else I could track that I thought might tell a story. I checked her many, many times a day and recorded how she looked…when it looked better and when it looked worse, along with what she was doing right before or during the check times. Even with the journal it seemed like there was no pattern to the outbreaks. I thought it was food and then something outside that she was coming in contact with, then it looked like she would get worse if she was under some stress. It was all very confusing and frustrating.

I had changed her food from what she was eating to a different brand earlier and now I also started using the same brand of dog food (different flavor) for her treats while training. Then I got to thinking what other treats does she get? I looked at everything she was getting to eat and found that I was giving her…every once in a while, a little crunchy bone in her Kong toy in her crate. It never dawned on me that this one treat could be the culprit. I just fed it that way because that’s what I was used to using in the Kong, a little peanut butter or canned food and a bone for her to work out of the toy while in her crate. So I stopped giving her all treats except the dog food ones and the rash went away a little more (settled down a little) but still did not go away.

Meanwhile I was thinking, way back when, that this was an allergy to dairy products. The only thing was, I would take her off all dairy and she would still get the rash off and on. So that had been crossed off my list already. Now that I had found my mistake in giving the extra crunchy bone treat I again made sure that she had NO dairy products at all.

SO…I am very happy to report that it took about three weeks but Nessa is rash free and has been for 2 full weeks! We are so happy! We are hoping that staying totally off dairy products will keep her rash-free for the rest of her life. She is a happy little girl when she doesn’t itch all the time.

If your dog or puppy has skin problems work with your vet and keep a journal. Check ALL the food, food bowls and bedding that you dog uses. Check your yard for poisonous plants that can create skin irritations. You might have to do some detective work to find out what the underlying cause is but you and your dog will be much happier once you’ve found the reason for the skin irritations.

Nessa showing off her rash-free belly.