Skin allergy in cocker puppy

[heather_h]

Hello,

I’m a first time dog/cocker owner hoping for some advice from anyone who has had similar issues with their dog or any ideas!

Our puppy Douglas is only 5 months old and after only 2 weeks of getting him home he has had recurrent ear and skin infections requiring antibiotics and steroids. We believe he has an allergy of some sort and this is why his infections return again and again.

We are at a stage now where the vets want to do blood work to attempt figuring out the cause of the allergy however have said that as he is only 5 months old it may be ineffective and that we may need to repeat bloods once he is a year old or older. We have changed his food but have a feeling it may be a pollen/polyester type allergy but not sure yet.

We don’t know what the next best step is or if we should we trying something we maybe havent thought of? Unfortunately our insurance cover started after the symptoms started so therefore aren’t covered so will be paying for treatment, tests by ourselves 😞

Any thoughts from anyone or share similar experiences?

Thanks in advance. Appreciate your time.

Heather

[bizzylizzy]

Hi and welcome!
Just wondered if you‘ve considered raw feeding? I changed to raw when my dog was around six months, on the advice of a groomer because his coat was dry and looked awful and within weeks the change was really noticeable. I know its not for everyone, for various reasons, but with so many additives etc in manufactured food these days it is maybe worth looking at.
Ofcourse allergies can come from lots of things but food is often a common cause. I do hope you can find an answer soon, I‘m sure there‘ll be others along soon who can offer you more advice.
Best of luck!

[phoenix]

What a shame, poor baby!  Seems odd to me.  What age was he when you got him?
Are the skin infections on a specific part of the body, and has any hair come off? I guess the vet is working through the big list of causes.. Parasite/flea reaction, auto immune reaction,  allergies  galore. . Have they tried a simple antihistamine yet?  I had a dog with temporary severe skin trouble, when she was ill from something else, and responded to steroids, and a friend whose spaniel reacted to latex dust in balloons. 
 Vets could recommend an antihistamine which can be bought cheaply at a supermarket, until the cause is found.
What does the ear infection look like? What did they do about it? It's a shame to cut puppy hair short, but it may be the only way to keep the infected areas really clean.

[siam]

My cocker spaniel is now 8yrs old and has had skin issues since he was very young. He had to get cream for the lumps and bumps on his tummy when he went for his first immunizations at 8weeks. After that he too was on cream and steroids for long spells and had quite a few stomach issues from prolonged steroids. He had bloods taken as I was keen to try immunotherapy instead but to the astonishment of the vets the results were negative for both the environment and foods. About that time a new tablet called Apoquel came on the market and the vet decided to trial him on that. He's been on it for over 5 yrs now and has never looked back. He takes it daily from April to October and it really prevents his skin from flaring up and he has no side effects. Now we rarely need to take him to the vet's and it's only ever for a non-skin issue now.