skin problem

my yorkie has been scratching.  I took her to vet and they ended up giving me topical and oral steroids (which i am not happy with), antibiotics and vitimins for the skin.  the lesions come and go. i had her hair cut short for the medications
I am in process of taking her off any corn or by products diet..... my questions are
is bits of natural breast chicken to her dry food bad?
do i really need to give her the steroids? i prefer topical and orall (gentle) antibiotics.
thank your for response

[Aleda M Cheng, D.V.M., C.V.A]

It doesn't sound as you have discovered what your dog could be allergic to.  It could be any component in the diet, that includes CHICKEN.  High allergenic foods for dogs include most grains, including rice.  Millet has been shown to be hypoallergenic.  Other allergenic food include: Soy, chicken, beef, lamb;  in fact your dog can be allergic to any ingredient in any food that she commonly eats.  She could also have environment allergens, such as anything outside: outdoor molds, pollens, grasses etc, and things found inside such as indoor molds, dust mites, storage mites, perfumes, cigarette, pipe, and cigar smoke, and smoke from a wood stove, and the list goes on and on.  

To find out what food your dog is allergic to you could perform a food trial.  A food trial  includes a protein that your dog has never been exposed to before and potato.  The Royal Canin company makes good hypoallergenic prescription food for allergy trials.  Choices include venison and potato, duck and potato, and rabbit and potato.  Other dog food companies have other choices.  The food trial lasts 12 weeks and during that period of time your dog cannot eat anything else.

However, most dogs seem to have a combination of food and environmental allergies.
To discover what environmental allergens your dog is allergic to can include blood or skin tests.  Your dog could then be given allergy shots to whatever she is allergic to to build up her resistance to the allergens.  Desensitization to allergens can take many months before relief is seen.

In the mean time a short course of steroids is essential to eliminate your dog's itching and to calm the skin inflammation.  She obviously also needs antibiotics for secondary bacterial skin infection.  Steroids are not harmful over for the short term.  Talk to your vet about the medication Atopica.  Atopica is not a steroid, has very few side effects and can be used long term for allergy control.  Atopica takes approximately one month of loading time and during this time your dog should be kept on the lowest dose of steroids that controls his itching.  The Atopica will replace the steroids once the loading time has past and can be given in decreasing doses as explained to you by your veterinarian.