Allergy Question

I have a three year old yellow lab, pure bred show dog genes with breeding for a calm demeanor.  The pedigree is more along English stock than American.

The dog has suffered from a recurring lick granuloma on his left paw for over a year.  He also has "hot spots" on his belly on each side of his penis that come and go.  He has a recurring "hot spot" on the base of his tail.  He has patches of red skin on his back.  His ears get extremely red, hot to the touch and he shakes his head.  There is no discharge and they check negative for mites and yeast.  The ear condition does come and go as does the spot on his tail and patches on his back.  

The Vet diagnosed him with a nonspecific allergy and placed him on a normal regiment of Prednisone with a 20mg daily maintance dose.  It is not working.

His diet consists of two 6oz bags of Moist and Meat, either a 1/2 can of Pedigree(7oz) or a full can of Mighty Dog Select Menu(5.5 oz) and 12 oz of Iams Large Breed dry food.

He walks on a leash 2 miles every other morning and 2 miles every afternoon with me.

Your thoughts will be greatly appreciated.

[Sarah S.]

My dog has allergies too. I put him on hypo-allergenic food and it worked great! That got expensive ($70 a bag) so I put him on Natures Recipe from Petsmart and it works just as well. Good Luck!!

[ilovemyminpin]

i agree with sara hypo-allergenic food is the best our terrior was allergic to beef veggies chicken turkey all we could feed him was potatoe and whitefish canned food from the vet after we changed his diet he got better and grew fur back