Severe Dog Skin Allergy - HELP PLEASE

[Rainforestcr]

Hi all,

I am writing in the hope that someone can help. I adopted my dog a year and a half ago when she was 4 weeks old. She had started life as a street dog and even at such a young age she was infested with parasites etc and not in a good way. After vet care and lots of love she has grown up into an amazing loving dog. However she has been battling with allergies ever since I've had her. Depending on the severity (at times it is worse than others) - she is itchy, constantly scratching or licking herself (usually the stomach area or her paws), and develops red rashes or things that appear like bites (which according to samples are bacterial infections) over her body.

Primarily I thought it was a bad reaction to fleas as I guess she had become so sensitive to the bites after her early infestation. Yet I am very careful to ensure regualr preventative treatment, and the vet has said this is not the cause of the current allergies. She has had skin scrapes, blood tests etc etc and this only showed a bacterial infection from where she has been scratching and the skin has got infected. After taking antibiotics and antihistamines for 14days the symptoms then reappear. This has happened about 6 times now.

My vet has also suggested that it could be a food allergy, hence I changed her food to the best food recommended by the vet for dogs with allergies (she was avoiding chicken, eating a food made specialized for skin allergies). This improved the symptoms for a couple of months but recently she has started to be agitated again.

She seems at times evidently uncomfortable, and really is itching a lot. I don't know what else to do to help her. Does anyone have any ideas or has had any experience with something similar? Any advice would be so appreciated!

Thank you

[Misfits4Me]

I agree w/Connie...The first thing I thought of was undiagnosed Mites, also! Your description fits.......

Demodectic Mange is pretty easy to see a mite or egg or shell, but Sarcoptic Mange is almost Impossible.....

At our rescue, we usually go ahead and treat even if we're just suspicious.....Sarcoptic Mange causes the intense itching......Demodectic--Not as much!     Karla

[TwoBitsMom]

Hi...
Given the fact that your dog was infested with parasites, I can't help but wonder if perhaps she has mites.
Mites would cause the intense itching, (especially at night) and the small bumps/bites/rash that you are describing. Mites also cause hair loss. Mites are very difficult to diagnose.
All four of my dogs had the same symptoms you describe, along with some hair loss, and despite multiple, yes multiple...skin scrapes, the vet never found a single mite on any of them. The only thing she ever found was bacterial infection in the areas of intense scratching.  However...I live in the country, and we had mite infested coyotes that had been in our yard...with that bit of information, the vet decided to treat them all for mites.  We treated them for 3 months, and all the symptoms disappeared.
I also spent 3 months trying to rid my home of any mites that might have been lurking in the carpets and furniture. Yikes...the mites were a lot of work for me.
Talk to your vet about the possibility of mites. It might be worth a try to treat her for mites, before you try anything else...?
Thanks for being such a wonderful and caring pet owner.
Best wishes to you and your dog.
Connie