constantly chewing on paws & legs

i hope that ya'll can help. i rescued Rookie when he was 10 weeks old. once we got him home we noticed that he had a red scaly rash on his belly. i immediately took him to the vet and they thought it was mange. went throught the whole process of the dipping and bathing him in special spampoo. no change. in fact, he got worse. it was like that dip dried out his skin. they also treated him for fleas but couldn't find any on him. they also thought that he may be allergic to grass or pollens (inhalents). they took a skin sample but couldn't find anything. no mites, nothing. the vet also gave me genesis spray to try to give him some relief. it was then that he began taking prednisone. it worked right away. everytime we stopped giving it to him, he would get worse again. i took him to a vet specialist and he took another skin sample but it came up clean. he recommended changing his diet to duck and potatoe. he also put him on pentoxifylline er, ketoconazole and clindamycin. he wanted to get him off the prednisone but nothing else seemed to work. i felt so sorry for the little guy. he was biting his feet and legs so hard that he would literally pull his hair out and his skin was beet red. i just wanted him to feel better. he is a puppy and he should be able to play in the grass. i started researching all of this myself via the internet and found Atopica. it sounded like this might be a solution to the prednisone. anyway i called the vet specialist and asked him if he would prescribe that and he agreed but stressed that it was very exprensive. i didn't care how much it was going to cost, i just wanted to make Rookie feel better. it has been a month now and he is still biting and chewing some. definiately not as bad as before. when he is outside for a long time, it gets worse. can anyone suggest anything else? is there something that i overlooked? thank you

Have you simply tried giving him an antihistamine?

So did you do skin allergy testing to see what he is allergic to? Its when they inject a allergen into the skin to see if the skin reacts. Usually the shave a patch of fur and inject 20 or so different allergens. That would be different from a skin sample. You wouldn't know if he is allergic to any inhalents that way. How old is he now? How long has he been on steriods? Atopica takes 2-6 weeks to see if its going to work or not. I am thinking about putting my dog on it because he has allergies. I would find out exacly what he is allergic to before I consider long term use of any meds. Because depending on what he is allergic to you might be able to reduce meds at certian times of the year. Sometimes puppies have allergic dermatits and they out grow it. So if the grass bothers him now it might not as he gets older.

The puppy could have food allergies which have the same symptoms as inhalent allergies. And using medication will not clear the symptoms. You would have to try a different dog food.
http://allergies.about.com/cs/canine/a/aa091800a.htm

He is eating duck and pototo (dry) and venison & rice (canned) both from Nature's Recipe. They haven't tried the skin allergy testing yet because he has to be atleast 7 months old (he just is now) and he has to be off prednisone for atleast one month. We began giving him Benadryl but it didn't help. He has been on this diet AND Atopica for exactly four weeks now. He hasn't been off the prednisone but for two days. I am trying to keep him comfortable by putting the Genesis spray on him when he begins to chew and bite. Millie - I really hope that it is the allergic dermitits and that he will outgrow it. When would they outgrow it if that was the case? THX!

What I have read is that dogs usually don't develop allergies until they are at least 1 year old. Its unusual to see a young puppy start at 10 weeks old. Its a tough to have a dog with allergies. Its expensive and the meds can be hard on there bodies. Food allergies are easier to fix,but that is more uncommon than inhalent or contact allergies. My dog is 5 years old. I had him tested when he was 1.5 years old. He is allergic to dust,mold,some tree pollens,corn pollen and some weed pollens. So it doesn't matter what time of the year it is,but it is lessened in the winter. I have tried everything to keep him of steriods. So far that is the only thing that works. He now has delevoped a resistance to the antibiotic we treat his skin infection with. We are trying a different one now. I tried switching his food and that didn't help. Keeping your puppys skin healthy is important. Bathing him with a gentle shampoo for allergies 2x a month is a good idea. Use luke warm water because hot water irratates the skin.Don't use a blow dryer. I bath more in the summer because he gets dirtier. Flax seed oil is a additive you can add to his food to keep the skin healthy. I use Betamethasone cream for Freds toes. Also if there feet are really bad and it doesn't clear,they can develop yeast infections in the pads. You would need a different med. Do your research on the web. There is alot of good info.

Millie ~

Thank you for all of the information. I agree about him being so young, that is what has the vets stumped. Right now, I bath him twice a week with a med shampoo that the vet specialist suggested. It came with a leave on cream rinse but he tries to lick it and usually ends up throwing up. Although here recently I have been putting it on him and just rubbing his skin until it's rubbed in real good. That seems to help. Poor little guy, he is just sweet as can be. Thanks again for all of the help.

Do you use fertilizer on your yard? If so maybe that could be the problem. When we fertilized our yard, we'd have to take the dog out front on a leash. My first dog had some kind of allergies, he didn't ever go to the specialist though. He was always licking his paws and they would be very red. Then in the winter he'd make it worse by laying on the air vent with the heat blowing on them. I don't know anything about allergies but thought I'd throw out the fertilizer thing. Hope you figure it out.