need an allergy miracle

i've read through most of the threads on allergies -- well, more like skimmed -- apologies if this has been covered.

my dog has had allergies pretty much his whole life (he's 7 1/2 now.)

he's allergic to pretty much everything. we ran tests, he was even allergic to most of the allergy foods. he is currently on prairie and doing well foodwise.

his other allergies, however, are flaring up again - that time of year, ya know.

we have tried so many things for this guy, i don't even remember all of them. we have done several different antihistamines, which didn't help with the itching, we tried various holistic ideas, including vitamins and supplements (i remember trying quercetin, i don't remember which others. he has always gotten vitamin C, fish oil. we did vitamin B, but i think that might have been for something else.)

so far we haven't found anything that helps, and right now he is more miserable with his itchies than i have ever seen him.

I feel your pain.

The only thing I know to do this time of year is keep them in pretty much ALL the time, with an air filter going in the house, and frequent baths to wash off any allergens.

you could try an ionizer in your home, it should help with environmental allergens within your house (and is good for your family too)

he has been kept inside. unfortunately all it takes is going out to potty to start his itching.

i'm not sure i want to try paper training him.

I know. I have the same problem. I have also tried nearly everything under the sun. The lady who is trying to help me find a solution for Charlie was telling me that there are a bunch of different antihistamines and different dogs respond to different ones. I have tried 2 so far, with no results. I've also tried just about every supplement there is, except for Zinpro, which is the next thing on my list to try. It's so discouraging.

never heard of zinpro. i just googled it and found a few different things, one for livestock, and these two for dogs:

http://www.dogfooddirect.com/ZinproDogFoodandZincSupplements.htm

http://www.healthypets.com/nutrivedzinpro.html

which one are you referring to? i've always been a little leery of zinc based supplements because it was my understanding (perhaps misunderstanding) that it is easy to give too much zinc to a dog and reach toxic levels.

I'm in the same boat It really is frustrating. This time of year in Texas is just miserable for my dog. I hope you can find something to help ease your dogs pain.

The dog biscuits are what was recommended to me. I asked my vet about it and she said "it can't hurt to try". Supposedly it is really good for their coat and skin health in general, so although the dog will still have the allergy, it does not affect their skin as much. *shrugs* I guess I'll find out.

This may sound strange but my mom has a Golden with crazy allergies we tried everything when we got a new vet for him he suggested not feeding or watering him out of plastic bowls. We got stainless steel bowls for all of the dogs and he really did improve! It was not a total miracle but I sure believe it could have been part of his problem. He is not 100% but he is way better off then he initially was.

It's odd that antihistamines did not provide any relief for him. Did you give a high enough dose for at least a couple of weeks straight, every six hours? You have to keep in mind that the antihistamine will likely not show immediate results as the body will need time to heal itself from the reactions currently going on. Benadryl is the most commonly used - 1-2 mg per lb of body weight. If you haven't tried it at 2mg per lb of body weight every six hours for at least two weeks, I would try it. At the same time, you can rinse him in a brew of black tea and chammomile to help reduce the amount of allergens directly on him and to help relieve his skin a bit.

Also keep in mind that there are several other antihistamines out there and he may have better results with another.

i gave 25 mg twice a day which is what my vet told me to give. the dog is 23 lbs.

the vet's been out of town, but i should be able to reach her tomorrow or friday and i'll ask her about a higher dosage of benadryl as well as about the zinpro.