Prednisone for allergies?! anyone?!

[Elias]

my pup of 1 and 7months years old was diagonised with an allergie and its making his back hair thin and fall. the vet gave me prednisone and zyrtec.
i was reading that prednisone had a lot of side effects and when i started using it, my pup sometimes peed without being able to control it.
any ideas?!

[dog dr]

cyclosporine will have virtually NO side effects other than its effect on your wallet. however, even that decreases with time, as the dose decreases over the 1st 3 months of treatment.

allergies are a very tricky and complicated thing to deal with sometimes. i am sure someone here will bring up the whole diet issue eventually, so i wont steal their thunder!

have you done any allergy testing?

[mcbosco]

my pup of 1 and 7months years old was diagonised with an allergie and its making his back hair thin and fall. the vet gave me prednisone and zyrtec.
i was reading that prednisone had a lot of side effects and when i started using it, my pup sometimes peed without being able to control it.
any ideas?!

diagnosed with what kind of allergy? To what?

[Elias]

The vet told me to give him prednisone for 7 days and zeertec for 7 days.
he doesnt know wut kind of allergie the dog have, he named smthing but i dont really remember the name.

i think this started to happen when i started using frontline, i dunno if some dogs develop this, even the hair looks like its standing up.

[Cajun Casey]

I think you might want to get a scrape at the very least or even a punch biopsy. There could be a bacterial, fungal, or parasitic cause. Destruction of the dorsal haircoat sounds like something besides a food or environmental allergy. A thyroid test wouldn't hurt, either. Good luck with finding a cause and cure.

[ezzy333]

I wouldn't even guess if or what kind of allergy it might be but the symptoms would be consistant with a reaction to fleas. Think I would go along with the vets advice or get a new vet if you don't think he knows what he is doing.

Ezzy

[Elias]

he said its related to food. i trust my vet. hope in 7 days the dogs will be better. am gona switch to nutragold for allergies.
i have never found a single flea on my dog, they are always sprayed and well groomed and i check them everyday.

[jlp8cornell]

i think this started to happen when i started using frontline, i dunno if some dogs develop this, even the hair looks like its standing up.

This could very well be your answer. Yes, some dogs do have allergies to topical flea and tick control.

[mcbosco]

he said its related to food. i trust my vet. hope in 7 days the dogs will be better. am gona switch to nutragold for allergies.
i have never found a single flea on my dog, they are always sprayed and well groomed and i check them everyday.

There is no harm in trying a new food but think about anything else that could have a caused a contact reaction. Shampoo, bedding etc. You mentioned Frontline. Was that the first time you ever used it?

[Elias]

everytime i used frontline i noticed the hair on the back like standing up, but it never crossed my mind that it could be an allergy or something until now when the hair looked this way thin and falling. i started prednisone today and zyrtec. will tell u how it goes in 7 days. thank you

[Nhuskr]

My lab has severe allergies to several types of ragweed, which were diagnosed after blood testing. It took a couple of years for us to get that diagnosis.

The first year he developed severe itching, inflammation of skin, hair loss, etc. My son had taken him to the state fair for 4-H and the vet thought he had picked up mange, even though he couldn't find any of the little buggers. Put him on prednisone to help with the skin infections from scratching. I don't remember him having uncontrolled peeing problems, but he did have excessive thirst, which led to more frequent urination.

Year number 2, we went through the same thing, except we hadn't been anywhere for him to contract the mange. We followed the same treatment pattern of prednisone, chlorphenamarine (sp?), and Relief shampoos 3 times a week. After the first hard frost, his itchy conditions went away.

Year 3, we started him on the chlorphenamarine before ragweed season started, along with the shampoos, helped some, but still had hair loss and itching. At least we didn't have to put him on the prednisone. The next year we decided to pay to have the allergy testing done, and it came back positive for ragweed and a few other things. He's been on allergy shots for two years now, and this fall was the first year he didn't lose any hair.

A long story to say, I wish I'd had him tested sooner. Colby wouldn't have had to suffer for so many seasons. You might want to consider asking your vet to do the testing. It didn't cost as near as much as I thought it would. If you can pinpoint exactly what he's allergic to, you can make the changes necessary sooner.

Good luck,

Cheryl

[Elias]

its not about the money and cost! its about the vets here! they dont have the necessary equipments and tools for the right tests! i wish i lived abroad!
i will ask my vet next week if he can do the tests. after reading ur post and getin it all in my head i am noticing that last year at the same time after being in the same forest my dog developed those symptoms, it could be a plant or so. i hope we have allergies tests!

[Elias]

Corticosteroids
These compounds reduce itching by reducing inflammation. Unfortunately, they also affect every organ in the body. According to Dr. Ackerman, steroids should be considered only when the allergy season is short, the amount of drug required is small or as a last resort to relieve a dog in extreme discomfort. Side effects can include increased thirst and appetite, increased need to urinate and behavioral changes. Long term use can result in diabetes, decreased resistance to infection and increased susceptibility to seizures. You can recognize steroids by the suffix "-one", such as cortisone, dexamethasone, prednisone..etc.. In short, alternatives to steroid therapy should always be considered



should i stop prednisone for my dog:S??

[dog dr]

your vet can do the test. all that is required is to draw some blood and send it off.

[wems2371]

I'm not sure that there is a drug that doesn't have side effects, whether it be for humans or animals. I recently had a dog on prednisone, and yes, she pee'd A LOT...especially when the dosage was 2x a day.

I don't know how many times or how much prednisone your vet has you giving...but in some cases, as I understand it, you don't want to stop giving it abruptly. That in itself can cause serious problems. My vet had me taper my dog off of it. I took it once myself for poison ivy, and that was a tapering off process too. That may not apply to you if you're doing a short period of treatment, but I would seek veterinarian advice about it first.

[shags]

Elias -

I've had dogs with allergies in the past and my vet put them on corticosteroids as your vet has done with your dog. We had success by giving them what my vet called a loading dose to help immediately, and I was instructed to decrease the dose to the lowest possible while still relieving the itching. For example, might give 1 pill two times a day for a day or two, then give a half pill a day twice a day for several days, then go to a half pill once a day, etc. One some dogs I was able to maintain relief on a half pill every other day; sometimes that was too low and I upped the dose to the previous one. This regimen was adjusted to give the steroids for the shortest time possible - sometimes several weeks, sometimes several months.

Doing it this way minimizes a lot of the side effects once the dose is at the lower end.

The dog must not stop steroids abrutply, because the adrenal glands need time to gradually re-establish function, so when you want to try to discontinue the medication, wean him off slowly.

Ask your vet what he thinks about follwing a similar protocol.

[Nhuskr]

I've had dogs with allergies in the past and my vet put them on corticosteroids as your vet has done with your dog. We had success by giving them what my vet called a loading dose to help immediately, and I was instructed to decrease the dose to the lowest possible while still relieving the itching. For example, might give 1 pill two times a day for a day or two, then give a half pill a day twice a day for several days, then go to a half pill once a day, etc.
Doing it this way minimizes a lot of the side effects once the dose is at the lower end.

The dog must not stop steroids abrutply, because the adrenal glands need time to gradually re-establish function, so when you want to try to discontinue the medication, wean him off slowly.

Ask your vet what he thinks about follwing a similar protocol.

+1

Your vet should have given you dosing instructions, with a weaning plan. Colby was on the prednisone for about a month was all. You still need to wean them off slowly.

Cheryl

[Elias]

dosage and lenght of prednisone: 10mg/day for 7days. zyrtec 20mg/day/7days.
so its 1 pil of prednisone 10 and 2 pills of zyrtec/day.
i asked him today he said no need to tapper off since its for a short period of time, he said to c him in 7 days to c how the dog is doing, if its worse he will prescribe an antibiotic for him. and he advised me to always give half a pill of prednisone before hunting and half of it in the same day at night, he think its the best choice for not flaring the allergies back.


i am almost 100% positive that its due to something in the forest near my winter time, cause in the summer house my dog was doing great with no allergies at all, once we got back to the winter house and started playing again in the nearby forest he got this allergie. next time i c the vet ill tell him to test the blood.

[Nhuskr]

dosage and lenght of prednisone: 10mg/day for 7days. zyrtec 20mg/day/7days.
so its 1 pil of prednisone 10 and 2 pills of zyrtec/day.

i am almost 100% positive that its due to something in the forest near my winter time, cause in the summer house my dog was doing great with no allergies at all, once we got back to the winter house and started playing again in the nearby forest he got this allergie. next time i c the vet ill tell him to test the blood.

Elias, you may have to wait until next season to have the allergy test done. Any antihistamines given to the dog may skew/hide any potential allergy results. When I had Colby tested, he had been on the chlorophenamarine for only a day-and-a-half, and the vet was reluctant to do the test. I talked her into doing it anyway, and luckily for us, he was still almost off the chart for ragweed. We couldn't do it in the spring, because the vet said, he wouldn't have any histamines showing in his system for ragweed (this was when we were guessing what he was allergic to).

Keep talking with your vet, and let him guide you. Really all we can do is share our experiences with itchy dogs, and give you some ideas to discuss with your vet.

Have a great day!

Cheryl

[Chaingang]

everytime i used frontline i noticed the hair on the back like standing up, but it never crossed my mind that it could be an allergy or something until now when the hair looked this way thin and falling. i started prednisone today and zyrtec. will tell u how it goes in 7 days. thank you

Most antihistamines given in the correct dosages give roughly 20% of the dogs some relief, some may work better than others. There are several that you can try and your vet may suggest trying one for 2 weeks to see if it works before trying another.

Atopica (trade name for cyclosporine), works very well in about 75% of the dogs with atopy. I have tried it on my pooch and it worked well. I elected to try and manage it another way as initially Atopica can be quite costly. However, if you do go the Atopica route normally you will see good results in a couple weeks and then the dosage can be tapered off and that lowers the cost considerably. The other thing about Atopica is that there are few if any side affects, and they offer rebates quite frequently.

If you go the corticosteroids route you may have to experiment on just the right amount to keep the symptoms at bay. Also common with allergies is the onset of a secondary bacterial skin infection and a combo of antibiotics and low dose steriods usually treats the symptoms very well. Find the right combo and start treating before the allergy season gets going and you can lessen the severity of the symptoms drastically.

Good luck, it can be very frustrating.

[Elias]

I ll talk to my vet about atopica and c wut he will say. thank you all for the help, and yes its very frustrating!

[Chaingang]

I ll talk to my vet about atopica and c wut he will say. thank you all for the help, and yes its very frustrating!

Forgot to mention. You may also look into testing as you might be lucky enough to find out what the offending allergen is and then treat with Immunotherapy (hyposensitization injections). Again this route won't be cheap either initially.

I might mention too the actual testing procedures, actually two types.
1. Blood tests typically known as RAST & ELISA. From what I was told they present less accurate results many times due to so- called false positives. The tests were originally designed for humans as I understand .

2. Intradermal skin testing. This is far and away the preferred test by Veterinary dermatologists and most accurate. The dog is sedated and a small area is shaved. Then different antigens (many times up to 60 or more) in very small quantities are injected and observed for a raised reaction. It works quite well with many atopic dogs. Unfortunately it was inconclusive in my own case.

You can read more on testing here: http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm ... 44&aid=504

[dog dr]

if you decide to try the atopica, get the generic, its about half the price.