Allergic Reaction

[FirearmFan]

A couple days ago we noticed tufts of raised hair on our French Bulldog. Upon closer inspection she had several welts or areas of raised skin and was having a skin irritation to something. My wife is a nurse and she checked her breathing and heart rate and it seemed fine and the dog didn't appear to indicate any discomfort so we decided to watch it for a day. Yesterday they were worse so my wife brought her into the vet and they gave us some prednisone to give to her. The welts seem to come and go and the dog seems fine otherwise so at this point I'm not too worried but I'm wondering what could have caused it. She hasn't changed her diet at all. She hasn't gotten into anything she wasn't supposed to. It has been consistently -10 degrees to -25 degrees so she hasn't been spending much time outside. Nothing has changed. The only thing I can think of is we got the dogs a new toy, a durable rubber chew toy in the shape of a tire. The toy is branded Petstages Orka. My springer has not had any reaction to anything. Has anyone ever had a dog get a reaction from a new toy?

[Sharon]

No toy problems here. Once you start thinking about allergies, there's no end to the possibilities. Prednisone works great but a dog can't take it for too long so I'm told.

[wems2371]

I don't know if dogs ever have latex allergies like people, but maybe that toy has something in it like that? Seems doubtful though. Watch the bumps to make sure they don't turn into a staph infection. A few years back, after a Lepto shot, one of my dogs got welts on her muzzle. A few days later they looked infected. My vet suspected some kind of allergic reaction with secondary staph infection. He put her on Prednisone and Cephalexin antibiotic. The Prednisone was a short burst of a few days, but when the staph didn't look as good as he'd liked after treatment, we did a longer course of Prednisone and another course of Cephalexin. It is with the longer dose of Prednisone, that we had to wean/taper her off.

[Cajun Casey]

Any chance of a dead rodent in the vicinity? Rodent mites move fast and cause acute reactions from welts to full blown dermatitis.

[FirearmFan]

Any chance of a dead rodent in the vicinity? Rodent mites move fast and cause acute reactions from welts to full blown dermatitis.

It's possible outside but unlikely that she would get into one without myself or my wife noticing. We live in a rural area and don't have a fenced in yard so we always take her outside on a leash. My springer won't stray too far but we rescued the frenchy and she doesn't really know how to stick close. Our house is only one year old and I don't think I've ever even seen a spider in the house let alone a rodent so I hope there wouldn't be one inside.

One day into her prednisone and her welts are gone and she is looking good. We're keeping a eye on her but hopefully whatever it was has come and gone.