Searching for some answers about Allergies

[Jayme Conners]

Greetings everyone, I am new to this forum and to the sad world of EPI doggies.
My German Shepherd, Aurora, began getting sick at 9 months and at 10.5 months we finally had an answer. We started with the tablets, didn't have much success with them, so we moved to powder form. We started to put on some weight and gain more energy from this with some Fortiflora powder(Morning) on her food and a half a 800 mcg Vitamin B-12 tablet in her food twice a day. Then someone got the itchy scratchies!!! We tried a few different foods the Dr. told us to stick with a sensitive stomach formula and we did some allergy testing. With heavy hearts found out someone is allergic to almost all proteins! Her test came back with allergies to Aspergillus (not to important), Milk, Oats, Ground Flaxseed, Kangaroo, Beef Liver, Turkey, Beet Pulp, Beef, Chicken, Pinto Beans, Duck, Venison, Fish Mix, Pork, Lamb (All Important). She isn't yet but borderline to Eggs, Barley, Rabbit and Brewer's Yeast. After this the Vet at the time gave her an allergy shot, and some Metronidazole 500mg for ten days to help with the soft stools. He said I would need to continue these shots every 4 weeks or so for her symptoms. Then made a suggestion that melted my heart and I don't want to talk about that.
I relocated vets and we are starting a few things in hopes to get her back on track but she is still not showing much progress. Because this all started with her heat cycle, we have spayed her in hopes that the lack of estrogen in her system will correct some of the issues. We changed her over to the only food I could find that didn't have an allergen in called Purina Pro Plan HA it is a Hydrolyzed Soy Protein food. I also have been trying to work this RX Zyme into her food instead if using so much of the Pancrezyme to help with her allergies and that seems to not be working very well.
I have reached out to Susan she has mentioned I check out the different enzymes on the website in which I will be doing some more research and suggested CREON. She Also suggested that I open up a discussion on her forum to see if anyone else has any suggestions or has dealt with this or a similar situation. I have a vet appointment with Aurora Monday in which I will be discussing some more matters with them for her and this will be addressed as an option. My Vet isn't very familiar with this either so we are working through it together. Mostly I research and she is okay with the trials we are trying.
If anyone has any suggestions for me or any answers for us please please help! We love this little girl with all our hearts and just want to make her life comfortable and as long as we can. We are looking at her first birthday and I am so thankful we have made it this far, but we want many more.
Thank You!

[Tuckaboo Pam]

Hi, Jayme, I'm Pam in Florida. I just wanted to say that I have seen other posts in this group, concerning EPI dogs with allergies, and I'm sure a staff member will be responding soon. Keep checking back, and ask all questions you have in your head. The experienced people on this forum know their stuff, and you will get lots of help. I'm glad you're getting a new vet, ---Pam & Tucker

[Madelon]

Hi Jayme and welcome to our EPI family. I can TOTALLY relate! My boy developed food sensitivities after he was diagnosed with EPI - like yours he's sensitive to LOTS of foods (I had him tested with the NutriScan saliva test as well as a blood test through our vet) AND on top of that he has severe environmental allergies.

So, a couple of questions first - what was the B12, TLI and Folate results when your dog was diagnosed? Have you had the B12 retested to know where it's at now?

With the list of offending foods, I think it's wise to use a hydrolyzed food, HOWEVER, there are only about 3 or 4 TRULY hydrolyzed foods and the one that seems to work best with EPI dogs is Royal Canin Ultamino. My boy is on a combination of Royal Canin Adult Hydrolyzed and Sport Dog Food Elite Herding. You will need a prescription from your vet for the hydrolyzed food but honestly that's where I would start. Give it a few weeks because it takes several weeks for their bodies to get rid of all the offending previous food and reset. If the poops don't get better I would suggest trying Slippery Elm Bark powder - if after a few days there's no improvement then you might need to try one of the other hydrolyzed foods (I know Hills has one - not sure if the Purina one you are using a true hydrolyzed food or not - if it is you'll need a prescription). Sometimes for reasons we don't understand not all hydrolyzed foods agree with the dog even though that's what they need. Lastly, if you see improvement on the food and try Slippery Elm Bark powder and it gets worse then I would ask the vet for a prescription for Tylan antibiotic powder (give for 45 days and slowly wean off).

Please let us know how things go

[Jean]

Good morning from the uk

my Shep Kai had problems with allergies all of his life, he was allergic to grass seeds amomg other things, so when we went for a walk we had to wash his paws on return and his nose, and if he rolled then hose him down

he took Piriton all of his life which helped considerably

My EPI girl Kara was diagnosed with allergies to beef, pork, chicke, white fish, but we were fortunate in that she tollerated porcine enzymes, she wasnt scratching but had bouts of gastro problems ,ear issues, paw problems etc so the vet tested her by blood test

i see that the allergies include pork, what enzymes are you using ?

Creon is also porcine, so if the scratching etc is a porcine allergy then eeeekkkkk, again my vet suggested Piriton for Kara because of her allergy to pork and having to take enzymes

and as for the vet discussing what I think they were , then I am glad you flew the nest

one of my friends had a beautiful huge New Foundland called Bear, he had spent thousands on this dog who pulled all of his coat out and was becoming bald, he was talking about letting him go, and i persuaded him to go grain free, he recovered and lived another few years, this may not be the answer for you but interesting

so what about soya food ? its not something I know much about but needs must

I am going to ask our founder and researcher to jump in here with any wisdom she has

Jeann

[Olesia711]

Hi Jamye, welcome to our EPI family, BUT i am so sorry that you sweetie, Aurora, has allergy issues that need to be dealt with. UGH!!!!!!!!!!!! I feel for you. I have had dogs with Cushings, EPI, Diabetes and Allergies.... and the worst (IMHO) to deal with is allergies.... at least all the other you can control, but allergies, OMG .. it is like a never ending battle

First, even though Aurora has tested positive for allergies with pork... i still strongly advise you to try CREON... because even some EPI dogs with known pork allergies were fine with taking CREON. CREON is expensive and you will need a prescription for CREON, but since we don't know for sure if our dog can tolerate CREON, If you would like, please email me ([email protected]) your physical mailing address, and i can see if i can arrange for a sample of CREON to be mailed to you so that you can try it before you have your vet write a script and buy some.

Next.... can you please share with me what the scoring was for the allergy test and Aurora's test results.... you can just take a PDF of the test results and post here. The reason why i am asking is because allergy testing companies will tell you, for example, any test results over 100 means the dog is allergic to it. HOWEVER... canine allergy tests have been known for being highly inaccurate UNLESS the test results are off the charts. I had my dog tested against my vet's advice. My Lulu had a ton of "positive" responses to a lot of proteins and grasses well over 100 and up to 300. In reality, none of these cause an issue and she is fine. But then Vet was shocked and said OMG.... now that is a sever and real allergy. In retrospect, I am so glad i had the allergy test done because then we were able to come up with a plan on how to try an manage it. And it has gone thru MANY management trials over the years....

SOOOOOO this is why i would love to know what the individual score were to these protein allergies.... which may better help us help you discern how to treat her EPI.

Next.... allergy treatment.... UGH.............
1st we started with Prednisone, worked great for a while, but then we had to keep increasing it until Lulu got to the max.... so then we had to try something else.
2nd we did the antigen shots.... i hated that, dog didn't mind, but it really didn't help that much
3rd we changed from the shots to Allercept THerapy drops ... this worked for a LONG time.... but then after a few years, it didn't work as well any more.
4th so then we moved on to Apoquel.. This helped tremendously for many years (guessing about 5), although i did have to double dose a little over a years ago.... but then noticed it is not as effective anymore AND new vet refuses to prescribe Apoquel.... so............
5th Now we are on Cytopoint... and injection monthly or bi monthly depending on the dog's needs. THis worked immediately and so far i am VERY pleased... IMHO this has the best overall immediate response.

Not sure if Cytopoint is what your vet gave Aurora since you mentioned a shot.

Anyway... to my knowledge medical treatment for allergies typically is as follows: Steroids/Prednisone Cyclosporine, Apoquel, Cytopoint.

And then you get into all the varied home-help management like washing the feet, cleaning ears/body (povidone solution & water, or baking soda & water both kill bacteria ) and of course serving special food. I personally have been advised to give "Derm Defense" dog food that supposedly addresses allergies from the inside out... and i have to freeze the food/kibble to kill any storage mites in our particular case. SO far this food has worked for us.... but not sure if this food would be applicable to Aurora's case since Aurora has protein allergies vs. environmental allergies. ... in which case i too would like to reiterate what Madelon suggested, to try a hydrolyzed food, specifically start with "Ultamino" made by Royal Canine. start with a small bag first to see if it helps . This is a prescription food.

SO...........first, i think you need to determine if this is a real pork Allergy, next try a hydrolyzed food and lets try CREON first for the enzyme treatment. If CREON doesn't work....then we can revisit this for other options.

[Jayme Conners]

Aurora's allergy results

Screenshot_20201005-085912.png (683.79 KiB) Viewed 2737 times

[Jayme Conners]

I am gonna be posting some of Aurora's results here slowly. I'm hoping you guys will understand them. Unfortunately I don't at this time. For the most part it has been more diagnosing the issues so far. We found all this out the first week of August and time has flown by with vet appointments and trying to figure her poor body out. I really am super glad that I have found a community of people that are going through and have been through some of these issues as well. And the success stories are what we are looking at the most! Thank you so very much!

[Olesia711]

Thank you Jamye for posting these results... VERY helpful!

IMHO..... the ONLY thing i would really avoid is MILK, OATS and FLAXSEED.... interestingly your dog was given the same Full Panel Allergy blood test that my gal was given....by IDEXX.

It was explained to me not to freak out with any test results in the 100'S.... only start being concerned if well out of that range... So i am attaching my dog's test results so you can see what i am talking about... and with our's these 3 were the ONLY ones my vet was concerned about:
3,668 STORAGE MITES ( my apologies that i wrote that my Lulu's test results were 4,000 for storage mites... i forgot the actual #)
3,361 DUST MITES
412 CAT DANDER

My vet also told me not to be overly concerned with these following that were flagged... just to not "over do".... and for us, this has worked:
177 SOYBEAN..... and has no issues with it, and also has no issues with the following:
137 BREWER'S YEAST
134 FLAXSEED
118 MILK'
113 EGGS

SOOOOOoooooo.... in comparison.... it might be that your area of concerns may not be that much of a problem at all... like the pork.... which for Aurora is only 87 which is UNDER 100 . If you are "willing" my suggestion would be to go ahead and try a sample of the real porcine powdered enzymes since the Pork Allergy here is very minute. "IF" there seems to be an "itchy" reaction..... THEN try the CREON as was suggested earlier. IN the meantime.... Tomorrow we will be mailing you a sample of the CREON to try (just in case- -so that you have some on hand). Thank you for you private email with your mailing address. We will help you help Aurora get her EPI under good control while still adhering to her allergy issues as best we can

[Jayme Conners]

Aurora's EPI results

Screenshot_20201005-120929.png (1.23 MiB) Viewed 2724 times

[Olesia711]

well... she definitely has EPI.... but the good news is that her B12 is good and does not need B12 supplementation at this time. She is one of the lucky ones cause over 80% of dogs that test positive for EPI have to have B12 supplementation!!! Just know that someday in the future she will eventually need some B12 supplementation but that can be years from now.

Thanks for posting. This helps!