Animal And Company: RE: [boxer lovers] Okay -- strange hives

Hi Lisa,

My goodness, do I ever feel for you with trying to figure out the source of
Meg's allergy. My little one (11/12 mos old) has had terrible allergies. She
not only broke into hives nearly every day when she was young, but I have
had 4 episodes where her face swelled up so bad that I had to take her to
the vet urgently for a steroid injection. I home cooked for her for the
first 7 months giving her a wide variety of food and concluded that chicken
did not suit her well. My senior girl's care takes so much time that I
started Gabby on Orijen free range red with stella and chewy's raw beef
several times a week. She ended up with a yeast infection in her toe nails
and then two weeks later a yeasty infection in her ear. We haven't had hives
since she was a baby and it's been months since a bad face swelling, but
tonight she was chewing her paw again. I can't tell if she injured her dew
claw or has another yeast infection under toe nails, but we'll be off to the
vet tomorrow. I'm going to completely eliminate the kibble for Gabby for a
week and see if the pink color on her chest and chin goes away, if not, then
I'm going to put her on a novel protein.

I did Dr Dodd's saliva allergy test on both of my girls and I don't think it
was accurate. What allergy test did you do on Meg? I'm not sure if Gabby is
allergic to beef now or if it's something in the kibble. My senior has
likely IBD (too ill for an endo) along with chronic pancreatitis and kidney
disease, so I put her on a diet of bison for protein back in Sept and it's
worked really well for her. I have to get her the 99% lean stuff, so I order
it from wildidea.com but buffalo meat is readily available in stores such as
Sprouts. Maggie just can't even tolerate the fat in the bison meat available
locally, so I have to keep her on this 99% lean stuff. For Christmas I
bought her some kangaroo meat, which she LOVED, but if I thought the 99%
lean bison was expensive, kangaroo for her was over the top. Rayne makes a
kangaroo sweet potato dog food that I'm thinking about trying for Gabby..
Maggie can't have it because of the phos and the fat they add to it for
being a regular dog food. When I say regular, it's actually meant to be a
food to use for dogs with allergies.

If Gabby doesn't have the pink go away eliminating the kibble, I'm going to
order her the Rayne kangaroo and sweet potato and see how she does with
that. We just don't know if her allergies and thus the yeast infections are
environmental or from food. This doesn't have any of the ingredients that
are on your do not feed Meg list, so maybe something to look into.

Boxer hugs and kisses,

Heather, mom to
Maggie/boxer/65 lbs/11 +yrs/ CKD, chronic pancreatitis, hypothyroidism,
arthritis, arrhythmia controlled by sotalol, adult onset epilepsy, likely
IBD and now a heart condition suspected to be ARVC or DCM
&
Gabby/boxer/70 lbs/11 mos/Major dietary indiscretions crazy puppy syndrome
:)
Orange County, CA

From: boxerlovers@yahoogroups.com [mailto:boxerlovers@yahoogroups.com] On
Behalf Of Lisa Wiser
Sent: Friday, December 28, 2012 8:00 AM
To: boxerlovers@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [boxer lovers] Okay -- strange hives

Thanks, Yvonne, for your well thought out questions and suggestions.

No spraying -- at least AFAIK. This seemed to really hit when we started
getting truly cold temperatures. All through Oct and Nov and even some
into Dec we flirted with 50+ degree days getting cold at night. It was
once we started getting multiple cold days and nights that she started
actually having hives. I kept eliminating things ... but there's
something very strange here.

Nothing new as far as cleaning products. I buy from the Sam's Club and
it's just me and Meg so "stuff" lasts a long time. I haven't washed
blankets since long before this started. I take a large load of blankets
to the laudramat and use their GIANT machines. So, all blankets have
been washed at the same time using the same stuff.

As to food, I actually had Meg blood-tested for allergies ... a complete
panel. Chicken, turkey and eggs (poultry) were all on the "she's way
allergic NOW" list. Soy was borderline Duck wasn't but there's something
that doesn't agree with her tummy -- her meals come right back up. No
indication of problems with pork, venison, bison, rabbit. However,
except for pork (and that requires cooking or long term freezing ....
and I don't have the freezer space for that), as does the venison and
rabbit -- which are not readily available. I don't know about the
handling of the bison .. but I'm not sure where I'd find it and I'm not
sure whether that form of a bovine would be any different. So, we may be
in a world of stink if she's now allergic to beef! Her complete
"allergic" food list (and there were even more environmental -- but
looking at the list, there were only certain things I could control):
Chicken
Turkey
Green Peas
Peanuts
Eggs
Brewers Yeast
Alfalfa
Pumpkin

Looking at that list, I think you can see what lead me to going
completely off ANY commercial dog food ... it ain't easy finding a food
she can eat without at least one of those ingredients. And I had to
literally read the ingredients label EVERY time I bought ... because I
had things show up in a food I had been feeding. Buying a known item --
beef -- from a trusted source -- a real, honest to goodness butcher not
the grocery store -- seemed the sanest!

HOWEVER -- so far there's no real rhyme or reason to the hives showing
up. I thought it was something outdoors. But we had blizzard conditions
on the 26th and the Girly-Girl was having NOTHING with going out into
the wind and snow. Then on the 27th it wasn't until late in the evening
that she even ventured out to just past the back door. HOWEVER, even
before she ate anything the morning of the 27th? The hives started. She
hadn't done more than stuck her nose outside the back door and said "unh
uh ... put out the potty paper!"

We have an appointment Monday with the vet. I don't know that we'll try
the allergy test again then. It may be an attempt to stop whatever
allergen long enough to give her a chance to "strengthen up." Maybe a
steroid shot? That's worked in the past when she's had itchy attacks.
But, that will be up to her vet on Monday.

Thanks, everyone!

LisaW

Yvonne wrote:
>
> Maybe something enviromental, like something a neighbour is doing,
> spraying ? Or the city ? New hand lotion ? Air freshener ? It is also
> possible that she has developed an allergy or sensitivity to beef.
> Allergies to chicken and beef are the most common, apparently the
> vaccines have to be attached/grown on a type of protein and the most
> common types are chicken and beef which can then cause sensitivities
> to the same proteins. I would recommend a novel protein and see if it
> clears up. Turkey may be a good one to try next, if she has never had
> before ? Or buffalo ? Venison ? Ostrich? Salmon ? You could add lamb
> in later too, I usually recommend a wide variety of proteins as
> possible but if she has a sensitivity, I would try one out for week or
> two and if the results are great and then gradually add more one at a
> time, but stay away from chicken and beef. I put Billie on buffalo for
> a couple monthes a couple years ago when her head was bumpy, a rash
> maybe, as a puppy and it cleared up immediately and then I gradually
> introduced more, now she eats many different proteins in the week and
> is perfect. My best friend has a boxer, 3 yrs old bitch, with IBD and
> is feeding only turkey, for the last 9 monthes and it is a vast
> improvement, we thought we were going to lose her girl last spring.
> Yvonne and Billie Holiday.
>

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