It was meant to be sarcasm. There was a reason I put "Food allergies" in quotations. It was meant to be taken as my dog that everyone said that had food allergies that I believe now does not.

Did the vet have you start off with a high dose of Temaril-P for 3 days and then taper off? Ruby started with 3 pills 1 time a day for 3 days and then 2 pills for 3 days and then down to 1 a day. Yes, they do make them lethargic, but will have more energy as the dosage goes down. Don't take him off of it just to see if he stops itching. Please follow the vets instructions.

Ruby is on a daily dose of Temaril-P long term. After allergy shots, raw food, ACV, weekly baths, thyroid meds and I'm sure I have missed something, this is what keeps her sane from the itching.

__________________

Vicky, mom to Ruby-5 years
Birthday 9/1/07

I disagree, if she is off the pills and still fine they may not have been doing anything to help her, if switching food works I'd take that over giving that stuff to my dog making him sick and lethargic any day


Sent from Petguide.com Free App

I'm curious as to how much Ruby is taking on Temaril-P. I've got an allergy boy (confirmed through testing) whose itch and cycle of never-ending infections (bacterial & yeast) was broken through the use of Atopica but he's unfortunately fallen into the 3% minority that develop other complications and I am now working with my vet for a new approach. Like you, I've gone down the path of allergy shots, weekly baths, thyroid is fine. My vet is extremely reluctant to pursue long-term steroid use even at a low dose, but I think we're at that point where we have to balance quantity of life to quality.

In theory, for a food trial to be the answer, it takes 2-3 months for it to work. The temaril p is a combo of steroid and antihistamine so has profound anti itch effects. I agree with A1Malinois that food allergies are much more infrequent than dog food sellers would have us all believe. I missed how old the dog in question is, but allergies are also less common in dogs under one year of age. Atopic dermatitis can present like a food allergy, and I have seen sarcoptic mange "diagnosed" as an allergy...

__________________
Janice and The Celebration Gang -
"Samantha, George, Tiki, Emily, Mick and Basil" Gone but not forgotten, Sally(Windjammer's Ima Country Girl CDX CGC), Laney(Mandell Marlenes Celebration UD RA CGC), and Cookie(Starseeker's Kissmas Cookie CDX RE CGC).

What's he allergic to?


Sent from Petguide.com Free App

The last 3 vets I saw with Lincoln the SECOND I brought up itching it was "Oh, food allergies, we have a special food for that I will go get a quote" and food companies have started to make "special" foods for dogs with "food allergies" as a pivot point to sell. I always thought mine had food allergies, I do not think that anymore. I do however am still a little picky with ingredients corn and wheat are the two ones I just cant feed.

My current vet, said it could be food allergies and a trial is the only way to figure it out. He said food allergy testing is not accurate. I did the trial, tried a couple, nothing made a difference. Mine shows the "symptoms" of a food allergy many say.

And you never want to stop anything with steroid in it, suddenly... You must taper... The lab that does the blood testing for food allergies for us has told us the blood test is useless... You must do a food trial.

__________________
Janice and The Celebration Gang -
"Samantha, George, Tiki, Emily, Mick and Basil" Gone but not forgotten, Sally(Windjammer's Ima Country Girl CDX CGC), Laney(Mandell Marlenes Celebration UD RA CGC), and Cookie(Starseeker's Kissmas Cookie CDX RE CGC).

yea, unfortunately the tests are pretty useless, especially for food sensitivities, i would try a minimalist diet slowly adding things, i find this easier when feeding raw, but if you can find kibble with few ingredients you can manage

I checked the bottle of Temaril-P and it didn't have the mg. amount. At this point she is on 1 pill a day indefinitely. The meds with everything else I do for Ruby keeps her out of the vets office and her quality of life is better.

She was allergy tested almost 3 years ago and the environmental list is long. The food list is lamb, duck, barley, rice, wheat, oat, pea, soy and oatmeal. The reason she is on raw is because I have not found a dry food on the market that doesn't contain one or all of these items. In reality, the food allergy caused her great digestive distress (vomit and runs). Since, changing up her diet, these symptoms have greatly improved. The biting, itching and scratching did not.

She also suffers from autoimmune thyroiditis which is controlled by meds.

__________________

Vicky, mom to Ruby-5 years
Birthday 9/1/07