New to the bulldog world - allergies

[lisastrathern]

Hi Everyone, Im a new bulldog owner and my 5month old pup Guinness has recently come down with some kind of allergic reaction. Its coming into summertime here in Australia and from what I have read on the forums could be common with grass etc. I thought I would post some pics and hopefully someone has seen something similar on their bully and got a good remedy. We have been using Pyohex shampoo from the vet and have an appointment to hopefully get him some antihistamines later. Foodwise he is on Royal Canin Medium Junior, and up until last week I was adding a home cooked beef mince/garlic/rice stew to it (he wont eat it unless it has some kind of moist food on top). The vet said beef could be the issue so cut that out and have been putting chicken on it (which he loves) but from reading here that could also be an allergen. Other treats are cottage cheese occasionally, pigs ears to chew on, and all natural liver treat balls for training.

His allergies dont seem to bug him overly - he does chew on his feet quite a bit though, but they are definitely getting worse and sometimes the ones in his neck folds start to bleed which is really worrying.

Any ideas??

 

[JAKEISGREAT]

Wow! Well welcome to the forum..there will be great advice here for you. The licking of feet..red raw wrinkles..hives..bumps..are ALL signs of allergies. There are much more experienced people here than me and they will weigh in soon. I DO know Royal Canin is not very highly thought of. I'm not sure what is available to you in Australia. While you wait why don't you search our dog food ratings and see if you recognize an available food.

 

[2BullyMama]

OMGoodness.... first, welcome to the wonderful of bulldogs and EBN!

:sigh: allergies!!! I am a pro, unfortunately, both my bullies are allergic to everything green.. grass, trees, weeds, molds, etc... my girl is allergic to chicken and my boy to rice and dairy. so, it could be anything. here are a few suggestions:

-- wipe his feet when you come in the house
-- give a foot bath in epsom salt a few times a week
-- give 50mg of benedryl twice a day.. if issue with getting him take the pill -- wrap it in vanilla ice cream
-- ask your vet to do a full blood screen allergy test... it will tell you exactly what the allergen is

 

[aprilemari]

-- give 50mg of benedryl twice a day.. if issue with getting hin take the pill -- wrap it in vanilla ice cream

or you can crush them up and put them in cream cheese or peanut butter which is what we did for Lola when we gave her some wheat bread.oops.

 

[MissPennyLue]

Poor Guy. You are definitely in the right place for help.

I would look into the food ratings as well. I haven't read the best things about Royal Canin in my research. I would just start reading, reading, reading on this site. You will learn SO much & hopefully be able to help your baby!

 

[BruceP]

to EBN. I;m glad you joined and have come to us with your questions. There is a wealth of combined Bulldog knowledge here for you to utilize. Bullies are special and what works for other dogs doesn't necessarily work for bullies so unless the vet sees a lot of bullies applying general dog knowledge sometimes isn't too effective. Diet is one of these areas. Your vet has told you that beef could be the problem for example; our bulldog does very well on Fromm BEEF Fritatta which is Grain free and CHICKEN free because we suspect she is allergic to chicken... go figure. lol And to make it worse, every bully seems to be different. Trial and error seems to be the only way to truly find what works for your bully. We have a food rating chart here on EBN compiled just for bullies which will steer you in the right direction.
Now having said all that Allergy testing is probably the best way to go about it. There is one member here that tried many different foods and finally had her bully tested and found out it was allergic to RICE, found in most foods. She could have gone on for years without finding that out. Testing does take a lot of the frustration out of solving the issue. And to top it off, it may not even be a food issue. Anyway, again, welcome and feel free to join right in.
Bruce

 

[kayrahbear]

to EBN! There's no better place to ask about Bully Allergies- most owners on here have experience with them to some degree. Guinness is a very handsome boy. He's having almost exactly the same reaction Roscoe did when he was eating Royal Canin. [MENTION=2894]2BullyMama[/MENTION] had great advice- I just wanted to say hello and welcome! :D:D

 

[cowsmom]

I would cut out all that stuff you are feeding your bully till you find out what is causing this. Just kibble only n whatever you are using to get him to eat. Bullies can have many allergies so the simpler the better till you know what the allergies are. In a bit you may want to try a one protein one carb food try to pinpoint food allergies. This could be environmental also and [MENTION=2894]2BullyMama[/MENTION] gave excellent advice on that front. Get them allergy tested. Welcome to bullyworld

 

[karenben]

get him off rc its crap!!!,find a grain free adult food that suits him and keep him on it,i cant advise on kibble as i raw feed but many bully owners here feed great kibbles,if he starts scratching put some nappy rash cream on him and pop a tshirt on him to stop any secondary infection,when you change his kibble do it very slowly and remember it could take weeks for the allergy to go if it is food related,also stop any treats for now till he has cleared up.if its yeast cut out his carbs and any sugar ,bullys are hard work if you get 1 thats allergic to something,good luck,karen

 

[lisastrathern]

Wow, thanks everyone for all your responses. I will get him off RC asap - he doesnt much like it anyway, but I wanted to be sure he was getting all the right minerals etc and the breeder was feeding that when I got him. I will check out the food ratings for a better alternative. We went to the vet today and he did skin scrapings and found Demodex mange mites in his sores so hes now on antibiotics for the skin infection and a shot to kill the parasites which he has to have weekly for around 6 weeks. Apparently he would have got them from his mother, but the vet thinks we can get it under control with that and twice weekly shampooing with the Pyohex shampoo. I chose a vet here that a major EBD breeder uses so they know bully's quite well.

As an interesting aside, vet said I should cut out garlic as while most think it great to keep fleas away, its related to the onion so can make dogs quite sick if they have too much.

I am hopeful to see improvement quite soon - and him back to his usual boisterous self!

Thanks again!

 

[Vicaroo1000]

Hi @Lisatrathern! I missed chimeing in on a familiar topic here - but you got some fantastic advice from some folks who helped ME (and continue to help me) with the very same thing. Use the search thing and type in "HIVES" sometime. You'll stop reading about oh August 2012. hahahahaha

Currently, my duo are on a STRICT food diet - no extras, no treats, no nothing - and IT'S KILLING ME. Bea and Bo, on the other hand, seem to be doing fairly well without cheetos and yogurt and ice cream everyday. *snork* But here's the kicker: yesterday afternoon, they broke out in itchy bumps - both of them - so it's gotta be something environmental because we spent a lot of time outside the day before.

Lotsa fun!

 

[Fontanafox]

Welcome to EBN. Let me say I love your bulldog and I love his dark ears. I'm assuming they're both dark as I can only see one clearly. They look so velvety. My dogs like their ears rubbed so I'm an expert by now. Allergies. Sucks, doesn't it? I've been battling allergies on my Wilson. Did the blood allergy test and now have him on NVI limited ingredient turkey. His skin is still full of small scabs and he's shedding like crazy. At least it seems his coat grows in as quickly as it's falling out. I'm frequently sweeping up the fur off of the linoleum. He takes skin and coat supplements so I assume that is why he's not bald. I haven't even walked him in a week to see if it's a plant or tree. He loves to walk through plants with long leaves to pee in so I don't want to take the chance it's one of those that's causing the allergy reaction. His test revealed he was allergies to fescue grass (which I think is what most lawns here are) and a handful of weeds and trees. He's also allergic to lamb, oats, pork, potatoes, venison and wheat. I usually wash his feet with water and Epsom salts twice a day. He's still taking antibiotics and steroids(weaning off now) from the vet and if I can't eliminate the allergens then we might try allergy shots while controlling symptoms with medications. I'm hoping to get a handle on this cause I love that big bully boy of mine to pieces! So you've already gotten a lot of good advice but I just wanted you to know you've come to the right place to ask questions and I've learned a lot here myself and continue to learn every time I come here. Thanks for sharing your story and your beautiful bulldog!

 

[KristinMarie]

Welcome to the bully forum. This has been a wealth of education as a newer bully owner myself. Please look through my posts to see how I had to handle demodex mange. This was what started my bully with the allergy/hives. He had to have the mitoban dips though which are really toxic. Hopefully your medication treats the mange. BTW - they say the bullies could continue to get manage up until their immune system gets stronger, so you will need to keep checking for mange periodically until he is 18 to 24 months old.

I also started on the Royal Canin (breeder recommended too!) - and had the same issues. I have tried quite a few other foods and had not found anything that was great until now. We are on a special prescription diet from his vet. You can get it online or at petco (I bought from my vet). It's called Prescription Hill d/d. Sensitive Skin formula. It has Venison and potato and my Rocco loves it. Dry - no wet food needed. Also - you should not give any other treats or food of any kind until you can rule out what is causing his allergies. So far - so good. We went on a oral antihistamine called Hyroxyzine 50 mg (Rocco weighs 47 lbs) so you need to dose the dog based on weight. Benadryl wasn't working great on Rocco but this seems to do the trick great. I have it on hand just in case his hives come back.

Rocco is doing great! No hives in 3 weeks! His coat is shiny and he seems very happy and healthy. We will keep him on this food indefintely if we have too. The food might be a little expensive $58 for 17.5 lb bag - but it is way cheaper than the vet bills and it's working. Which means no more uncomfortable hives and itchy spots for Rocco.

Good luck and keep us posted! Welcome!
Rocco's momma- Kristin

 

[lisastrathern]

Re: Update

Thought I would give everyone an update - its been 24 hours and after a tough night (he was very subdued, vomited a few times) seems to be ALOT better today. The spots are still there but not nearly as inflamed so am hopeful that with a couple more days will be even better. Hes back to being playful too - phew.

I also tracked down a Canidae supplier here in Brissi, so have already started the slow process of switching him off RCanin to the grain free all life stages Canidae. Thanks to anyone who helped with the food rating thread - it gave me such a head start! He seems to prefer it already.

Some updated pics here

 

[kayrahbear]

Hope the food switch works out for you! Don't get discouraged if you find you have to switch a few times. My little yorkie I used to have had mange mites once, that was such a pain to get rid of.
I love your bully's dark spot over his eye by the way. Adorable