Lola's hives - post 1/day 2 help :(

[aprilemari]

Hello everyone, I need some expert advice. Lola is almost 6 months old, and has her first case of the hives. Her food situation: has been on Wellness puppy since 4 months, mixing in canned Wellness chicken, turkey or beef (twice), cream cheese+crushed egg shells, or cottage cheese. Two hits of peanut butter (all natural) a day in kong, and a hard boiled egg for lunch. Boiled chicken breast for treats, and the occasional apple or carrot for funsies.

We're not sure what could have caused it. (yesterday) Prior evening, she had a walk on some freshly cut grass. She had dinner with a new can of beef mixed in (possible culprit - tho first can was ate three weeks ago no problem). Next morning, hardly any breakfast was eaten, she was all red when Ben came home at lunch, prior to egg. Started around her chin, was all red, and her face was a bit swollen with red patches. Thanks to a number of great posts already, i gave her 1/2 benedryl in some cream cheese. Dinner time rolls around, she ate three bites of wellness kibble + can beef and the hives are now really prominent. second half of benedryl given in PB. then we gave her a bath

this morning, she didnt want to eat the kibble with cottage cheese (thinking beef is culprit), so i opened a can of pumpkin and she ate a few bites of that with a few kibble.

Lunch ate an egg, and i'm at home after work and she's still got some hives...though much less evident than last night. She's not really itching them constantly but you can tell she's not her excited self.

In general, She has been not wanting to eat her food lately, I thought it was because of the teething, or maybe she is bored with it/doesnt like it. We have a 30 lb bag that is near its last quarter, maybe its stale? We have a second 30 lb bag that we could try. But if we have to switch, I'd rather go and open a new bag of different food.

She gets spayed in two weeks (6months), and i'm going to ask them to do a full allergy test at the same time. In the meantime, is it horrible to wait it out to see if it was really the canned beef? Why won't my hungry bulldog puppy eat her meals? does she really hate the kibble? Should I switch her to another puppy formula or move to adult already? Today is better than yesterday, but her not crushing her meals worries me. She lets them sit there and we have to almost coerce her to eat.

anyway, love her, she's our puppy, any advice apprec'd
Thanks, April

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[2BullyMama]

Well, you came to the right place.... welcome!

Poor baby! My girl gets hives (very bad) from something outside.. still not sure what exactly because her list of allergens is so long we could not narrow it to what got to her. Anyway,you can give her more than a 1/2 benedryl... my two bullies weight 60lbs and they get 50 mg in the AM and 50mg in the PM. Getting the full blood screen allergy test is a great decision it will give you all the answers you need.

In the meantime, try to get grain out of her diet... grain and chicken seem to be big issues with bulllies. Also, I am going to tag [MENTION=572]Libra926[/MENTION] she has a famous stew for Vegas that is all veggies and you could possibly feed that till you get the allergy results back.

Good luck and keep us posted.

 

[Libra926]

Hiya! I was tagged and here I am! The link for the Vegas stew is right here. Hope it can help.

 

[cowsmom]

i am thinking with the symtoms you describe it is something the dog has ingested. you are feeding her so many different things could be any one of them. i agree with more benadryl can be given if needed. also until the allergy test i would maybe just feed the kibble and use a small amount of canned food (not the beef if you suspect that) to help her eat. i just get a small amount on my fingers and rub it all over the food. my dogs dont want to eat when their allergies flare up so that maybe it. i so hope she feels better but an allergy test should help a whole lot.

 

[karenben]

with what you have described and the different foods shes having it could possibly any one of them,perhaps just stick to 1 food for a couple of weeks then introduce the other foods slowly,a dog can eat someting for years then all of a sudden become allergic to it ,and i would keep her off grass for a while if you can ,grass can be a culprit too,if she starts scratching put some nappy cream on her and pop a tshirt on her to stop any secondary infections,karen

 

[aprilemari]

Thank you guys for the advice, I felt alot better after reading your responses. I think I know what happened. Instead of boiling a chicken breast for her, we had a whole chicken that we roasted with bacon grease, whole wheat stuffing and all kinds of veggies. I pulled a breast off (no skin) of the entire roasted chicken and kept it in the fridge for her. Morning 1 of hives, i gave her chicken after #2. Dinner that day with the beef, i sprinkled a little chicken on to make her want to eat it. Both times, hives. They're still a little bit there, but for the most part, two days later, they're going away . I didn't realize that even cooking chicken with other ingredients might upset her. They are more sensitive to food than I thought, it will never happen again (the roasted chicken thing).

thanks again, April

 

[izstigspunks]

Yup, our babies are really sensitive. But we love them nonetheless.

 

[BruceP]

[MENTION=164]APRIL[/MENTION]mari....... At this point I don't think Id continue with a puppy formula. There are many whole life formulas that she could go to. Check out the food ratings listing here on EBN to see how various foods are rated for bullies. It's a very helpful chart when picking out foods. Chicken free foods are less common but there are some out there. Our Princess Gracie does quite well on Fromm Beef Frittata which is grain free AND chicken free. No one can tell you if a certain food will work for your dog because they are all different but that one worked for HRH. It may take trying several different foods over a long period of time before you find the right one for your bully. Go slow and change food slowly so you don't upset sweet little Lola's tummy.