opinions sought! please come in :)

[Cindy]

A very elderly couple I know have a most adorable and sweet Cairn from a reputable breeder. The dog is about 6 years old and is just plain always itchy. No sores, bumps, red spots, hot spots, just itchy. The vet has diagnosed allergies, probably to grass. Her diet was changed to Canidae which is corn, wheat, and soybean free. No change.

The vet tech at their vets office suggested this herbal stuff. Has anyone ever used it or anything similar? If it works I will surely let you know!

http://www.dogcross.com/aller.html


This little girl also has "flop bot" a lot (drags her butt around, anal glands full). What can be done to prevent this from happening too often? They get her "expressed" every so often by vet and groomer, but it soon reappears.

[jdf]

don't know much about things like this and I usually don't comment on "alternative" solutions to problems but we have an old cat with a constant skin problem which flares up at least once a year and causes him to scratch non-stop. We had always taken him in for a shot of prednisone, antibiotics and a bunch of vitamens. This summer, on the advice of my daughter in law, we tried a product called DermCaps ES and the difference in Moe is frankly remarkable. His scratching has almost stopped and his appetite has increased (a good thing in his case). We still may have to go the pred, antibiotics route but so far so good. DermCaps is basically Omega 3 fatty acids combined with fish oil and other oils. Here's a link to the manufacturer: http://www.dvmpharmaceuticals.com/displ ... mCaps%20ES

As far as the anal gland problem goes, adding fiber to the diet might help.

[Mary Plummer]

helped Mr. Blue quite a bit. The vets say he has an allergy to some kind of pollen, because it only appears late spring-early fall. Our vets have prescribed an antihistamine for him, and he does really well on it. I guess some dogs don't have much luck with them, but this may be worth asking about.

[LM]

Canidae is a good kibble, but it's still got a lot of stuff that she could be allergic to. Probably the best way to identify exactly what foods she's allergic to is for them to homecook for her for a while, to see what helps and what doesn't. The vet should be able to help with that, I think it's called an "elimination diet"?

I'd want more info on this supplement before giving it to my dogs. They mention "traditional Chinese herbal formulation" proabably a chinese patent medicine. But they don't say which one, and the label they show with ingredients is unreadable. Chinese patent medicines have also been known to have unsafe ingredients. So, all this needs to be fully checked out before giving it to anyone. What's in it, and why? Any side effects? There are holistic vets out there that do chinese medicine too, maybe they should call one and can get more info that way if they still want to try it.

Diet can help the "flop bot" too, since poop helps express the anal glands naturally, though I don't know what exactly would be needed. Probably fiber as jdf says, so maybe some canned pumpkin or a bit of metamucil. Another thing they can ask the vet about.