Both Otis and Allie have suffered from allergies to one extent or another. Otis's allergies are more mild, he gets ear infections which I'm told are a secondary infection most likely resulting from a food allergy. Right now I have him eating Natural Balance hypoallergenic duck and potato food. I'm also very careful not to get his head wet when he takes a bath.
Allie is much worse off... A couple months after I got him he started getting little pink bumps on his muzzle and was prone to getting infections in his face wrinkle. I was told by a few people that they were normal "puppy pimples" and not to be too worried about them. But as time went on they didn't seem to get any better. I ended up bringing him to the vet who said it was an allergic reaction and that the bumps were infections in his hair folicals from the allergy and to try switching foods to a hypoallergenic food and told me to take away all treats and all toys :( this was TERRIBLE as he is an avid chewer. They told me it could be anything from a food allergy to plastic to the glaze in his food dish, or just environmental allergies.
So I changed the food dish, food, my detergent, got rid or all household cleaners and started using vinegar and baking soda to clean everything, took away all toys and washed everything in hot water to kill dust mites and gave him benadryl, NOTHING WORKED! The only time his allergies would go away was when he was on antibiotics, but a few weeks after the antibiotics were done he would get his allergies back.
We hated putting him on antibiotics and every time his allergies came back they were worse, we tried treating it more naturally using aloe and echinacea and many other things even switching foods to a non-allergenic diet, but either because the infections in his face were too bad or because we didn't have the right combo of things it never made his face clear up.
Finally we took him to an pet allergy specialist who gave him an allergy test and we found out that his allergies are mostly environmental and that he is allergic to EVERYTHING bugs, trees, weeds, wool, feathers, dust you name it he's allergic to it.
Now we are giving him allergy shots which are low doses of the things he is allergic to plus antihistamines and antibiotics to clear up his infections.
I hope this helps some people out, I know we had a hard time finding info on this type of allergic reaction.
* above is a picture of the worst infection right before we finally went to the allergist.
10 comments:
Good job writing this up! I hope it helps some people.
HI I ALSO HAVE A PUG... WITH THE SAME ALLERGIES PLEASE WHEN YOU FINISH THE SHOOTS WRITE ABOUT IF THAT WORKS.
THANKS
VERO
Thanks for this information. We have two pugs. George who is 10 and he suffers from mild allergies. I did not realize until I read this that the small bumps he had was due to allergies. Gloria who is six months allergies seem to be worse. She constantly has a runny nose (from only her left nostril) that has a peculiar odor mucus. She has been to the vet for it 4 times and they have put her on antibiotics for 2 weeks and it has helped a bit. We also now use a humidifier at night and give her benydryl which seems to help a bit. I hope that it is seasonal. Thanks for the information.
Debbie, thanks for checking out my site. Dog allergies are so strange I didn't realize for a long time that my other pug Otis' ear infections were from allergies as well. My only caution is with antibiotics that after awhile they can lose there effectiveness if used too often. If benydryl isn't working as well as you think it should your vet can give you some other anti-histamines to try, we're pretty happy with ours.
Oh my goodness, I've noticed that my pug has a pink pimple very small, but noticable, another one seems to be popping up. about a day ago, it seemed to lose the pinkness, now it's pink again. I'm very afraid of what this might be. I'm going to wait a few days and call my vet, we just visited the vet this week for the following...
He is currently being treated for a mite problem (not contagious to humans or other animals) he's got a few little ball spots, only one big one, the others are tiny and barely noticable but there.
Has Allie ever been allowed to have toys again?
My blog is http://pursnsnorts.blogspot.com.
Hi. My pug is having a horrible time this year!! He just turned one years old and I've also taken him to the vet numerous times! At first I thought it was MANGE but thank GOODNESS the Vet said it was allergies... I had no idea what I was getting myself into with such a high maintenance dog! I hate seeing him like this... It seems to be attacking his right arm and his back the most and he also has small spots here and there.. it's very scary. I hope I am just being paranoid. But does this EVER get better? I think I am going to try the Benadryl and see how that works on my Kingston!
I'll leave this message in both your '08 and '09 comments. I've got an allergy pug, too - "Mav" (yes, I loved the movie Top Gun!). Trying to get suggestions on what dry dog food to use. Hearing from an established pet sitter/pet products business owner that food should not come from a 'big box' pet store - needs to be 'specialized' - I think she mentioned "Wellness" brand?? Any suggestions are appreciated!
I do think that my pug also have this kind of allergy. I wish that you will find the solution for this. I will keep visiting your blog for an update about this problem.
dog allergies
I have 3 pugs. I rescued 2 who had demodex. 1000$ in treatments to fix that. They healed up after about 6months of treatment, but now at 2 yrs old one of the girls has an allergy problem. The testing is not cheap. So far 200$ for environmentals/fungal. 200$ more if i want to know about food and chemicals. And she is allergic to EVERYTHING. They will have to custom make the shots for her 180$ for 10ml. This will be needed for her whole life. I love these dogs with all my heart but I didn't know what I was getting into with this breed. My husband has starting calling them money pits.
thank you so much for posting this. we are going thru the SAME EXACT THING with our 1 1/2 year old male pug right now. antibiotics make it go away but after a week of no meds, the sores come back. they don't seem to hurt him at all but he does scratch his mouth sometimes (and when it's flared up, he makes it bleed but even then he doesn't act bothered and usually he's a baby about everything) i'm kind of relieved it might just be allergies (which is a big deal but i was starting to think he had MRSA!) and allergies makes sense cuz they started right as spring started and he's been sneezing a lot and has other allergy symptoms. so looks like we're going back to the vet for some tests. thank you again!
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