Bichon with Dust Mite Allergys

meow

My Bichon has bad dust mite allergies. He is already on a vaccine programme specific to his allergy but it doesn't seem to be working. He can't have steroids whilst he's on the vaccine programme.

I've tried different shampoos with no results. Read about Hemp Seed Oil or Fish Oils maybe being useful but am not sure.
Am also trying to source anti allergy dog bedding, but no luck so far. Has anyone seen any anywhere?

Has anybody used anything successfully for the same condition?
I have exhausted all treatmens with the vet and my poor boy is tearing his skin scratching.

tk123

What do you feed him OP?

pinkdaisy

Buy some Indorex spray for your house to eliminate dust mites from his environment. You need to spray it and then vacuum the whole house so you hoover up all the eggs and dead ones. Try keeping him in rooms without carpets.

He should be on a hypoallergenic diet also.
Check again about the steroids, I'm pretty sure you can use them at a low dose with the immunotherapy in the early stages of it.

DBB

tk123 wrote: »

What do you feed him OP?

+1
A vital question!
Also, is the allergy specific to dust mites, or were there storage mites and/or harvest mites in the mix? Presumably your dog has had allergy testing done as you know of the dust mite allergy!

meow

Thank you all for your replies.

He commenced low dose steroids yesterday for 4 days just to try to give him some relief.

As for diet, he's very fussy. I had him on brown rice with chicken, salmon, or liver but he stopped eating it. Now he's on brown rice with Caeser dog food but he's turning his nose up at that sometimes too. He's very tiny and just has a very small appetite- he weights just over 5kgs. I could look into the hypoallergenic diet but the problem is getting him to take it.

He is definately allergic to dust mites (off the scale allergic!), he had very extensive detailed blood tests in Jan and the vaccine has been developed by the lab that tested him specific to his needs, but its not gaurenteed.

I've never heard of Indorex spray, where can it be bought? All my floors are wooden and regularly cleaned. I've changed all the bedding on my bed to hypoallergenic because he sleeps in my bed at night but am looking for hypoallergenic for his beds.

DBB

Jayney OP, the poor wee fella. Sounds like he's really in the wars.
And a fussy eater, to top it all! I asked about food as dry food is a serious harbourer of storage mites, first cousins of dust mites... But as you haven't been feeding him a dry diet, it seems this is not a factor.
Some dogs are Fussy McFusspots on the food front... Would your Bichon be tempted by a different flavour each day? Say, beef one day, lamb the next, fish the next etc? With a small bit of pureed veg and spud instead of rice? Maybe tempt him too with some home-made, unsalted stock?
This sort of diet helps to balance the immune system and i've found it great for allergic, itchy westies. It also seriously reduces exposure to storage mites, in case they're challenging a dog's immune response.
It's a bloody nightmare when they keep turning the nose up... I suppose you'll just have to keep experimenting. My heart goes out to you and your wee dog to be in such a situation, trying to control something that's everywhere in the environment :-(

Millem

meow wrote: »

My Bichon has bad dust mite allergies. He is already on a vaccine programme specific to his allergy but it doesn't seem to be working. He can't have steroids whilst he's on the vaccine programme.

I've tried different shampoos with no results. Read about Hemp Seed Oil or Fish Oils maybe being useful but am not sure.
Am also trying to source anti allergy dog bedding, but no luck so far. Has anyone seen any anywhere?

Has anybody used anything successfully for the same condition?
I have exhausted all treatmens with the vet and my poor boy is tearing his skin scratching.

Did you try malaseb shampoo? I find it great for soothing the skin of one of my labs who has a dust mite allergy. It really is fantastic stuff. I also bring her to the beach a lot and vet said the salt water is great for her skin. I know you are going down the vaccine route but you try the atopica route beforehand?

meow

DBB: he gets a different flavour everyday already. Mixing veg and spud isn't really an option. The reason it's brown rice is because he's a very poor drinker and gets constipated (he only gets water to drink). Plus, he likely has a stricture around his anus, poo's have always been an issue and he's on liquid parrafin to keep them soft and the brown rice to help. He's also had his anal gands out. All this and he's only a year and half old!


MILLEM: Yep, tried Malaseb and Allermyl shampoos with no results. Atopica came up the other day with the vet but he said he doesn't work with all dogs. But I might start him on it during the week and give it a try.


He's actually a little better since I got him groomed Friday, I don't suppose the heat and the thickness of the coat helps but he seems a bit more comfortable now

Millem

meow wrote: »

DBB: he gets a different flavour everyday already. Mixing veg and spud isn't really an option. The reason it's brown rice is because he's a very poor drinker and gets constipated (he only gets water to drink). Plus, he likely has a stricture around his anus, poo's have always been an issue and he's on liquid parrafin to keep them soft and the brown rice to help. He's also had his anal gands out. All this and he's only a year and half old!


MILLEM: Yep, tried Malaseb and Allermyl shampoos with no results. Atopica came up the other day with the vet but he said he doesn't work with all dogs. But I might start him on it during the week and give it a try.


He's actually a little better since I got him groomed Friday, I don't suppose the heat and the thickness of the coat helps but he seems a bit more comfortable now

Did you leave the shampoo on for 10 mins then rinse? We tried atopica and found it very good but it made my dog vomit. It is also very expensive. We are now just using steroids.

Inexile

Hi OP, one of my dogs tested positive for a dust mite allergy. We bring her once a month for a immunotherapy injection (no idea what is called but it cost about €250 for a a few months supply of the stuff). our vet also suggested that we used the malesb shampoo but tbh I find it difficult to wash the dog and keep her occupied for the 10 minutes before rinsing off. But I have done two things which I think have helped. one is I have changed her onto Green Dog food, an organic hypoallergice food and two, get her to sleep on a sleeping bag. The material in the sleeping bag doesnt harbour the mites as much as other fabrics and its quick to wash and dry too. I would also suggest that you cut out the Caesar dog food as its not a hypoallergenic and replace it with some tuna or pilchards in oil or tomatoe sauce

tazwaz

hi, my friend had a westie with awful, extreme allergies, she was even allergic to cut grass, the poor thing. my friend couldnt afford the steroids and didnt have pet insurance so the vet told her to give the dog half a piriton tablet a day and it made a huge difference to her.
if all else fails it might be worth a try...vet approving obviously

tk123

Yeah our vet said pirotin was fine - this was before we switched to a cereal free diet and my dog would get a rash from the cut grass in the park a couple of times a year and was red and itchy on his tummy/legs. Since switching to barf his coat and skin are better than they ever were and no allergies.

DogsFirst

tk123 wrote: »

Yeah our vet said pirotin was fine - this was before we switched to a cereal free diet and my dog would get a rash from the cut grass in the park a couple of times a year and was red and itchy on his tummy/legs. Since switching to barf his coat and skin are better than they ever were and no allergies.

Listen to Tk123, move him to a fresh hypoallergenic diet asap. Cereal gluten (wheat / barley /rye) and / or processed meat protein are to blame here. These are typical symptoms of a dog with high food allergy. The dust mite / flea bite / carpet cleaner allergies are secondary to a ruined immune system.

If I could add I would cut out all injectable vaccines and cortisone while you're doing this. His immune system is screaming, vaccines will terrorise it. Cortisone injections squash it. You need to support the immune system, not slap it in the face. Cortisone tablets will work fine while you get his diet right. Starve for a day, chicken broth for 3 days. Then introduce some boiled sweet potato (which he will be fine with as it is probably novel to him) and some fatty turkey pieces after a weak, preferably raw. Keep him on this food for three weeks and decrease his cortisone use slowly. Go to a health store and pick up some anti oxidants (human version fine), fish oil tablets (3 per day), camomile (for soothing gut) and peppermint (for digestion). maybe some low fat probiotic yoghurt to help digestion.

If he's not showing improvement in 3 weeks I'll eat dry food for a week.

andrewg82

poor lil fella

tk123

DogsFirst wrote: »

If he's not showing improvement in 3 weeks I'll eat dry food for a week.

Bakers!! :pac:

DBB

tk123 wrote: »

DogsFirst wrote: »

If he's not showing improvement in 3 weeks I'll eat dry food for a week.

Bakers!! :pac:

And videoed, with a public link on YouTube.

*gets popcorn and makes herself comfortable*
:-D

DBB

Seriously though, I've had several dogs in who had horrible allergies which were not responding to the usual treatments (steroids, immunosuppressants etc) and the next step for these dogs was euthanasia. We're talking digs with major hair loss, bleeding skin, stinking yeast infections... And in every case thus far, a change in diet to natural, home made food had a dramatic, almost magic-wand effect, so much so that the vets involved have had to swallow their pride and admit that dry dog food and processed food can be devastating for some dogs, and that the usual treatments are pure fire-fighting of the symptoms.
I really hope you can get your wee Bichon to have a go at this diet... I've found that some dogs prefer the meat lightly cooked... Which I know is not the ideal but i've weaned them from lightly cooked to raw as they get the hang of it. Lightly cooked fresh meat is a whole lot better than any dry food, so perhaps this compromise might work for now?

FlowerGarden

I have a three year old Bichon who has dust/ food allergies. I have been feeding her a raw diet for two months and have seen some improvement. She is probably itching about 70% less than she used to. However she still licks at her paws a lot. She loves her new diet of chicken/ fish/ lamb and raw veggies. She was a very fussy eater before. I give her raw chicken wings and thighs for the bones. I have her a whole fish, head and all last week and she was in seventh heaven:D
She was on Atopica medication and it didn't work before I started this diet.

DBB

Great stuff Flowergarden!
One thing I'd suggest is to experiment with the meats you're feeding: allergies to chicken are quite common, for example, so although getting rid of the dry food has clearly helped hugely, the chicken (or other meat, but chicken would be my #1 suspect at thus stage!) may be maintaining those itchy paws. Try taking chicken out if her diet for a few weeks... I'd imagine you could use turkey instead.

DogsFirst

tk123 wrote: »

Bakers!! :pac:

It does have peas in it........wait a minute these aren't peas...........what the..

DogsFirst

FlowerGarden wrote: »

I have a three year old Bichon who has dust/ food allergies. I have been feeding her a raw diet for two months and have seen some improvement. She is probably itching about 70% less than she used to. However she still licks at her paws a lot. She loves her new diet of chicken/ fish/ lamb and raw veggies. She was a very fussy eater before. I give her raw chicken wings and thighs for the bones. I have her a whole fish, head and all last week and she was in seventh heaven:D
She was on Atopica medication and it didn't work before I started this diet.

Great news FG. Itchy paws is a sign the immune system is still in a bit of a tizzy. Have you tried excluding some meats for a week or two. Eg swop the chicken (likely, that or beef as these are the processed meats used in dry food that caused the problem in the first place) for turkey and cut out all other meats. Just fresh turkey with bones, cooked veggies, bit of spud. Keep her on this for two weeks. If she's OK on that, swop the turkey for fish for two weeks. She'll be OK there too. Then try lamb, then try the suspects like chicken and beef. This is an exclusion diet. It's how you find out whats causing the itch. She might be doing better on fresh chicken but the body might still be having a problem with it having been sentitised to the cooked version months back. Find the problem and cut it out.

In mean time boost the immune system. Add vitamin C to the food, quarter of a human tab each day. Itchy skin loves safflower / flaxseed oil due to its high vitamin E and omega 3 content, teaspoon a day. Bathe itchy feet in cool water with a little aloe vera and/or calendula as they're both great natural anti-inflammatories.

Then set about including fresh garlic (half clove per day), echinacea and harder-to-find astragalus to boost immune capacity.

All the while high dose fish oil (omega 3), 3 caps a day. It's anti-inflammatory and will calm that immune system down. You could also start thinking about repairing damaged digestive organs such as the gastrointestinal tract with non-dairy probiotics (work much better then dairy versions) such as Lactobacillus acidophilus (despite it's name Lactophillus is not necessarily milk dervied) in any shape or form (tabs available in health store or a low fat probiotic yoghurt, which as the name suggest can't pasteurised or the good stuff will be killed).

I would also add in some milk thistle to help the liver in it's role of voiding toxins!!! And while you get her on a nice pure, hypoallergenic diet pick up some antioxidants in the health store, use them for a month. Don't panic over dose, herbal applications are natural compounds and as such are relatively dose-friendly. Most of the time I take the human version and divide by two (I have a german shepherd cross collie, you may need to divide in four for your little one).