Allergy Testing

Denise90

Just wondering if anyone knew the price of canine allergy testing and is it worth getting done?

I moved my girl onto Applaws a few months ago and she began scratching intensely, she was given a course of antibiotics and steroids to rule out any infection but she finished the course and was/is still itching. I moved her onto nature's menu frozen nuggets about two weeks ago in the hope it would relieve her symptoms but she's still suffering so I wanted to get the tests done to see what's going on. Is it covered by pet insurance?

boomerang

Denise my vet has done this for a client just recently and I will ask her tomorrow. It is expensive, because the vet will take a blood sample, send it to the Netherlands for analysis, and then depending on the results of the allergen testing, the lab there will develop a course of vaccines that are given by your vet over the course of several months.

That said, it makes FAR more sense to detect the cause of the allergic reaction your dog is suffering, than to treat symptomatically with Atopica for the rest of her life, which is really expensive. Or by treating her with prednisolone, which has severe consequences long-term.

I'd imagine your insurance company will cover it - just give them a call?

Denise90

Thank you for that, yea I would rather know the cause of it and if it's something I can remove from everyday life, then great but if not I'm more than willing to get her the injections, poor thing is so agitated

Coopaloop

My parents had to get their dog allergy tests, its not as simple of just taking a blood sample and testing for everything, the shave a part of their side and do allergy test on the skin, but there is only so many they can test for.

It is expensive, my parents paid close to €500 for this, it required the dog to be knocked out and an overnight stay (which added to the cost) but the results did show that the dog was allergic to grass, pollen and dust, so basically has hay fever!

But they would pay it again, as it helped stop the poor thing from eating his paws and belly raw! And also changed his diet.

Hope this helps! But contact your vet and speak to them about.

Denise90

I rang my vet today and she said she'll do a skin scrape, then bloodtests that get sent to cork but she said it will cost 119 so I assume that's not the extensive testing ye are talking about? If it gets answers then all well and good but if it has to go further than that I'll be happy to get it done.

boomerang

Not the same procedure, Coopaloop.

Millem

Denise90 wrote: »

Just wondering if anyone knew the price of canine allergy testing and is it worth getting done?

I moved my girl onto Applaws a few months ago and she began scratching intensely, she was given a course of antibiotics and steroids to rule out any infection but she finished the course and was/is still itching. I moved her onto nature's menu frozen nuggets about two weeks ago in the hope it would relieve her symptoms but she's still suffering so I wanted to get the tests done to see what's going on. Is it covered by pet insurance?

My dog got allergy testing done years a few years ago. Can't remember how much it cost but she had to be off her steroids for a while if my memory serves me correct. Results didn't really show up much but vet said that happens sometimes. He thinks she is allergic to dust mites but couldn't go down the vaccine route as results didn't show high enough readings. So we tried atopica for a good 6months maybe more (which was off the wall expensive as dosage is based on weight, I think it was €50 per week!) but it made her vomit! So long term she is on 1 steroid every second day. She also has a special shampoo called malaseb which is amazing but we haven't had to use it in about a year! Everything was covered by her pet insurance.

Inexile

I paid about €300 for two tests. One sample was used for testing common indoor allergens and one for out door ones. My girl apparently is allergic to dust mites. We put her on an immunotherapy course. Basically one injection every month for a number of months and once the condition stabilised it went to every two months. The course covers a number of injections and costed about €250 for the supply and we just had the vet visit to pay for. She was on that for about a year but I haven't brought back in ages as the condition seems to have stabilised and I only bring her in now if it flares up.

My insurance wouldn't cover it as it considered it a pre existing condition. But once your dog hasn't had any record of skin complaints prior to being insured you should be covered.

fiounnalbe

I had the same procedure done as Inexile and it was brilliant. Turned out one of my guys is allergic to grass, which living surrounded by fields is impossible really to remove from his life!! The immunotherapy worked a treat, our guy improved almost immediately on it but coming near the end of each month you would notice him start to itch again until he got his next injection of it, a year and a half on it though and now I can't remember the last time he scratched, it's amazing, he used to have bald patches and be red raw from scratching everywhere on his body.

This is where the immuno vac's come from if you want to read up on it...http://www.axiomvetlab.com/allergyvet/

DBB

Millem wrote: »

So long term she is on 1 steroid every second day. She also has a special shampoo called malaseb which is amazing but we haven't had to use it in about a year!

Can I ask Millem, did your vet advise this long-term administration of steroids?
I'd be really worried about this long-term use, particularly if you find the Malaseb so good.... Maybe you've tried this before, but I'd be very much inclined to use Malaseb regularly instead of steroids if I could get away with it. If your pooch gets itchy spots I'd use Cortavance spray to treat it topically, again if I could get away with it.
Maybe you've tried all this and it didn't work out, but just in case you didn't, might be worth considering? Perhaps in conjunction with eliminating dry food from her diet?
Steroids should be avoided if at all possible, particularly for long-term use. They're terribly damaging :-(

Millem

DBB wrote: »

Can I ask Millem, did your vet advise this long-term administration of steroids?
I'd be really worried about this long-term use, particularly if you find the Malaseb so good.... Maybe you've tried this before, but I'd be very much inclined to use Malaseb regularly instead of steroids if I could get away with it. If your pooch gets itchy spots I'd use Cortavance spray to treat it topically, again if I could get away with it.
Maybe you've tried all this and it didn't work out, but just in case you didn't, might be worth considering? Perhaps in conjunction with eliminating dry food from her diet?
Steroids should be avoided if at all possible, particularly for long-term use. They're terribly damaging :-(

The vet said steroids weren't great long term and really wanted us to stick with atopica but she was vomiting daily from it! She wasn't keeping down atopica and she skin flared up. It is her ears, feet and belly that is the problem. Malaseb is brill on the belly. Thankfully there haven't been any belly flare ups in ages. Her ears get infected but I have been cleaning them with diluted apple cider vinegar and touch wood have not had any infections since June! I actually bought a spray online it is made from beeswax I think (it recommended on boards) but no joy! I have never used this spray you mentioned but a lot of my vets products are that vibac brand so I am sure he has it. She was terrible for licking off the sprays on her paws though!

aonb

Denise90 wrote: »

I rang my vet today and she said she'll do a skin scrape, then bloodtests that get sent to cork but she said it will cost 119 so I assume that's not the extensive testing ye are talking about? If it gets answers then all well and good but if it has to go further than that I'll be happy to get it done.

I had a skin scraping and blood tests done on my dog a few years back - all tests unfortunately came back negative. As you say, hopefully you will get answers from them, in your dogs case.

Coopaloop

Millem wrote: »

The vet said steroids weren't great long term and really wanted us to stick with atopica but she was vomiting daily from it! She wasn't keeping down atopica and she skin flared up. It is her ears, feet and belly that is the problem. Malaseb is brill on the belly. Thankfully there haven't been any belly flare ups in ages. Her ears get infected but I have been cleaning them with diluted apple cider vinegar and touch wood have not had any infections since June! I actually bought a spray online it is made from beeswax I think (it recommended on boards) but no joy! I have never used this spray you mentioned but a lot of my vets products are that vibac brand so I am sure he has it. She was terrible for licking off the sprays on her paws though!

I found this stuff on line called dermapaw,its made this couple in America,its a pot of cream that you rub onto the paws,or anywhere really. They also have doggy socks so you can put them on your dog (looks really silly) when you put the cream on. My parents swear by it,has really helped their dog. Check them out on line,its something they made themselves after countless visits to the vet with their own dog for similar problems. Worth a shot.