Some dogs have ‘allergies’ – itchy, flakey skin, ear infections, smells – those ‘allergies’ can be taken care of with raw diet or one of the better kibbles but then there are ALLEGIES. Environmental ones. They happen middle or late August and last the first few weeks of Sept year after year.
These allergies don’t respond to changes in food (other than lessening some) and even benadryl isn’t effective. Your vet will want to give them prednisone and yeah, that could work but it also stays in their organs forever and ever so i won’t even go there.
In my dogs, Gizmo & Nikos I’ve seen it the last 5 years (thats how long i’ve had them) and same thing end of every august, they chew themselves pretty raw, Nikos losing the hair around his eyes even. I went nuts the first 2 yrs of this happening, even going so far as to use advantage on Gizmo thinking he was still allergic to fleas even tho i know he had none. It’s not a flea or food allergy.
I started asking people if their dogs had the same problem and YES a lot DID!!
I’ve gone the homeopathic and alternative ways – Benedryl (works some) and i foudn that TRAUMEEL and Apis Melifica from the health food store works the best. I get both in liquid (absorbed by the body faster) and put them in a spray bottle so i can squirt it in their mouths and on their itchies easily and in their food and on pieces of bread as needed.
They are lower to the ground than us and the environment AFFECTS THEM i think faster and more severely than us.
A couple of clients also have dogs with this yearly reaction so that’s why i’m writing about it. Most have purebreds (Gizmo is too altho a puppy mill dog) but Nikos is a mix and the only mix i know of so far to be so affected altho mixes are suffering the same as purebreds on shitty commercial foods.
I’m also writing because maybe we can’t ‘fix’ everything and to let others know you are NOT ALONE with your dog’s problems. If we talk about things that our dogs do, things that affect them, things we see in our dogs, maybe we wouldn’t be feeding the $4 billion dollar pet industry so well for no results?
2 comments on this topic
14. October - 12:31 pm
It’s great that Sue sent the e-mail out for all pet owners to see!
Our story with Hertz is also very scary & one that I tell to all people who think of using the product.
I grew up with horses and all kinds of small animals, but never a cat. I am currently a dog owner and about a year ago became a cat owner for the first time.
After the loss of our beloved Kirby dog, we adopted an older cat from the local shelter. In adopting her, we also adopted some fleas!! I have a fear of flea infestations, so I washed the cat up and went to Wal-Mart late one night to get a “fast” treatment and planned to then take her for her check up with our vet.
I also followed the box exactly as indicated. Within only a few short minutes I notice the cat acting strange, although we had only had her a few short days this behaviour seemed very abnormal.
Monty our Dalmatian was prone to seizures; I started to notice that the cat was acting much like Monty did before he went into a seizure. Concerned and not knowing a lot about cats, I asked my husband if the cat was ok?? He thought perhaps the cat was just being rambunctious as cats can be.
My concern got the better of me and I said that this was not right and something was very wrong with her. I immediately took the cat and put her in the shower, washing her entire body clean of this chemical with soap and water.
Within a very short time of washing the cat, he returned to her old self, I tossed the rest of the medication and called Hertz. My concerns with their medication went nowhere and no one ever call me back. I took the cat to the vet the following day and told him about what happened … was I overreacting? Our Vet explained to me that this product is very dangerous and he has treated many animals with the effects of this medication, unfortunately some too late. When I described some of the cat’s behaviours prior to washing the cat clean, he suggested that I likely intervened at the right time as it sounded like the cat would have had a seizure or experienced other major heath problem or death if left as it was.
I now tell everyone not to buy this poison, even to strangers who I see looking at the box in the store!
If you can’t afford the Vets medication for flea’s treatment or you prefer a more natural solution, do some research into other natural or holistic approaches, that’s what we do now… and have been flea free since 2009.
L. McBride
Pet parent to: Scout the dog, Jasper the cat & Cadbury & Sunny the bunnies.