Home Remedies for Dog Allergies?

My shih tzu suffers terribly with itchy skin, and she constantly licks her paws and stomach. I have had her to vets and nothing seems to work. Are there any good home remedies?

Home Remedies for Dog Allergies?
You can try giving her a medicated bath with dog shampoo they should have it at your local pet store you can message it in then leave it on for about 5 to 10 mins make sure you brush her while she has the shampoo on that helps get SOME of the flakes from the dry skin, and also you could use baby benadryl or children's go by the weight of your pooch that should help a little between baths. Good luck
Reply:Try a better dog food free of wheat and other allergans. I started Canidae recently and see a big difference in my dog. It's got like 10 skin and coat conditoners.
Reply:The only way to sort this is to determine the root cause.


Nine times out of ten it's diet.So the only way to identify what's the culprit here is to work it out as you would with a human-namely exclusion diet.You change her food with the objective of leaving out one ingredient at a time for about a week.If its yeast try her on a yeast free regime-if it's not that then exclude wheat and so on until you hit on what the offending ingredient is.Its laborious I know but you will find out the cause this way.


Just check also that you are not using a floor cleaner or household cleaner that her skin is getting into contact with.It has been known.
Reply:Most allergies are caused by diet, what do you feed her? I would switch to a grain free food, I feed natures variety, but there are a few very good ones to choose from. There should be no grain in the ingredients, and if there is grain, they should be at the end of the ingredients list, but grain free is best. Good luck.
Reply:Both of my dogs have allergies and nothing the vets did or gave them worked. The one has food allergies so it is pretty easy to keep him good. We learned through trial and error he is allergic to beef so we keep him on a chicken and he is fine. My other dog has been hard to treat because he has environmental allergies. We tried everyhting from steroids to Benedryl and it all fail with major physical side effects. I feed my dogs holistic foods so I decided to treat him with Holistic care and it has by far worked the best with NO side effects. He gets Allerg'Free and Yucca Intensive products made by Azmira. You can gets the products at an all natural pet store or on line at www.azmira.com. I also use Richard's Organics Incredible Skin Spray and this is the absolute most amazing stuff. They top itching instantly and it clear up infections too. I tried EVERYTHING and that is the only stuff that works. Baking Soda baths and sprays also calm down the itching.
Reply:Have you had her allergy tested? My advice would be to change her food to something free of all grains (which are impossible to digest for some dogs and can cause major allergy problems) and have her tested - find a great vet, if you're able to. My little Shih Tzu went through this for nearly 2 years, we had to keep an Elizabethian collar on her at all times for almost a full year, before we found our vet who has saved her life. Turns out she was allergic to dust mites and very specific foods. She's almost one year free of reactions and I couldn't be happier!
Reply:Could be a food allergy, although food allergies are really not as common as most of us think (only about 10-15% of all allergies are food allergies). You should try putting your little girl on what's called an "elimination diet". Take her off her regular food and feed her a very simplified diet, usually with one protein and one starch that your dog has NEVER been exposed to (often that combo is duck and potato ... ask your vet for help with this). If the dog does well on this, new foods are introduced one-by-one and the reactions to the foods are noted until you find the culprit(s).


If you're looking for good, holistic home remedies for allergies, I've got some advice. First you want to start with some dietary supplements (fatty acids). Certain Omega-6 fatty acids are anti-inflammatory (good for dogs with allergies), such as gamma-linolenic acid (GLA). Flax seed oil, and fish-body oil are two great sources of Omega-3 fatty acids and are anti-inflammatory. There are also some great herbal supplements you can try, such as:


- alfalfa (often used for older dogs with arthritis, but it has great anti-inflammatory effects)


- burdock (helps flush toxins and reduce inflammation)


- red clover (can be used internally AND externally to soothe skin problems, and it contains bioflavonoids which are thought to help boost immunity)


- spirulina (is a blue-green algae that not only boosts the immune system, but also is a great source of GLA, which I mentioned above).


You can also ask your vet about over-the-counter allergy medications that are used by humans (such as Benadryl, ChlorTrimeton, Tavist, etc). This won't "cure" the allergy, but will help alleviate the symptoms. The typical dose for a product like Benadryl is 1-3 milligrams per pound of your pet, but check with your vet first.


In the meanwhile, have your vet prescribe an anti-itch cream to use on her belly and paws (hydro-cortisone, perhaps) and invest in an Elizabethan Collar (the big plastic funnel-looking collars that dogs often wear after spaying/neutering) to prevent her from licking, as that is only making her skin worse.


If you are to use medicated shampoos to bathe her, make sure to use cool water (not hot) since warm water will only aggrevate the itch.


Good luck!