Allergies

[Riddler]

My dog may suffer from allergies. His eyes will have a thick goop and at times he will scratch the hair completely off around his eyes and also his muzzle. He has been tested for mites and found nothing. Now that it has snowed and the temp is in the 20's his eyes have cleared up but still comes in from outside and runs his muzzle back and forth on the couch cushions. Is this common?

Jan

[carrie]

No this is not common. Ask your vet to check the dogs eyes carefully for entropian eyelids. Ask for another skin scraping as some mites do not show up first time. If nothing comes of this then go to another vet. The fact that the condition seems to clear in the cold weather would suggest either a parasite problem or, more probably, an allergic reaction to something, possibly a pollen.
Suggest these possibilities to your vet and if you are unhappy with the response you get try another vet.

[Cookie]

My dog has experienced a few health problems in her time. She's had arthrytis for 1 thing. Also, she b/c of some allergy or something, she had ichy paws. She actually chewed down to the bone, despite our attempts to stop her - cream, bandages, etc. Finally we gave her some pills, which we still give her daily. She won't eat it unless we insert it into a piece of cheese. But she's fine. She also had a growth on her eyelid. We took her to the vet and he said to bring her back if it triples in size. Sure enough it did so we brought her back to get it surgecly removed. After that, more little growths began to form, and the vet thought it might be cancer. But luckily it turned out to be an allergy, and now we just give her eyedrops daily, and she's fine, although her eyes are usually runny. Well g2g...bye!

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~~Cookie~~

[Daisy's Mom]

Daisy rubs her nose on the rug all the time, we just ask her if she has an itchy nose and she sneezes and then acts like normal... is that an allergy?

[carrie]

This is worth asking your vet about. It may be just a habit that she has developed, but it is also pretty common for the hair folicles of the whiskers to become infected and treatment may be needed. It may also be worth checking the inside of her mouth just after she has eaten as it may be that food is sticking to the roof of her mouth and she is trying to dislodge it.
My Retriever is very slobbery at feeding time and rubs his mouth on his front paws to make sure he gets every scrap of food that might be stuck there!