Allergy testing

[.sarah]

If they are older ceramic where the pores are getting course instead of like fired new, they are in the same category as plastic. I highly recommend you switch to stainless steel bowls because they never deteriorate and hold in bacteria. Non stainless bowls are like a very worn cutting board. They look clean but if you look under a microscope you would cringe even after washing it!

They are new, not even 6 months old, and some are brand new. And most of the time I don't use a bowl because I feed raw and just hand her the food. I only use a bowl when I need to feed organs, so I'll pick up a couple stainless for her soon.

My Golden boy, Dusty, has allergies. He was blood tested and came back confirmed to be allergic to 48 different environmental things, including Sugar Maple and Ash trees. Both of those trees make up the majority of the trees in our 3/4 acre back yard! In order for blood tests to be more accurate, the dog should be off all prednisone or topical cortizone creams and sprays for at least 6 weeks. As a precaution, I had him off all meds for the most accurate test possible. Since he was never itch free and was miserable unless there was snow on the ground, it took me almost 10 months before I could have him tested once I decided to go through with testing. When the ground was covered in snow was the only time he would be 100% clear.

I wish I had known that before we did the testing today. She had cortisone spray prescribed about a month ago and was on it for about 2 weeks. We had the blood drawn this morning though.

Over the years, I learned a lot to try to help him. First, I bought a standing booster bath so I wouldn't have to bend down all the time to bath him. That was more for me than him! Then I would rinse him off everytime he came in from outside. I use a Melaluca Anti Fungal shampoo the vet prescribed (it's wonderful and 100% better than oatmeal shampoos I tried) and would use that every other day on his paws and under belly. Basically it was the areas that were exposed the most to the ground. Every week or so he gets a complete bath! I can smell when he needs a bath as he got an odor about him from the reaction to the outside allergens. This helped some but not completely.

I have thought about bathing her more frequently too. She seems better after baths. We already have a booster bath ... isn't it wonderful?!?!

I also switched him to Innova Evo dog food which is grain free. While it was never determined he was allergic to specific foods, he did much better on a grain free food. Innova Evo is the closest thing you can feed your dog without actually going to a raw diet. Both of these things helped him immensely and I continue to do them to this day although it didn't help 100%.

All of my dogs are already on raw food

Thank you for your reply, it was very informative. I can't wait to see what the test shows. It'll be about 10 days before we get the results though.