Does anyone have a Maltese with skin allergies????

I have an 8 month old Maltese and she started chewing, scratching and pulling the hair off her one leg. The vet said to give Benadryl. That worked for awhile but now she started again. She had some scabs on her head and on the side of her face from scratching. Now the vet thinks it could be from her food. I had her on Royal Canin puppy food but after she got spayed the vet said to give her adult food so I got Royal Canin Special 30. She has been on it for about 3 weeks now. Would it be the food? He gave me Annamaet but she is not fond of it. Is it possible to get another good food and mix it without making her sick? I would get one that is also good for dogs with allergies. Can anyone help? I don't want her to have allergies all her life so I would like to correct it now if it is from her food.

Does anyone have a Maltese with skin allergies????
I would suggest finding a Veterinary Dermatologist or Vet School with access to specialists. Many regular vets are not as good as diagnosing allergies as they could be.





You need to get skin tests done to find out exactly what she is allergic to. For food allergies they will put your dog on an elimination diet, to weed out what triggers her allergies.





White dogs with pink skin, like Maltese and Bichons tend to be very prone to allergies. Talk to your breeder as well, if they are a good breeder they should have some ideas for you as well.





READ the labels on both foods. See if there is huge difference in main ingredients. If I read it right, the main difference is that CORN is the second ingredient in the adult diet and Corn is a major no no with many allergy prone breeds.





Look at something with no corn or wheat in the first 5 ingredients...preferably no corn at all. If you esp. like Royal Canin they do make special diets......with no corn. They make a Hypoallergenic food as well as the single source protein foods.


Potato and Whitefish for example:


http://www.royalcanin.us/vetdiet/caninep...





If all you have changed is the food, then I would suspect the food. I would gradually over 3 days blend her over to a new food and use plain canned pumpkin if her stool gets loose.
Reply:Has she been de flead with a treatment like Frontline or Advantage lately??? Sounds like it maybe worth a shot. Otherwise use oatmeal based shampoos to help sooth the skin and you can buy special food for sensitive skins from science diet
Reply:My Cavalier is having a food allergy. All her hair fell out making her look like she had Mange. The Vet gave her a shot to stop the itching and said to feed her Wellness Fish and Sweet potato formula. She is also taking fish pills and Vitamins. Since she's been fed that her hair has grown back all shiny and she has stopped itching completely. Food allergies are the hardest to diagnose.
Reply:i wouldn't keep switching foods until i knew for sure it was the food. your best bet is to have her allergy tested. then you will hopefully know for sure what is bothering her. she's awful young so you don't want a life of steriod injections and food changes. the allergy test often tests for environement and food allergies. if it's food then you'll know what in the food is bothering her and be able to choose a brand of food that doesn't have that ingredient. if it's environemental, then if you can't remove the problem, such as a grass or other nature problem, you can get allergy shots that are designed to help her build up a resistance to that allergen. allergy testing can be expensive, but in the end it's often worth it. science diet does make a allergy food that has almost no allergens in it, it's called z/d ultra. if you are feeding an allergy food from the vet you can give no other foods or treats while on it. and yes often the dog does not like these foods. ask your vet if it comes in a canned form you can mix a small amount of canned with to help your dog want to eat it more. personally i would just go for the allergy testing instead of hit and miss experiments with the food. good luck and i hope she soon gets to feeling better. also i'm assuming she doesn't have fleas?
Reply:check out eaglepack holistic dog foods.


www.eaglepack.com they have proven to help dogs with allergic skin problems....
Reply:I would suggest perhaps an organic natural brand of food I think there's one that's called nuero pro something to that efffect and there is also a wash made for dogs with sensitive skin, and if she has allergies now she'll have that allergy all of her life just hope it's the food and nothing more serious! :-)
Reply:My dog had the same problem and actually it just turned out to be sensitive skin. And I went out and tried a bunch of different dog shampoos. I found that regular baby shampoo works the best. And as you said it shouldn't be fleas since you have her on regular flea treatments. I would try the baby shampoo because it will get her just as clean but it doesn't have any of the unnecessary ingredients that other shampoos have.
Reply:It sounds like my jack russell. She had the exact same symptoms, which she eventually grew out of. But it was just from walking around on normal grass. Going outside made her itch. Hopefully yours will grow out of it too. :)
Reply:When i brought my 5 month pup home his skin was clean. He developed red round spot's. The vet didn't know what it was so he treated the pup for three kind's of mange allthough they didn't think that was it. They said it could be a change in the water. Anyway, it cleared up. I would try another vet.
Reply:My nephew's dog had a lot of problems with allergies. They needed to get the allergy testing. It turned out their dog was allergic to human skin! How's that for bad luck. Get your dog for the testing. Save your dog from lots of unneeded change of diet.