Ear and paw allergies?

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Claire Schachtschneider

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Hi all — my 9mo old sheltie is showing signs of skin allergies with her ears and paws. Has anyone dealt with sheltie allergies before and have any advise? My previous sheltie didn’t have any, so this is new to me! Her vet ruled out ear infections and is leaning toward a general skin allergy since she’s shaking her head and licks her paws on occasion. Any help or advise is appreciated!
 
I'm sorry to hear about your puppy's allergies, Claire. Allergies can be one of the toughest things to diagnose. My Flurry, who will be 4 in July, started with skin allergies when she was about 8 months old. She had small lesions on her skin that obviously itched and bothered her. My vet ran all kinds of tests and everything came up negative, except that the lesions always tested positive for staph. After a year of having her on and off antibiotics, I took her to a canine dermatologist with my vet's blessing. The derm doc found that Flurry is actually allergic to the staph her own body produces. She is, essentially, allergic to herself.

I make her a home-cooked diet with a recipe from the experts at Natures' Farmacy; she gets probiotics and a dermal support supplement, and I give her allergy injections once a week with staph serum. She has occasional flareups which we treat with antibiotics. She has never grown undercoat, which I attribute to her skin allergy. It's been a long haul, but at least we know what's going on and how to treat it.

This is a long way of suggesting that you take your puppy to a canine dermatologist. I love my vet, and they're terrific, but a dermatologist will perform specialized tests that your vet doesn't, and can pinpoint the source of the problem and the solution, or treatment, much faster. It's worth the effort and money. I wish I'd done it sooner! Allergies don't resolve on their own, and can get worse. Your vet will give you topical treatments or meds but until you find the cause, it won't solve the problem.

I wish you the best of luck with this problem, and hope your puppy improves soon!
 
Claire Schachtschneider said:
Hi all — my 9mo old sheltie is showing signs of skin allergies with her ears and paws. Has anyone dealt with sheltie allergies before and have any advise? My previous sheltie didn’t have any, so this is new to me! Her vet ruled out ear infections and is leaning toward a general skin allergy since she’s shaking her head and licks her paws on occasion. Any help or advise is appreciated!
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Hi Claire, sorry to hear about your Sheltie having allergies! My three year old Liam struggles with them too!

I have been using this product and it is helping

https://www.chewy.com/pethonesty-allergy-support-immunity/dp/190534

I have even cut to trees down in my yard that I believe shaded the grass so much that a mold would grow. Cut them down last year. The grass is much greener now. If all else fails you might need to see a specialist.

Washing the paws daily to remove any mold or irritants helped too! You can search for threads on this topic that might help also!

Good luck and keep us posted!
 
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Allergies are huge where I live, both for humans and dogs. Poor little Tully has had contact allergies her whole life - she's esp allergic to grass which means it's impossible to eliminate contact, Della also gets airborne hayfever. I had Tully on Phenergan for many years as I found it worked quickly and instantly. Tully's internal medicine specialist (IMS) had us switch to ceterizine (Zyrtec) as he said that has the highest efficacy in dogs. But you do need to give Zyrtec ongoing during allergy seasons. It has a wide safety margin - Tully gets half a human tablet and she's 7kg. I still sometimes give a Phenergan at night when she's have respiratory issues from the allergies - she snorts then.

I would also recommend wiping his paws after he's been outside, and using a damp sponge to wipe down his coat when it's really bad. That will reduce skin contact with the allergen and also reduce the chance of him further inhaling it when he comes inside.

I'd suggest you try the antihistamine for a week or two, if the ear shaking and paw licking reduces then you'll know for sure. If it doesn't, well it could be the antihistamine not working or it's not an allergy but at least you'll have ruled out one thing. I'd try to avoid steroid injections first up - they turned Tully into a hungry, bench cruising fiend, but definitely avoid things like Apoquel.

Oh and Tully's main symptom was licking, but not always her paws, sometimes people or objects.
 
Caro said:
I'd suggest you try the antihistamine for a week or two, if the ear shaking and paw licking reduces then you'll know for sure. If it doesn't, well it could be the antihistamine not working or it's not an allergy but at least you'll have ruled out one thing. I'd try to avoid steroid injections first up - they turned Tully into a hungry, bench cruising fiend, but definitely avoid things like Apoquel.

Oh and Tully's main symptom was licking, but not always her paws, sometimes people or objects.
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Yes, I forgot to mention that Liam gets Benadryl also when it gets really bad!
vet says you can give 1 mg per pound twice a day. The internet says two to three times a day or every 8 hours but I’d stick with twice to be safe.
 
Our first Sheltie had allergies and would bite her poor feet raw. Sorry as it’s been 37 years and I can’t remember what her meds were ( I am pretty sure they would be outdated with new modern meds). For my Ontario friends the Vet called it the Exhibition Itch as it came at the same time every year. lol. So far Cooper shows no signs, except he has a sensitive tummy. Hope your pup gets relief and it brings you relief too.
 
Just looked through this thread and it seems that it is about my sheltie. She started suffering from skin allergies several months ago. I changed her shampoo, diet, and flea products. My mistake was to change everything at once, now I don't know what exactly was the cause. The problem was that I couldn't visit the vet at once and decided to act on my own. The prescribed apoquel for dogs worked perfectly for her and treatment didn't take much time. Now I'm just afraid to return to the previous products to avoid the possible allergy.
 
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