[Dailydrool] Food Allergy Testing

[Diane Surman]

I tested my Basset Chloe about 6+ years ago for food allergies. She had a 
terrible allergy problem and everyone kept saying it was food related. She 
ate enough different dog foods to literally circle the globe. Finally I had 
enough. I had her tested for food allergies via blood testing.  It came back 
NO food allergies. Then I had her tested for environmental allergies. She 
pretty much had everything.  So, we tried allergy shots for a while. 
Expensive, somewhat of a pain and they did absolutely no good.  The shots 
actually made her worse. She had to go on prednisone while receiving the 
shots.  I was trying to avoid prednisone.  Finally we stopped the shots and 
decided to just keep her on 2.5 mg of pred per day. She also gets baths 
every 2-3 weeks in Mal-A-Ket shampoo. All of this has greatly helped her and 
she now has a good quality of life.  She does drink and pee a lot, even on 
that small of an amount.  At times, I can cut back on the pred, but lately 
the allergies seem really bad here in PA so she's back to a daily dose.  I 
know pred isn't any good for her, but for me, it's the lesser of 2 evils. 
She is 12.5 years old and as spunky as any 3 year old Basset.

Diane