8 YO dog developed horrific allergies 12 months after moving
My 8 year old min pin/manchester terrier/something else boy has always had some minor allergies like sneezing in the spring on walks, paw licking, and butt licking, none of which was ever severe. he never licked himself raw or anything like that. He'd also get seasonal ear itchiness but never a full blown infection.
Exactly 12 months after we moved to our new house he started getting itchiness in his ears. Then in February, he got a non-healing corneal ulcer but once that was healed, he refused to open the eye. Found out he had follicular conjunctivitis and treated that with steroids. During this time, we were also working with his vet to keep an ear infection under control but nothing ever worked except zymox, but it would come right back. His eye doctor then told us he had "borderline" dry eye. He also started developing diarrhea and nausea.
We were confused as to how he could get allergies, borderline dry eye (which we were told wasn't that bad), and stomach issues all at the same time. Our vet put him on apoquel and we've been doing tacrolimus eye drops for the dry eye ever since. He went from 13mm stt to 20mm stt so borderline to normal and his new eye doctor says to continue what we're doing since he's healthy.
Unfortunately, he's not healthy. His ears are constantly inflamed, his allergies seem to impact his eyes a lot, and he also scratches his face, scoots, and licks his paws (though not bloody).
I tried taking him off the apoquel for one day and his ears blew up and we've spent the last 5 days getting that under control. His vet has also put him on prilosec for his GERD symptoms since he's constantly licking his lips, yawning, and burping.
We changed his food just in case he had an underlying food allergy and yet these issues all persist.
It feels awful because before we moved to this house he was healthy, and now for the past 6 months he's been suffering almost non stop. He was in a cone for 3 months because his eye doctor couldn't figure out why he was still pawing at his eye after the ulcer healed.
I even had a few teeth extracted because I thought maybe some of those symptoms were due to dental issues, which we found, yet none of the symptoms were related since he's all healed now.
Our current primary vet refuses to do the blood allergy test because a "dermatologist will just throw it out"
However, at this point in time, we don't plan on working with a dermatologist because the dog almost died from anesthesia from his dental extraction.
He's been through so much and it's so heartbreaking. Clearly the apoquel keeps some of his symptoms at bay, but it's not 100% and I truly don't know what's causing his GERD symptoms.
We have reached out to a new vet who can do the blood allergy testing so we can start working toward some type of solution for him. I've cleaned the house top to bottom, checked for mold, put covers on his beds, and I still can't seem to get my boy to feel healthy.
Has anyone ever experienced this before after moving? It started in January and has persisted through all of June. Hopefully we get some answers soon.