r/dogallergies

Hello all I had posted here about a month ago venting about my dog having issues and since then we have been to the dermatologist twice. 2000 more dollars later on top of the hundreds I spent at her primary and we are feeling somewhat better… sort of… but nothing seems to be eliminating the itch.

My dog did wind up having a yeast infection hiding in her nail bed, which she has been on her oral (fluconazole) and wipe (clorohex) medication for for about a month now and since her last recheck the other day, the yeast is almost gone, but not quite gone. She also wound up with mometamax as another topical for her paws because they became quite inflamed during all this. So that’s 3 whole meds for yeast. The paws smell way better than they did and they are less swollen, which is great however, if I take the cone off, even for a second, we are right back to vigorously licking them nonstop. The vet said there was still a small amount of yeast leftover but it’s gone down.

We started zenrelia and it’s been ok? Every post I have seen about the medication makes it seem like it’s some sort of miracle that stopped their dogs allergies instantly unfortunately after a month on it, my dog is maybe like 30% less itchy, but still very itchy. Has anyone had a similar experience? She also received an injection of a new cytopoint adjacent thing called befrena but it certainly hasn’t done much in the past 2 days to reduce her want to itch in my opinion. Maybe it needs more time so I will withhold judgment. Cyclosporine was floated as another alternative but I don’t love the cost and the loading time. Final option is of course thousands more for allergy testing and immunotherapy, making the thousands I’ve thrown at this problem already pointless- and there’s no guarantee any of these other things will work either.

TLDR we are now up to over 2k in credit card debt and 5 entire current medications (7 if you count the discarded apoquel and cytopoint) with only moderate “success”. She still lives in a cone 24/7 to prevent constant paw licking and restarting her yeast infection. All I wanted was to have my dog out of a cone and we have not achieved this goal. I feel like I’ve done everything recommended to me and gotten no significant progress or results out of it besides anxiety and debt. If I could be assured my dog would stop itching I would throw another thousand at this problem but I just can’t afford this constant stream of meds and rechecks with no great results. I know it’s not the vets or really anyone’s fault but it’s literally causing me so much mental health problems between the finances and an obviously miserable dog

I love my dog but I genuinely never want to own another animal ever again after this.

Busco experiencias de dueños de perros que hayan lidiado con las alergias o con afecciones de la piel en sus mascotas. Algún medicamento efectivo que compartan.

Entre alergias y levaduras no se que más hacer con mi perro.

We have an almost 6 year old Male Carolina dog that has had GI issues since we adopted him at 6 weeks.

Aug 25’ He had dark blood in stools and was referred to Texas A&M veterinary clinic for potential anal gland removal . (No internal bleed)They put him on a hills z/d Hydrolyzed chicken diet and he went from 115 to 88 pounds in 6 months.

Jan 26’ He began vomiting randomly about 1x a week (randomly after he’d eat or drink) just exorcist type volume. It was random. So some days he was normal and then the following week or 2, puke fest.

Our vet switched him from the chicken z/d canned/kibble to soy. He ate it for about 2 weeks and puke fest returned.

We had chicken z/d kibble sent by mistake and he ate it for another couple weeks. In Feb’26 he started to skip meals and hide.

In March, he started vomiting large clumps of clotted blood and had large amounts of dark red blood in both vomit and diarrhea.

4 grand for the overnight emergency hospital stay and testing resulted in a terminal bile duct carcinoma diagnosis and possible ruptured ulcer.

We were referred to a new vet to handle end of life care and given 4-6 weeks to say goodbye.

In May he developed an infection/abscess/ blood pocket on his left rear leg so we took him in to see if cancer had spread and to get q.o.l. Opinion. He hadn’t eaten in 3 days and started peeing blood . Took him to our vet mid June.

Vet asked if he had been exposed to any rat poison. I made a joke that no rat poison, but he started this whole shift in health once he started the Hills Z/D food. She humored my conspiratorial approach and said “ let’s run bloodwork again” to rule out any possibility of poisoning.

She aspirated the leg and entire syringe of pinkish blood was removed. Tests revealed he had a massive infection in his leg and that his other bloodwork looked better than his hospital visit in March. He received 2 weeks of clindamycin. She couldn’t explain the bleeding or him withdrawing.

She told me to toss the Hills z/d and purchase Purina Pro Plan Elemental “EL” very expensive kibble. Feed him tilapia and sweet potato prepared plain with half normal portion of the new food. If his appetite returns, he should respond well to the EL since its amino acids and not chemically enriched.

Well 3 weeks later, he’s back up to 90 pounds and no large hematoma, no vomit or diarrhea or blood loss anywhere. He runs around and seems like a very healthy and happy dog. He returns Jul 15th for a new ultrasound and bloodwork to see anything changed internally.

Moral of the story, go with your gut. Don’t be afraid to ask weird questions if all else fails.

My poor puppy golden doodle (2 years old)can’t seem to get any relief from itchy paws. I have tried hydrocortisone cream (dog version), fold cream, sulfur soak and some hotspot sprays and nothing is working! His paws don’t smell like Fritos or anything so I don’t think it’s a yeast issue, the vet just says to give him Benadryl but that doesn’t seem to do much either…I’m running out of ideas, any advice?

We also have switched him to chicken-free dry food and make a combo of brown rice, sweet potatoes, pumpkin, green beans and peas with salmon oil mixed in, he’s been on that for over a year and there just is no improvement.

First time poster. My just over a year old, 15 lb rescue dog (shih tzu, chihuahua, dachshund, terrier mix)(I've had her two months) from Texas is now here in Wisconsin. A few days ago she experienced anaphylaxis. She was outside while we ate dinner (late June ~ 6pm, residential backyard with grass) and 20 minutes later she vomited up her dinner, walked a few steps, vomited again, did that two more times, deficated, and then stumbled away. It looked like she was drunk. Then she laid down abruptly and looked out of it. She has a cute little overbite and her tongue sticks out and it was pale. Her gums were pale as well.

Since it was after hours we called our local dog ER and were there within twenty minutes. I thought she got into something when I didn't see but the ER confirmed through presenting symptoms, gall bladder halo, liver values and other blood tests it was consistent with anaphylaxis / anaphylactic shock (not sure if they're the same term). They assured me it wasn't my fault.

She was there for six hours multiple rounds of medication, checked heart rate often and blood pressure, liver values, was on an IV. Thankfully she didn't need a plasma transfusion. She responded well and ultimately we were able to bring her home to monitor around midnight. They said it was highly likely she would have died. Emergency treatment for anaphylaxis is highly effective when done quickly.

It's been five days. She came home with prednisone, Benadryl, and Omeprazole. She's been vomiting and having diarrhea. I took her to her regular vet after monitoring a couple days and a few phone calls, she was prescribed a proviable kit, ondansetron, and a bland diet. Her vomitting is slowing down and shes starting BM's again after a couple of days of not having them. So we're moving in the right direction. Her affect has been fairly normal, sleepier than normal, but willing to go outside and wants to play sometimes even though I'm trying to keep it calm and chill for her. She's interested in eating but clearly doesn't appreciate my effort to give her a bland diet kibble as a treat XD

Multiple professional parties have said there's no way to know what caused it. Is this true? My vet didn't have any testing and a local veterinary dermatologist said they couldn't do it either. I experience anxiety and hyper vigilance especially with my pets. Not knowing if this will happen again is painful. It's apparently very rare in dogs as well. Dogs don't grow out of this, if it happens again the reaction will be the same to worse. I have an email inquiry out to a regional veterinary college.

We were in our backyard, somewhere she is every day multiple times per day. It's especially scary because what if we "waited to see" what happened, or weren't outside to see her progression, or we brought her inside and left, or put her to bed... we've had dogs and they've vomited and it was usually a wait and see if they were acting normal situation. An occasional call to the vet. The pale gums and out of it look snapped me into emergency mode. But again what if there was a later reaction. Some say these reactions are within minutes to an hour. Some have said it could be 1-8 hours later. Well obviously waiting over an hour to leave the house doesn't work for the real world. We're making a point to watch her at least 30 minutes before going to bed or leaving and having a camera. Though I worry that naturally over time complacency will naturally build when things have been fine for a while.

The ER doc also prescribed an EpiPen Jr, but we've gotten mixed feedback from veterinary professionals on this as well and information online is anecdotal at best. We did fill it and have it on hand. We were able to use GoodRX for CVS to get it a little cheaper. It seems like it's more of a peace of mind for the owner type thing. Very minimal information and it's conflicting at best on them for use on dogs.

The vet said that we can't (or shouldn't) keep her in a bubble and we should let her live her life and carry on because we never know anything that could happen in the future.

We fenced off some plants that bees favor to limit exposure there. But bees fly and can live in the ground. Ants exist on patios and pavement and grass.
Hornets and wasps can come out of nowhere. Bugs can get inside too. Living in fear and avoidance doesn't sound like the answer, but again I have anxiety so good luck not worrying. Anything could happen at anytime whether health, accident, you name it. But that doesn't help either I just don't like feeling out of control.

I'm posting as another data point if this happens to anyone else looking for information (I'm so sorry if this happens to you and your fur baby). I also am looking for real world experiences, reassurance, hope, suggestions? Has this happened and didn't happen again? Did it happen and happen again? Any where to find answers through skin or blood tests? Anyone have experience with immunotherapy for dogs to build resistance to venom? Saliva tests I've been told are unreliable.

To end on a happy note she is recovering well from this very scary experience and getting lots of cuddles.

Our 5 year old mixed breed dog has such bad allergies, he has been on apoquel for three years until it stopped working, then put him on pred which helped him alot, then we went to a quarter pill and three reactine, which also helps. We also did just reactin but that did nothing.

Not wanting to be on long term pred we decided to give Atopica a try. I'm looking for some experience on it, I heard there is gastro upset- how long has that lasted?

Thank you for sharing, here is hoping there are some good stories too!

I render beef trim to make super high value rewards for my reactive dog. Folks have asked what I’m using for training and I swear half the dogs are “allergic” to something. I’m guessing allergic in hooman terms is often really - that particular food gives my dog the 💩- but man these poor pups! Only 1 of the 8 dogs I’ve had in my lifetime had a real sensitivity to some foods so I know it’s a real thing and most of that was me getting sucked into more treats than wise!🥸

Hi! We tried apoquel for our dogs very crusty nose. He honestly does not bite/itch a ton, and it didn’t help the crusty nose so we stopped after a week or so. However, he rugs his nose a lot, to where he rubs the skin off and it slightly bleeds. We are thinking of trying again. How many does does it take to see if it’s working?

Hi everyone! Posting here because I am sure many of your dogs are on Apoquel. We started our dog on Apoquel almost 2 weeks ago now…twice a day for a week and now once a day. He was suffering with symptoms such as tearing eyes, shaking his head, itchy ears and skin, sometimes licking his paws. His skin definitely looked pink under the arms and in the groin. He also ended up with secondary conjunctivitis, which is really what led us down this road in the first place. I feel like his allergy symptoms have certainly improved, although not perfect, and I am okay with that. But I do feel like he is hoping around from the floor, to the couch, to the bed to nap most of the day which he didn’t really do before. I am hesitant to call that lethargy or drowsiness because he jumps right up when I take him out, feed him, or play. Could it be that he is more comfortable now and is just able to settle? And another bonus is he seems to be less reactive. For some back story, we rescued him last November and he is a young, energetic, 1 year old pup. What are some of your experiences with Apoquel? I would hate for him to be on a medicine that is causing lethargy or drowsiness, taking away from him being himself. Thank you in advance!

A little after the pup turned 1 he started getting hotspots in his pits. The vet gave him topical powder to help with the skin and it does. The problem is once the skin is clear and I stop the powder he goes back and makes new hot spots in the same locations. I have switched his food from chicken to salmon (with no chicken in it) for about a month and that hasn't changed anything.

I have seen adds for the at home sensitivity/intolerance tests. Has anyone had luck with those and is there one that people have had a good experience with?

I would be interested in your personal experiences with immunotherapy. Did it help your dog? If so, how long did it take to show effects?
Did it solve the issue fully?
Or did it not help as all?

After testing, are you able to give apoquel or Numelvi?

Thank you ☺️

Hi all! I have an 8 year old mutt that is a quarter Chihuahua. He's constantly aggravating his rear end, has ear irritation frequently, and paw licking. When it comes to the rump he's developed black scar tissue and has recently creates a new VERY red, irritation spot.

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Did the dermatologist and while an alligator elimination diet and prescription soap/conditioner reduced the amount of time he focused on the areas, $125 for a 22 lbs bag isn't sustainable.

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I've done cytopoint shots with little relief to him and now considering getting a Robot vacuum to help with the dust inside the home. I have an air purifier, allergen spray, and keep the HVAC filter replaced regularly.

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Anyone have thoughts or feedback on cleaning their environment more regularly for instances like this? Appreciate all info and data! TIA!!

Hi there. We have an 8 year old mini goldendoodle that has struggled with allergies for a few years now. We put her on qpoquel which controlled her allergies well in Fall 2025. Then, we tried to take her off of it around christmas and her allergies came back stronger. We tried cytopoint at that fime, which did nothing, so we did a two week course of twice daily apoquel to get the flare under control before maintaining on once daily apoquel.

We did a food allergy trial on hydrolyzed diet which did nothing which leads our vet to believe her allergies are environmental. We can’t afford to go see a vet dermatologist in our area. We have kept her on the hydrolyzed diet regardless just in case.

She was doing fine on apoquel until we missed a dose one day in April. Since then, her flare has been absolutely out of control. Tried twice daily apoquel to control the flare, that did nothing. Tried just maintaining on hydrolyzed food with one daily apoquel, that did nothing.

We’ve just finished a week of prednisone and antibiotics which finally got everything under control but now that we’re weaning off the prednisone per the vet’s reccomendation, the itching is coming back.

Our vet reccomended cyclosporine which I was really hesitant to try because I am currrently breastfeeding a child and there is a warning on the label not to handle if nursing, but now I feel like we have no other options.

Can anyone share their experience with cyclosporine or if there is anything else we can try? We are in Canada.

Also, this has all been very expensive as well so we don’t want to keep paying for hydrolyzed food if it’s not necessary but we’re also scared to take her off of that in case it results in a worse flare. Has anyone taken their allergic dog off hydrolyzed diet and been ok or is that a terrible idea?

Apologies for the long post!

Our sweet 9 year old pitty mix (65-70 lbs) has had chronic allergy issues for years, and we've spent so much time and money trying to help him. He has been primarily symptom-free for the past year, but unfortunately last night, we noticed a cyst on his foot and I'm feeling helpless.

For background, our dog was put on Apoquel when he was very young due to some mild skin irritation and itchiness, but over time, he started to develop benign cysts all over his body. Several of the lipomas needed surgery for removal, so we made the decision that, based on skin growths being a (admittedly, somewhat anecdotal) side effect of the medication, to take him off of it.

A few weeks off Apoquel, his skin issues basically exploded. He was miserable, there were recurring bloody cysts on his paws and stomach/chest, his skin was flaky and dull, his ears (which were never a big infection site) started to get constantly irritated, the bottoms of his paws and in between his toes were red and raw, he was losing fur in big patches, and was just so, so itchy. Even his eyelids had scabs on them because he was just so raw and irritated :( we couldn't leave him out of his cone for more than 5 minutes without him itching himself until he bled. It was such a scary, sad time - he was so miserable, and we felt terrible seeing him suffer.

Our old vet wasn't much help - they continued to prescribe very strong antibiotics that helped temporarily but didn't address the root cause, and only after several rounds of medication that, imo, did some heavy damage to his gut/immune system, did they suggest a dermatologist.

At the derm, we were told the next step was an allergy test. It cost a lot of money, so we saved up and got it done a few months later. Turns out he was allergic to basically everything they tested for lol - every grass, tree, weed, mold, etc.

After the test, they prescribed sublingual immunotherapy drops, which he still takes twice a day. For the past year, that regimen has seemed to be working. His itchiness reduced over time, with a few random yeast flare ups between his feet now and again. Any time they got bad, we'd go back to the derm or our new vet to get on medication (typically ketoconazole), and it seemed to help.

Truthfully, after a year of being basically symptom-free, I started to think maybe he was "healed". Which is why seeing this latest cyst on his foot was so devastating.

We are about to go out of town for a week, so the morning after noticing the cyst, I took him in right way out of an abundance of caution. They said it looked like a mild infection and prescribed a week of Simplicef. I want to trust our new vet, but given our history of antibiotic "band-aids," I'm feeling anxious, especially since we'll be out of town soon.

His current regimen consists of Hill's Science Diet Derm Complete food with Purina pro plan probiotics, immunotherapy drops 2x/day, weekly baths and foot soaks with MiconaHex+Triz shampoo, Douxo mousse every other day during flare-ups, monthly cytopoint shots (which don't seem super effective tbh), and wiping his feet every time after he goes outside. With this setup, he had basically returned back to his normal self - until we noticed the cyst yesterday.

FWIW, we've also tried the hydrolyzed diet (which just gave him diarrhea), and Benadryl for flare-ups, which did not work unfortunately.

I'm just feeling so hopeless and discouraged. Overall, his quality of life has improved drastically from where he was a few years ago, but I'm nervous that this is a sign of the same horrible cycle starting all over again.

Our boy means the world to us, we would do anything for him. Has anyone gone through anything similar?

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.

[NEED HELP] Does anyone know where to get access to an actual, FDA approved Befrena Product Sheet? I see these product sheets for Apoquel, Zenrelia (where they publish their efficacies, adverse side effects etc. through stated sample sizes etc. etc.)

Befrena only has some 'showy' infographic which I do not believe entirely in. Anyone has any idea? They have been out in the US for quite some time but why is there no in-depth product sheet whatsoever?