We took Sammy to see an allergy specialists last week. It was much more stressful than I had anticipated. He has had an allergy issue that his other vet didn’t give us a good solution for. She had suggested he be retested in a year when he was an adult. But, in the meantime, we didn’t want him just to be scratching and on a restricted diet if that was not helping.
I called a different vet to get a second opinion, and they recommended an allergy specialist. I did not even know there was such a thing as a dog allergy specialist. We got him on a cancellation list, because the vet was booked out for a couple months. Last week, we got the call that there was an opening so we rushed Sammy down there.Â
It was a curbside vet. They took Sammy in, after I had to do a little coaxing myself. Then, the vet called us to tell us that the blood test we had done before with the other vet often didn’t give good results, and that we needed to do a skin test. She suggested this allergy skin test because she felt that Sammy had environmental allergies, and not food allergies like the other vet suggested. She said that most golden retrievers have environmental allergies and not food allergies. I thought it was interesting that it could be breed specific.Â
She then said that they had an opening to be able to do the skin test that day and then we would know what he was allergic to that day. I was hopeful that this would help Sammy.Â
The stressful part was that they said he would need to be sedated because they had to prick him with 65 allergens and would not be able to stay still otherwise. Sammy’s dad had lost a dog due to improper anesthesia, so he was uncomfortable with the sedation part.Â
Soulful Escapes
We had to wait a few hours for this test to be completed, so I was very uncomfortable waiting. It was my idea to go ahead with the allergy test, so I knew I would be responsible if anything went wrong. Sammy was fine, but went home with a rather large shaved square on his belly that was very itchy. He was pretty uncomfortable that first night. We did find out that the probable cause of his allergy issue could be the eucalyptus trees in our backyard. He is allergic to eucalyptus and dust.Â
We were sent home with a custom serum that I need to give him every day in his gums. It is a microdose of what he is allergic to. The plan is that his immune system could become used to those allergens and that he won’t react anymore to them. I may be giving him these serum drops for awhile too. The vet said he has a 25% chance of being able to get off of the drops. I hope he is one of the lucky ones, because you can’t give the drops in food. I have to peel his gums back and give him the drops in his mouth. He gives me one of his looks after he tries to hide by jumping on the bed when I go to give him these drops. Any allergy vet advice would be appreciated.Â
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