Lola the Explorer and her allergies

Lola the Explorer has always been an "itchy dog" and over the years we have tried many things. From special (read expensive) shampoos, special diets, portions, lotions and creams and of course medication from the vet. Her allergies continue and although we laugh at her famous belly scratching and spinning around on her butt, it can't be comfortable for the poor thing.

Most helpful is Prednisone, prescribed by the vet. However, being a strong steroid, we don't like her taking it all the time so only give them to her when her allergies are particularly bad. They do help, but she's always starving (nothing thin about Lola) and giving us the "feed me" look.

Allergies were particularly bad on our recent trip up to Metung and Merimbula. And of course we didn't have any Prednisone with us. So spotting a vet in Lakes Entrance, we decided to stop and say hello and see if they could give us a few tablets.

An old fashioned country vet they agreed to provide them. The only hesitation - what to charge. 14 tablets, "oh just give us $5." Was tempted to see if we could have 200! The cheapest trip to the vet EVER!

Not only that, but we were having a chat about using human antihistamines between courses of the Prednisone which they were very much in favour of. So they also provided us with a sheet showing which to use and the recommended dosages:

   

Piriactin	4mg tabs	Give ½ tablet 3 times daily	Per 5kg of body weight
Phenergan	10mg tabs	Give ½ tablet 3 times daily	Per 5kg of body weight
Polaramine	2mg tabs	Give ½ tablet twice daily	Per 5kg of body weight
Claratine	10mg tabs	Give 1/4 tablet twice daily	Per 5kg of body weight
Teldane	10mg tabs	Give ½ tablet twice daily	Per 5kg of body weight
Zyrtec	10mg tabs	Give ½ tablet twice daily	Per 5kg of body weight
Zadine	1mg tabs	Give ½ tablet once daily	Per 5kg of body weight
Telfast	180mg tabs	Give 1/4 tablet twice daily	Per 10kg of body weight

We've had some success with antihistamines, although we were just dosing Lola once a day. It's suggested using one brand for at least 10 days and then trying a second. Antihistamines have very little side effects, but don't always work in all cases. So we're going to try and switch things up a little. I did find a few articles talking about this to compare. Like these ones:

Dog Walkers Melbourne

Fairfield Road Veterinary Hospital

After my bit of reading, we're also going to give sardines a go. Over the years we've tried Fish Oil tablets and various different forms of Omega 3, but apparently 1 small sardine a day, can help keep the itches away!

I scratch on sand......

I scratch on grass!