Allergy central

Tierce went back to the vet's today to get his stitches out. His skin biopsies showed no sign of any disease or other problem and the "most likely cause of his itching is atopy or food allergies".

The vet advised a "hydrolyzed protein" diet. From what she told me, "hydrolyzed protein" means the protein breaks down into components too small for the body to form an allergic reaction to. This is the only thing Tierce can have. No treats, even his toys have to be put away. He can, however, have sticks to play with.

She wants me to keep Tierce on this diet for two months to rule out food allergies and I agreed, because nothing is working so far. However, I can't wait for two months to be over. The food looks like CORN POPS, for Dog's sake.

And just wait until you read what's in this stuff:

Starch, hydrolyzed soy protein isolate, coconut oil, calcium phosphate, canola oil preserved with TBHQ, powdered cellulose, corn oil, potassium chloride, vegetable gums (gum arabic, guar gum), choline chloride, DL-methionine, salt, magnesium oxide, lecithin, taurine, zinc sulfate, ferrous sulfate, Vitamin E supplement, manganese sulfate, niacin, calcium carbonate, Vitamin A supplement, copper sulfate, calcium pantothenate, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin supplement, garlic oil, Vitamin B-12 supplement, pyridoxine hydrochloride, folic acid, Vitamin D-3 supplement, calcium iodate, biotin, menadione sodium bisulfite complex (source of vitamin K activity), sodium selenite.

Starch??! Yeah, that seems like a REALLY healthy main ingredient... oh, but look! Canola oil preserved with TBHQ! Charming. I know that some dogs do really well on this kind of food, but the ingredients make me throw up a little in my mouth. Typically - it's full of crap (I know, I know, sometimes this kind of thing is the only food a dog can handle) - and he LOVES it. He hated the pinto-bean-and-sweet-potato test food we had him on and lost half a pound.

1 bag and that's it. We're going back to RDD Herring once it's proven that it's not a food allergy. He loves that, too.

I'm pretty convinced that it's the vaccine that has caused this, but I'm going to do everything in my power to make sure that's what it is. Problem is, we don't know if the vaccine triggered another allergy. So we might as well put him on this diet and see if he does any better.

He also has a new and exciting pill to take: Cyclosporine. The vet said it was better than Prednisone, especially since he is so young. After a look at the side effects of Prednisone, I'm inclined to agree.

So that's where we are with Tierce: pills and Corn Pops. Hope it helps.