[Amy E]

Oh I forgot to mention that I have been giving him coconut oil for quite awhile now. I use it for many things myself too. Love that stuff. 🙂

Amy

[Amy E]

Thanks Corinne and Debbie.
His itching has decreased. He finished his second round of antibiotics (in 5 months) last week so the bumps are now gone again. Hopefully they will not return. I started giving him some daily Echinacea after first posting this question. Since then, I have learned about Neem Tree Bark powder and I’m giving him that twice daily now with his meals, instead of the echinacea. I’ve been researching Neem and it appears to have many beneficial uses, having been used in Eastern medicine for centuries. The tree bark powder is supposed to be an effective immune booster. Some people in dog rescue that I spoke to have had great success with it in rehabilitating sickly rescue dogs.

And it may be just coincidence, but after about a week of giving Moby the neem powder, the hair has begun to grow back on his hairless leathery ears! They are now covered in fuzzy black velvet and I’m so thrilled because to me it signals that his health is really improving.

Amy

[Amy E]

Thank you for all of your replies. I suspected it wasn’t the Frontline b/c my vet said the same thing, it would be a reaction at the sight of application usually, and that was not the case. And, that had not been the first time I’d put Frontline on him either. Fleas are not a concern in my area, I use Frontline for the tick killing power. Ticks are plentiful here and the ones that carry Lyme disease are too small to be seen, especially on a black dog.

Thanks for the heads up about starchy foods. I’ve been feeding him a lot of raw carrots! I will stop that to see if it helps. He’s already on Eagle Pack Holistic Salmon so I won’t switch foods just yet. He’s now on another round of antibiotics and more antihistamine. I’ll be giving him more frequent medicated baths again as well.

If the problem continues after this round of antibiotics is done, I’ll have to think about eliminating more ingredients. One thing….what are things that will boost his immune system? I fear due to his history he’s got a weak immune system so improving that may be a big key here.

Thanks again.

[Amy E]

Thanks for your reply, Leah.
I’ll continue to bathe him with the 2 medicated shampoos by Virbac that my vet prescribed and that should help. I’ve now got another 2 week round of antibiotics for him to clear up the bumps again. I won’t be putting Frontline on him anymore, but if he keeps itching and breaking out into next month, I’ll know it wasn’t from that. I’m going to cut out dairy and look into some grain-free foods just as a start.

I will probably end up doing the Immune IQ test if this itching continues, even with him on antihistamines (which I am going to try to up the dosage of to if it helps more without making him too drowsy, per my vet). It doesn’t really tell you conclusively that they are or aren’t allergic to things, but at lease it could give me an idea where to start with things he’s sensitive to (or may be sensitive to) and things he does not appear to be sensitive to.

Amy

[Amy E]

I just had another thought…

Could these bumps be a reaction to Frontline? I just applied that last weekend and this week the bumps multiplied noticeably.

[Author]

Posts