Hey there! I am a first time poster. I have been searching endlessly for help with my German Shepherd's incessant scratching and hair loss due to that scratching when I came across this site. I have really enjoyed the time I've spent reading all of your stories and truly feel for you and your pets.
To Sway- "sway has been seeing a dermatalogist for the past year,
environmental allergy testing was done and she was found to be allergic to over 20 different items...
he initially put her on ATOPICA, then she has been moved over time to a generic brand of CYCLOSPORINE, as that was cheaper for me (50mg every day)."
Even though I am new here I want to point out to you right away- esp since you have been hurting for sooo long- that sometimes you need to be on the BRAND name of a medication and not the generic. I know it is awful because of the price difference- but it is true. (I need to adjust at least one of my own medications because I can tell a dramatic difference between the two.) For you, I am referring to the Atopica vs Cyclosporine-- but as I have been typing I want to mention that I am going to try the brand name Benedryl again vs the generic the drug (which is anything diphenhydramine). It seemed that my Abby was improving at least a little on the Benedryl but we switched to the generic. Nothing has improved since the change and it actually seems worse. We had also changed to a chicken based food and I have seen from some of the posts that some dogs don't react well to chicken. We'll check out different food as soon as we get the chance to get the "real" Benedryl back into her system for a bit.
You did move in the winter and hadn't experienced fall or winter in the new environment either. I see that you've been there a long time now, but there's a possibility that something came about the first fall/winter season that affected your sweet Sway that was just unable to get out of the system. We moved this past October and although my Abby had issues a couple times before they are much worse now. Now we ask... is it the house, the stress, the food, the nature of the beast??
And lastly, DON'T LET PEOPLE SEE A VULNERABLE YOU. It can be a sad world of people selling products just because they want to make some money and it gets you a moment of hope. Don't seem desperate when you investigate and inquire. If you a get a 'salesperson' instead of a person with your dogs health improvement in mind, you'll keep spinning circles.
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