# Winter allergies?



## Arloboy (Jan 8, 2014)

Hello everyone. Our dog, Arlo, has been scratching at his face, ears, eyes, and snout for a couple weeks now. We took him to the vet 2 weeks ago and she gave him steroids, which seemed to help, and antibiotic incase of infection. The problem is as soon as he stopped the steroids he started scratching again. His eyes have pink circles around them and his snout is a pinkish color now also. We started seeing this when the colder weather started. He is a year old, and otherwise healthy. Tons of energy, which I'm sure all of you know what I'm talking about. This is our first V so we were just wondering if anyone has experienced these issues. Vet said could be food or environmental allergies so I was hoping to narrow it down so we can try to figure it out. Thanks for the help!


----------



## Emily1970 (Apr 21, 2011)

Riley has year round allergies and is currently red faced and has a red nose. Did your vet happen to mention that it was a possible yeast infection? Sounds like environmental allergies to me. Riley weighs 60 pounds and besides his other meds takes three 25mg Benadryl (generic is fine) up to 3x a day. You can also take Benadryl cream and rub some on the inside of his ears and outside to help with that itch and the redness.


----------



## hotmischief (Mar 11, 2012)

rI have similar problems with my now 2yr old boy. It certainly sounds like you pup has environmental allergies - to what - that is the questions. 

I would suggest you take him to your vet and maybe ask for a referral to a dermatologist, who will probably take a blood sample to find out what he is allergic to. 

My boy was on steroids for a while, whilst we waited for the results. He was then put on a drug to suppress his immune system whilst he has a cause of allergen injections. He is now coming off the immune suppressant and is doing very well.

Good luck, and I would be very interested to know how you get on.


----------



## Arloboy (Jan 8, 2014)

Thanks for the replies! We started giving Arlo benadryl on Thursday, 25mg twice a day, and it has really seemed to help. No more red eyes or red snout and his itching has not totally gone away but he is definitely itching a lot less. Our game plan is to clean all his blankets and pillows, change the furnace filter then monitor him for a week after his allergies totally go away, and we stop the benadryl. If the allergies come back we will take him to the dermatologist to see if we can pinpoint what he's allergic to. The one thing I forgot to mention in my original post is that Arlo has been licking excessively lately. He's mostly licking his legs and paws. Is this normal in the winter time? Or could it be from his allergies? Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!


----------



## hotmischief (Mar 11, 2012)

You might find this article about allergies interesting


http://www.halopets.com/pet-education/pet-articles/allergies-in-dogs.html


----------

