Allergic reaction with hives.  3rd time now, starts as a puffy L upper eye lid and hives spread from there if unchecked.  We thought it was something in our carpet so we rinsed the area out we thought it was causing the problem after the second time.  Happens again tonight, don't recall him being around the area we washed, just turned around and see his L eye lid is getting puffy again.  First time, we had no idea what to do so he went to the emergency vet (previous thread) and got steroid and anti-histamine injection because he had hives over his body.  Second and third time now, Bendryl has reduced the puffiness/hives fairly quickly not letting them spread great than an inch or so around his L eye and haven't had to go back to the vet.  Has a sore/bald spot below his eye on his L cheek but our vet thinks it is from mites and unrelated to the swelling.  It is also improving as hair is starting to return.  

Will call the vet in the morning to report but I don't know if they will have an idea either.  Is the spot and the swelling related?  What could cause this?  
Nothing new for him, he's outside like 3hrs a day walking or playing fetch, hiked 5 miles in the Superstitions last Sunday without any problems, same dog food.  
Any input would be appreciated!

might want to take this to the pets sub forum or even GD because of the high traffic there.. yeah you will get lots of funny shit like the dog has teh aids or whatever but unless there is a total derailment you can get good answers as well.
What is the breed and age of the dog and when was the first and 2nd time this happened etc.. recent vaccines?
Allergies can be a pain in the ass to figure out.
You could try giving him real food like the BARF diet or some real basic mix of meat mixed with rice and some veggies (not too much rice and veggie or they wont eat it, make it all taste like meat or animal fat) but sudden diet change has other temp side effects , like sudden change in bowel movements LOL




we did not notice any problems for our dog adjusting from kibble to real food however...
Our GSD had some balding rash on his nose once as a pup, we took him off kibble and never saw it again.. of course that does not mean it was the kibble...






 


 

What kinda dog?

Do you have other dog's? If yes are they having similar or same problem?

How old?

New medications / or any meds he was on before ER trip?

Insects around - spiders, scorpions etc?

Vaccines lately?

 Anything new in the environment that he's around?

Human food given?

What is the brand of dog food?

What kinda dog treats is he getting?

Just some questions to rule out possible reasons for the allergic reactions.  Is he acting normal besides the swelling & hives? Eating & drinking? Any vomiting or diarrhea? Your going to have to start to rule out everything about his life- food, treats, where he goes, etc. pain in the butt, but could find the problem.

Without knowing answers to these questions even a vet would have a hard time figuring this out I think.

16mo Lab - Only dog
Iams puppy food - no change, gets some fruits/vegetables most days of the week - carrots, tomatoes, apple
Treats from petco - a couple of the bulk ones, nothing new there
No meds previously
Currently taking antibiotic - Only on meds now because the emergency vet thought the spot on his cheek was from bacteria
No spiders or scorpions we have seen
Nothing new in his environment

Hives usually show within 30minutes of exposure correct?  It definitely is not food or treats because this happens hours away from intake of either.  He is acting completely normal - eats, drinks, poops, plays.

Posted here to see if there might be regional component and somebody has experienced similar.

Try a different food.  Iams is shit and full of corn which is a known cause of allergic reactions in dogs.  And yes, it can happen hours after they eat it.  Ask me how I know  I'll give you a hint - it involves two Boxers that I had to refer to as Pumpkinhead #1 and Pumpkinhead #2 for a few days.






 

Many dogs have allergic reactions to grains. Get him off the iams. Wellness or Blue buffalo would be two good foods to start with, you will see a big difference in his coat, energy level and overall health.

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Yep, our Lab ended up being allergic to grain. We feed him Wellness, the blue bag I think, and mix it with Quinoa. He loves it.

We switches all of his treats over to cooked sweet potatoes. He loves em.

My dogs are allergic to rice... they seem to get a really bad explosive diarrea and itchy all over.

I use candidae and blue buffalo mostly. In terms of treats, its hard to find non rice based stuff but look hard enough and you shall be rewarded.

I have a little pup so this is sort of scary, I've lost two dogs to diseases back in the day...

If it was the food, wouldn't we be seeing this daily?  

He is otherwise very normal and healthy.  His energy levels are plenty high (we use a chuck-it for over a half hour twice a day or more plus two mile long or longer walks), his coat looks great, and health is great according to our vet.

You're spending what, about $35 for a large bag of Iams? You can spend about $5-7 more a bag and watch as his coat and overall health improves even more. Iams, Eukanuba, Pedigree, all crap. Science diet is 2nd worst of them all, with Ol' Roy being the bottom of the barrel. Besides, it wouldn't hurt to eliminate it as a possable problem anyways, at least for a few bags. If you do switch the food, be sure to do it gradually so their digestive system has time to adjust. Sudden large changes in quality of food can cause them to ahve the runs as their body tries to cleanse itself of certain items found in lower grade foods.

I'm a vet.

Unfortunately this type of reaction can be caused by ANYTHING and it's going to be very difficult to figure out what the cause is.  Published reports say that in about 50% of recurrent hives no causes are ever found.  In your case I don't think it's the food since the left eyelid seems to be where it starts I would lean towards some sort of contact allergy or an insect bite or sting.  The reality is you probably will never figure it out.  In 6 years of being a vet I think I've seen 2 animals that have had this type of recurrent hives thing (although neither had the focal eye lid swelling-which is why I think yours may be contact allergy or bite/sting).  Both of these dogs were on benadryl and or hydroxyzine for months as well as short term prednisone.  Both owners stopped giving the benadryl after a few months and the hives never came back.  I'd recommend trying this route before you start messing with food.  If it was food related it doesn't matter than the dog has had the food daily for years, it can still happen and it can go away and come back.

How was the mite diagnosis made?  Are you putting anything on it or just giving oral antibiotics?  What antibiotic?

The emergency vet took a look at the spot on his cheek and thought it was bacterial so hence the antibiotics - oral cephalexin.  Also, thought it was the cause of the first reaction.  

Our regular vet said it could be mites as she has seen it before and thinks it is separate of the allergic reactions.  They are naturally there and if they get too concentrated in an area this kind of thing can happen.  If it didn't clear up or was not improving over a couple weeks then we need to get more aggressive with it.  I am leaning towards thinking that the spot and the allergic reaction are connected, how I don't know.  

We've been putting neosporin on it about twice a day.


We will consider the food aspect but any health improvement would be minimal.  Suggestions on food?  Many listed in the pet section are much more than 5-7 dollars for a smaller bag.  He eats 4 cups of food a day.

 

I would stay on the same food you are on for right now.  I really think it's unlikely to be the cause however maybe checking with your regular vet would be prudent since I can't see your dog over the net.  

IF you are going to do a food trial you need to do it correctly and not just change foods to some random brand that advertises grain free or whatever.  You need to use a truly hypoallergenic food from a vet for 6-8 weeks minimum.  During this time you cannot feed anything else, no treats, no table scraps etc or it will throw off the test.  The reason you need to use the vet specific diet is that they are produced so there is absolutely no cross contamination or contact with machinery etc that has touched other ingredients.  This food will be expensive because of this, not because your vet wants to rip you off.  Honestly I rarely post on vet matters on internet boards because for some reason nearly EVERY discussion turns to food being the cause for any and all ailments in dogs.  In reality science doesn't support that.  As far as food allergies, studies show that dog food allergies are caused by beef, dairy, wheat, chicken, egg, lamb, soy and then corn in that order.

Talked our regular vet yesterday and they are at a loss as to what it was though curious about my thoughts about the spot on his cheek being connected.  This all started since that spot.  

Had carpets cleaned yesterday and have deep cleaned the entire place now.  

After this morning we are very much leaning toward something to do with dust (something very specific) and the spot under his eye being connected.  This morning he was digging in a bush for a lizard or mouse and his L eye started getting puffy immediately after.  He hasn't been near these bushes for a while but was a couple weeks ago before and numerous times previously before the spot and did not have any issues.  On another route we take in the morning he gets into bushes and he hasn't had any issues and has been exposed this in the last two weeks.  I think with the more exposed skin it gets easily irritated and has issues.  The spot is slowly improving and hair returning and the puffiness is less severe.  It also seems to go down before the benadryl could take effect when we rinse his face off.

Food is still a possibility since he did eat some food before we left for our walk but it is very doubtful.  I think we would see more general symptoms not so concentrated to the L eye.  

Eye drops with anti-inflammatory or anti-histamines, I feel l could be helpful.

Insects somewhere? We found out my lab now 13 was allergic to bees about 7 years ago. She kept screwing with a nest in the yardcwe didn't know was there.

Still a possibility but unlikely as it's happened just being in the apt when he got back behind some stuff and it was fairly dusty.  We also don't see bugs in our place very often.

+1.  those brands are all the same and are all crap.  they really try selling themselves too but if u look online.. they are crap.  myself, I give my dogs canidae dog food.  u can tell the difference in the coats and i always gets compliments on my 3 dogs on their coats.