Treatment of Allergies in a Cocker Spaniel

PTG Benny on 24/08/2025 - 20:18
Last edited 24/08/2025 - 20:30 by 1 other user

Hi OzB’ers, I have a 6 year old cocker spaniel that we rescued from our local pound. He is a beautiful dog and is great with our kids.

I don’t know much about his history, but he has some type of allergy and keeps scratching and licking all the time and has bare bits of skin where he has scratched them off.

I took him to the vet and they gave him a cytopoint injection and some steroid tablets and that fixed the issue for about a month. At $300 per injection and steroids I want to use a long term plan for him.

He is up to date with his flea and tick treatment etc. and he is on Be Frank salmon and sardine dry food.

Any suggestions or advice on how to treat this issue would be very much appreciated.

Thanks

Benny

Pets Cocker Spaniel

Comments

  • tenpercent on 24/08/2025 - 20:22
    -3

    Habib at your local gym can probably hook you up for less than $300.

    • PTG Benny on 24/08/2025 - 20:22
      +1

      😂

    • tenpercent on 24/08/2025 - 20:24
      +1

      More seriously, are you certain it's an allergy? Did he have the issue at the pound? Could it be a chronic nutritional deficiency? Feeding him well now won't necessarily remedy a chronic deficiency caused by possibly 6 years of neglect very quickly.

      • PTG Benny on 24/08/2025 - 20:32

        When I picked him up from the pound, his coat appeared to be fine, and it is an issue that has become worse over time.

      • SydStrand on 25/08/2025 - 00:09
        -1

        Only like 5-10% of allergies are dietary. Unfortunately, sounds like OP's dog has atopic dermatitis.

  • WoodYouLikeSomeCash on 24/08/2025 - 20:38
    -5

    Ask AI — the newest model is PHD level.

    • PTG Benny on 24/08/2025 - 20:46

      I did ask ChatGPT and they had a few suggestions on diet, shampoo, omega 3 supplements etc which I am happy to try. I just don’t want to go to the vet every 4-6 weeks

      • SydStrand on 25/08/2025 - 00:14

        Unfortunately, short of keeping your dog in a bubble for the rest of his life, there's no 'cure' for atopic dermatitis (which it sounds like he has). You can manage it with cytopoint or apoquel, but they're $$$. My dog has it, but fortunately, it's seasonal, so she only needs 1 jab to tide her over the worst of spring, and is fine for the rest of the year. Steroids are cheaper, but then she got urinary incontinence.

        The closest thing to a 'cure' will be referral to a dermatologist for desensitisation treatment. Not a magic bullet, but can help reduce the clinical signs. A course of injections can be quite expensive (potentially $1500-2000). I haven't needed to go down this route (yet).

    • tenpercent on 25/08/2025 - 07:06
      +5

      What you call "AI", presumably you are referring to Large Language Models, are merely predictive algorithms trying to guess the next word in the sentence it produces. There is no logic or reasoning or comprehension or awareness. It is mimicry which sometimes it gets 'right' and sometimes it doesn't.

      Of course, when the intellectual prowess of those with PhDs has declined so considerably, on average, your statement could well be true. Maybe the "AI" will give OP a picture of a rat dog with a giant "dck" and call it PhD level Science.

  • oscargamer on 24/08/2025 - 20:44
    +1

    What grass do you have in your garden?

    • PTG Benny on 24/08/2025 - 20:45

      Kikuyu, he spends most of his time inside but he is outside for a few hours during the day.

      • oscargamer on 24/08/2025 - 21:00
        +1

        Having had a dog that is very sensitive to grasses, it's possible yours is too. Do you walk yours in areas that are grassed? Does its skin/sensitivity vary by season?

  • jv on 24/08/2025 - 20:50
    +2

    Try some natural food and see what difference that makes?

  • BuyoTheCat on 24/08/2025 - 20:51

    possibly food allergies. you need to work with the vet to come up with a plan

  • Wiadro on 24/08/2025 - 21:03

    its probably the food, wtf is Be Frank salmon and sardine dry food.

    if i give my dog fish or sardines, he has diarrhea and bad skin

  • Gdsamp on 24/08/2025 - 21:07

    Hello
    Allergies in dogs are a combination of food and/or environmental allergies. The most common food allergies in foods are beef, chicken and dairy. fish and kangaroo based diets are normally a good option to diet trial with (making sure biscuits don’t include chicken as many do unfortunately).
    Unfortunately, at 6yrs old with an unknown medical history there has likely been a lack of allergy control and therefore chronic inflammation which ends in a viscous cycle. This means medication will unfortunately likely be apart of the regime - or at least for the immediate future. Understandably cytopoint is expensive, but long term steroid use does have a number of side effects. I would recommend consulting with your vet further with using both topical and oral medications (perhaps apoquel can be considered?)
    Good on you for trying to get this under control- especially with a cocker spaniel where ear infections can become a nightmare (they are usually linked to allergy).

    • bcarp on 24/08/2025 - 22:15

      Cytopoint is like magic. In fact, the entire class of monoclonal antibodies is magic, both for humans & non-humans. Maybe we'll discover some long-term issues eventually, but I'm seeing people with debilitating illnesses being able to function again, cancers that would have been life-ending when I went through medical school now being "treatable" for many many years, and my own dog going from chronic scratching & losing skin to being comfortable again.

      Unfortunately, pets come with a quite significant financial penalty.

  • jjjaar on 24/08/2025 - 21:45
    +2

    Wash their feet every time they come in from outside. Or as often as you can. Even just wiping them with a wet cloth will do wonders for their allergies.

    Also/similarly, if not already, become a shoes off household. No shoes inside.

    You probably don’t think these things will do much, you’d be surprised.

    • jv on 24/08/2025 - 21:47

      you’d be surprised

      How so?

      • jjjaar on 24/08/2025 - 22:05
        +2

        At how these small things can improve a dogs symptoms.

        If something is making the dog scratch, it’s not necessarily the location they’re scratching that’s the problem - but rather they are scratching their itchy feet so they can feel relief. Feet touch the ground that is full of irritants. Wipe off the irritants and they won’t be itchy.

        And humans that wear shoes inside and just spreading it around via their shoes.

        I was dog sitting once and the dog was licking its feet and legs a lot. Their owner said “yeah this just happens every month or so” and arranged for some cream to be shipped from the vet that “should clear it up in about a week”.

        In the meantime, I would wipe their feet almost after every time they came inside, and I already never wore shoes in their house. Before the cream arrived ~2 days later, they were licking substantially less. So much so that I didn’t need to use the cream. Another ~2 days and they had pretty much stopped licking.

        Told the owner and they were shocked. They kept it up, although probably a bit more lax, and now it only happens once or twice a year which is a big improvement from the ~10 or so times it used to happen each year.

  • try2bhelpful on 25/08/2025 - 06:35
    +3

    Maybe find out from the pound what they were feeding him. Might be worth going to that as a starter. Also maybe wipe him down with a damp cloth when he comes in from outside. Good luck with finding out what the trigger is.

  • Stealtho on 25/08/2025 - 08:11

    Reaction to the flea and tick crap you are giving him.

    • PTG Benny on 25/08/2025 - 10:31

      The vet gave him Paraguard and Bravecto, I hope they know what they are talking about :)

    • GordonD on 25/08/2025 - 10:44

      Most of the medical issues that damage my quality of life are reactions to the medications they give me for my actual underlying medical conditions. That's why a lot of old people have to take so many medications, one for the disease, one for the side effects for the medication for that, another for the side effects for that medication. And If they do that to humans, dog only knows what its like for animals, who can't complain.

  • GordonD on 25/08/2025 - 09:18

    I guess you now know why he was surrendered to the pound. That that was the only solution his previous owner could come up with.

  • JOROMA on 25/08/2025 - 21:48

    simple treatment for allergies suitable for humans and animals: 1tsp bi-carbonate of soda+ 2tbsp apple cider vinegar+1 glass of warm water. TRY IT!

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