Hi,

I have a 15 month old golden retriever, our second. She has been much more hyper and stubborn than our last, so much of this is new to us. On top of it, we've had a rough year, so she has suffered attention-wise and training -wise and gets in trouble often.

In the past five months she has received much more attention and training and things have improved a lot. However, she has started to itch a lot. So much that she bites at her front legs and the insides of her back legs.

I've read that it could be her diet, could be airborne allergies, could be nerves and could be hereditary. I took her to our vet. I was disappointed. I felt that the exam wasn't very thorough (he didn't get her down on her belly to see the spots underneath for example) and spent the majority of the time trying to talk me into very expensive allergy tests that we just cannot afford at this time, and which I understood would only tell me that I needed to essentially clean my house more often. (Our whole family has allergies so we already have the HEPA filters, extensive cleaning, etc.).

The vet discredited the nerves concern, discredited the more natural food (get rid of additives) question ("fad") and insisted that we check out the allergy route. I opted out of the tests and took the prescription dog food approach instead. We also put her on an antibiotic and prednisone (sp?), which I unfortunately got no information for so when she started to urinate unexpectedly all over the house, we got angry.. which worries me that again we are adding to a possible case of nerves.

Now that she is off the drugs and into her second bag of dog food, her itching and biting at the skin has started all over again.

Does anyone have any insight into this? Has our lack of attention and frustration with her made her nervous and so now she itches? If so, is this something we can reverse? Anyone been through these allergy blood tests and seen them offer anything valuable? Am I wrong for not having them done for her? (We really cannot afford them, but I do want to do what is right for her.

Thank you in advance for any help.

Isha, I feel your pain associated with the expense of allergy testing, but if you want a definite answer, you have to go through the testing in order to either eliminate the possibilities, or pinpoint the problem. Your vet is exactly right in his approach and he doesn't need to see all the areas your dog has chewed on to be able to come to the allergy conclusion that he did. Goldens do have a tendency to have allergies, among other medical issues. The causes are various. If you are living in a wet climate, it might be mold. If you feed her any people food such as chicken, it might be that,. basically anything could be triggering this. You might find someone online that had a similar problem and they can tell you what the culprit was. You can try what they did to resolve the problem and see if it works. But, short of that, anyone telling you they know for certain what it is will be a shot in the dark.

I am not a huge fan of long term use of prednisone. Short term use, it is a very good & useful drug for giving relief. As for long term use, it is a steroid and the potential for complications down the road as your dog ages isn't worth the risk to her health In my opinion. Speak to your vet about using over the counter Benadryl as a test drug to see if it gives your dog any relief if you haven't tried it yet. Yes, it is the stuff that we use for ourselves that we can get at the drug store. You don't need a prescription from your vet. Talk to the vet regarding dosage recommendations for your dog at her weight level. Depending on her weight she might respond to one caplet. There is a rule of thumbe regarding how much per pound of weight, but this is something that you really should discuss with your vet prior to attempting. A simple phone call to him as a follow up to this problem won't cost you anything. If after trying the Benadryl the itching stops, you will know with certainty that what she has been experiencing is an allergic reaction. The problem then comes into play as to what exactly is triggering it and you will need to go through the testing.

If the Benadryl has no effect, then you will know it isn't an allergy. At that point, you need to look at a behavioral issue. Come back and let us know what the outcome is, and if it is a behavioral issue, we will try our best to help you. :)