Dr. Fox states: “Steroids make the symptoms go away for a while and give short-term relief for animals who are scratching and chewing themselves raw and bloody. But all too often, when the medication is tapered off, the symptoms reappear, and the animals are put back on corticosteroids. This can mean cystitis and diabetes for cats, and a host of other drug-related health problems for dogs, too — most notably Cushing’s disease.

“This is increasingly common in dogs and is due to the adrenal glands becoming hyperactive as a result of prolonged use of corticosteroid medications. Afflicted dogs may look obese, have thinning coats, experience muscular weakness, become potbellied and increasingly lethargic and show increased thirst and urination. Secondary bacterial infections and poor wound healing are also common consequences.

“My advice to all pet owners is to avoid any long-term steroid treatments when allergies are diagnosed or suspected and to do their best to find out, as you have done, the root cause.”

A much better approach is to find the root cause of the allergy which is most likely pollen, insects, mold, dog food, other animals or people.

Technorati Tags: corticosteroid, cushing's disease, dog allergy, steroids

Here is a site that will show you which dog foods are the best and the worst. I suggest that you get any one of the dog foods that are top rated.
http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_food_reviews/
Most of grocery store dog food formulas, like IAMS, Pedigree, Science Diet, Purina,and etc contain “meat and bone meal” which has been known to contain dead dogs and cats that were euthanized in animal shelters. Their bodies are picked up and bought by the truck load by “rendering plants” , that also pick up road kill, dead live stock, and etc. They are shredded, and boiled. They skim off the fat on the top of the “soup” and collected it and sell it to pet food companies as “animal fat”, the rest of the animals’ remains are crushed up, dried and sold to dog and cat food companies as meat and bone meal.
You can read more about it here.
http://earthislandprojects.org/eijournal/fall97/fe_fall97petfood.html
Here is an article where the owner of a rendering plant talks about it. He says that cremating the dead shelter animals would cause pollution, and that rendering them is good.
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m5072/is_12_26/ai_115041999
Here is further information on what you shouldn’t see in the ingredients list in your dog’s food.
http://www.dogfoodproject.com/index.php?page=badingredients
Top rated dog foods like Canidae contain good healthy ingredients.

Technorati Tags: dog allergy, Hypoallergenic Dog Food