Poor Lily's been chewing on her foot so much she's now limping. Her ears are infected. It must be Spring because her allergies are here in full force.
I took her to Kingsbrook Animal Hospital for them to look her over. We left with the usual: antibiotics for the bacterial infection in her paws, and drops for the yeast infection in her ears.
We believe Lily also has an underlying food allergy as well. Corn and wheat are the likely suspects, and lots of dogs have this allergy. In fact, if you've got a dog with recurrent ear infections, food allergies are worth investigating. It's as easy as a simple food trial. Feed your dog a new food — one without corn or wheat products — for about six weeks. See if the coat and skin and ears improve. If they do, your dog might have a food allergy. Of course, always check with your vet about things like this – they're the experts.
Spring always makes Lily's allergies worse, so we're pretty sure she's got inhaled allergies as well as the food allergies. But timing was poor this spring: a friend had given us a package of "Beggin' Strips." Not even thinking about the allergies, we gave them to the dogs. Within two days, Lily's allergies had bloomed — she began chewing on her feet and her ears got goopy. I took a look at the ingredients and – you guessed it – we'd given those allergies a jump-start with the Beggin Strips – they had both corn and wheat on the ingredient panel.
After being on the antibiotics for only 24 hours, her foot chewing has slowed and she's not limping anymore. I'll be closely examining those ingredient panels in the future…
Spring season cannot be avoided once this period occurs and often not just human are affected but also our pets similar to what happen to your dog. And the maybe the best thing you can do is learn more about the alternative remedies to become more prepared when this consequence arises.
.my goodness, I just read the label on beggin strips. My poor dog is biting and chewing and is on antibiotics. I feel so bad now just knowing those treats are harmful. I am off to the pet store to buy natural duck strips, sold at Pet Smart