On Friday we fancied a change of pace so we headed back out to Mugdock Park and went along a short section of the West Highland Way. Our previous visit to the park had been a Biggles bayathon but this time he was much calmer, even with rabits and squirrels just a few yards away. I don’t if that was because he’s getting older or because it was his second visit and therefore old hat, but it made for a very peaceful and enjoyable walk.

Shortly before we joined the WHW Biggles made a new friend amongst the Bluebells, and Susan broke out the sausages for a quick bit of emergency recall practice (an on lead walk can be the best time for this!)

Then we got properly under way. The West Highland Way is around 95 miles long and goes through moors, woodland and mountains, but the little bit of it that we were walking along was easy going and very picturesque.

Every so often we had a little snack break. These were well received but sometimes went on a bit too long, leading to boredom for a certain member of our party.

C’mon let’s go!

While we drank flat Iron Bru from  unpleasantly warm cans, our two Beagles got to sip fresh water and cool their paws in a sparkling stream.

Further down the road the woods fell away and we got broader views of the countryside. We also encountered some wooden abodes that somehow made me think of Deliverance, and a garden with a very strange looking well.

It was around this time we decided to head back home. The sausage bag was empty, tea time was fast approaching, and anyway none of us are particularly good at playing the banjo.

Two intrepid Beagle bums on their way back home for tea

Last year at about this time Beanie started itching. She’d rub her face and ears on the carpet and scratch all over her body. She also had several outbreaks of pyoderma on her tummy, and a red rash. Atopy (i.e. allergies to things like pollen and house mites) quickly became the most likely culprit.

Typically, vets won’t do tests for this until a dog is about 2 years old as the allergies are still developing and results are unreliable. Consequently, the most promising treatment for the condition – immunotherapy – can’t be started until this time. We weren’t happy to sit back and do nothing while the condition worsened. Not least because it’s virtually guaranteed that an atopic dog will get worse over time and develop more allergies. If we had an idea of what she was allergic to we could perhaps avoid the allergens, and if we started immunotherapy now then surely it would minimise her allergic reactions and stop her from becoming sensitised to yet more allergens? Paul suffers from allergies and in his experience when the body reacts to an allergen it goes into a heightened state and easily develops new allergies. Fortunately our vet agreed with our reasoning and the tests were done late last summer when Beanie was about 10 months old.

The results came back showing mild allergies (BA Units 250 – 420) to a wide range of grass, weed and tree pollens. Her ‘allergy season’ ran from February to late September (and sure enough the itching stopped over the winter months). We started her on immunotherapy in October and kept our fingers crossed that it would have started to work when her allergy season started up again in February.

This February we did in fact see a bit of very mild scratching start and it’s continued on and off. It’s so mild that it doesn’t bother her in the least. We’ve found that we can stop it all together simply by rinsing her off when she’s out in long WET grass. She’s fine when the weather is dry. This could be because the wet grass is saturated with pollen and it rubs off onto her skin. However, our vet did mention that when a dog’s skin gets wet the cells don’t sit together smoothly and there’s more space for the allergens to slip in. No sign of rashes or pyoderma so far!

June and July are the months when pollen counts for grasses are highest and we felt that this is what gave her the biggest problems last year – after all, she is running and playing in grass every day! So we need to wait a few more weeks before we can say for sure whether things have improved since last year.

Here are our tried and tested tips for dealing with dogs that are allergic to pollens.

First to prevent problems:

• Fatty acid supplements
• Daily yakult or other probiotic. This helps the immune system and tests in humans have shown that it reduces allergies. This isn’t something we’ve ever seen recommended for allergic dogs, but we tried it because of the results of human studies and we really do feel that she’s better when on the probiotics.
• Rinse in clear water after playing in WET grass.
• Apply Aloa and Collodial Oatmeal conditioner after rinsing

AVOID STEROIDS AND ANTIBIOTICS AT ALL COSTS – WORK HARD ON PREVENTION.

And if itching or pyoderma does break out:

• Collodial oatmeal baths give a couple of days relief from itching (just fling some ground down oatmeal in the bath).
• NEEM extract (a couple of drops in a glass of water) wiped over spots seems to dry up pyoderma within a couple of hours. This works for us where all the strong medications from the vet fails! Beanie also seems to like us to put it on her skin.
• We found weekly Malaseb baths helpful last year, but that was before we discovered the magic of NEEM.
• Antihistamines only worked a little bit for us if we gave her fairly high does only when she was particularly itchy. We suspect it was the effect of the sedation rather than anything else. Beanie is a very ‘hyper’ little dog and we have read that very active dogs tend to scratch more. So we’re also trying massage and relaxation techniques with her.

Bottom line is that she’s fine now. We only see the mild symptoms because we’re watching for it. If we get through the summer we’ll try delaying her immunotherapy shots next year to see if she really needs them.