r/irishsetter

Hello friends. Long time no post. I’ve been through the wringer trying to manage my Finleigh’s allergies. I come to you setter experts once more for some ideas. I’m already working with my primary care vet and a vet dermatologist but I’m getting so burnt out over it. We’ve done the diet trials. I know what to feed and what not to feed. No chicken or anything adjacent to chicken like turkey, duck etc. No beef or anything agacent to it like pork or bison or venison, etc. My proteins are novel like Kangaroo, crocodile, rabbit. (Yes there is foods made from those. I’ve been down a rabbit hole, pun intended). Still scratching!

I’ve done apoquel, I’ve done Zenrelia and for the latter, he had adverse reactions to Zenrelia and now he can’t have it. Apoquel does nothing. We’ve done cytopoint and now we’ve circled BACK to it because he is certified ear infection free this time and his ears are just inflamed.

We’re now on a short course of steroid. Cytopoint, and Certirizine otc.

Vet dermatologist had me doing this miconosol-dexmethasone ear drops indefinitely but we had to stop because his ears were red and inflamed, which the bottle said to do. 🤷🏽‍♀️ the only other thing to do would be the allergy test and make those allergies pills from whatever he’s allergic to but my concern is literally how expensive it’ll be because walking in the door to the vet dermatologist for rechecks is already 200+ $$$$, ya feel me? I’m working full time, in school, and I’m getting ready to move soon in 3 weeks. His appointment with the dermatologist is in June. They couldn’t even get him to see him sooner. I went to his primary care vet.

Like I guess the allergy test and making the cerum pills or whatever is what I’ll have to do but all this is pre existing so even if I get pet insurance now they won’t cover this stuff lol.

How do I get these ears under control? Please send me your thoughts and your tricks. I’m at a loss. I want Finleigh to finally get this under control. 😱 Maybe you have some pointers I haven’t thought of or some things I can bring up to his dermatologist and his vet that we can try? Anything at all!