Hives? Bites? Allergies? Help!
I have a White fur, pink skin American Staffordshire Terrier (Pitbull breed) who was rescued from a shelter back in January. She is around 1.5 years old. She did not have fleas when we adopted her, but a few months after she did get infested with them from living in a family member's house with dogs and cats with fleas. We used Adams Plus Flea and Tick Spray and manually pulled and killed them all off. She lived with my boyfriend who moves around a lot, living with other people.
For over a month she now she lives with me, in a home with no other pets and no history of fleas, but from the yard and possibly the neighbors multiple outside dogs, she had a few fleas on her. I once bought her I bought her a flea medication whose ingredient was piperonyl and she acted very sick, so I made sure not to get that ingredient anymore and bought her Pet Armor Flea Medication (the generic brand of frontline) whose ingredient is fipronil. I bought her dog treats, and my mom gave her a bath with possibly human shampoo. She was eating a different brand of food at my house than she does at my boyfriend's house, so I also switched food to the same food she gets when with my boyfriend.
Somewhere in the span of all of this she has bumps all over her fur. She is not scratching at them anymore, but they have barely gone away. We have been giving her a Benadryl a day. There is no rash on her skin underbelly, but these bumps all around her butt, back, and neck/collar area. We rinsed the medication off with human shampoo but when we thought that was a cause, we rinsed with dog flea shampoo (which did kill a lot of the fleas). We have also rinsed her with clean water after this many times.
Are the bumps hives from being allergic to the medication? The food or the treats or the human shampoo? Or something else?
Are they flea bite allergies? Anyone know what they are or how to get them to go away?
Most likely flea allergies. Sprays and shampoos won't get rid of the fleas. They just lay eggs, and keep hatching in cycles. I have mine on Sentinel for heart worm, which incorporates a chemical which sterilizes any female flea that bites them. They lay their sterile eggs in the carpet which never hatch. The cycle is broken. There's a newer heart worm med Trifexis which kills all fleas that bite instantly. My doggy oncologist recommended the Seresto flea/tick collar. It's expensive but is suppose to last 8 months.
Don't blame the food, until you know the fleas are gone. With heavy infestations you can sometimes see them hoping around on warm areas of the dog. Benedryl is good for keeping the allergic reactions down. And the dose is weight dependent, and more than 1 a day. Consult with your Vet for the dosage.
It is difficult to say exactly what those little bumps are, BUT.. there are things you can do to investigate the issue. If there are still fleas (which is likely since they can easily hop in the yard from your neighbor dogs to your yard, or they may hop on you and use you as a means of transportation to reach their preferred destination--your dog), not to mention all the eggs that may linger in the environment unless you use a product that kills the eggs in the carpet, cracks in baseboards, under deck etc. (like Ovitrol). You can check if there are more fleas on your dog by passing a flea comb repeatedly and every where and see if you see any fleas or flea dirt. To verify if the flea dirt is really dirt as it can resemble dirt, place it on a wet paper towel. If the dirt seeps a red color, then it's likely flea dirt, which eeekkk.. it's really the flea's poop which contains digested blood.
Benadryl is used for allergic reactions, so if there are hives they should be getting better or disappearing after using it. How much are you giving? The usual dosage is about 1mg per pound, but consult with your vet before giving anything over the counter. Generally, hives clear out when the predisposing factor is removed, but come back when exposed again. Are these bumps there constantly? Do they have an irregular shape? Usually these are raised bumps of different size about the size of a dime and they cause a burning and itchy sensation. In some persistent cases, dogs need a steroid to get them to stop from appearing. Your best bet is to have the vet do a skin scrape to hopefully get to the bottom of this.
As a side note, please do not use human shampoo on dogs, dogs have a different Ph and human shampoo is too strong, so those bumps can also arise as a reaction to the shampoo. I would get a dog oatmeal shampoo which can sooth irritated skin. I would also stay away from over the counter permethrin products, which many dogs have reactions to. The location of these bumps are coincidentally in areas that are frequently shampoo, and the fact there is no rash on the belly, may suggest it could be a reaction to the shampoo, especially if it wasn't rinsed out too well. Bottom line: I would see the vet to get this sorted out, especially since it sounds like it has been going on for some time. Good luck!