My dog has developed problems since she was vaccinated at about 12 weeks of age. Since then, she's had problems with incontinence and itchy skin. I've been doing tons of research on the web about vaccinations and dogs developing allergies from the vaccines. They have found a similar correlation between human allergies and vaccines. The theory is this, if a person or animal receives a vaccine at a young age, it triggers their immune system to switch from a TH1 response (the type of immune defense that enables us to fight off bacterial infections) to a TH2 response (the allergic type response). I don't know all the technical details since it's not my line of work, but I do know that allergies and asthma (and asthma deaths) have tripled over the past 20 years in humans despite major advances in asthma and allergy meds. Similarly, I've noticed a big rise in dogs who have allergies, but they do not have any formal documentation on the incidence like we do with people so it's not as easy to tell the actual number of dogs who have them or if their incidence is on the rise.

There is alot of info out there that I've researched that states a direct correlation between dogs receiving vaccines and developing allergies afterward. There are also alot of holistic vets out there who do not vaccinate at all. All this is very confusing. I saved a couple of links if anyone is interested, I'll post them.

So, just wondering if anyone had any input/insight on this subject or if you have a dog with allergies, or just want to comment. Any ideas on what to do about my poor dog. She's only 8 months now and we can live with the incontinence, but I hate to see her so uncomfortable and itchy all the time. I wash her bed cover once a week with Woolite and put it through an extra rinse cycle, so I don't think it's detergent. We don't have carpeting, etc. and I vacuum every day, so I don't think it's dust mites. (I have allergies too so my house is pretty much allergy free). Now, I'm experimenting with different dog foods. We went from Euk puppy to Science diet Nature's Best, and to Euk lamb and rice formula. One problem I have is that we can't get her to eat any food at all unless it has a little bit of canned stuff mixed in, so I'm not able to completely control her diet. She'll go more than 24 hours without eating if you leave just dry stuff down. I've been thinking about buying Nature's Recipe Allergy canned food (it's a vegetarian food for dogs). Just wondering if anyone here has tried it or can recommend something else? I don't want to start the long process of allergy testing, etc just yet.

I was on the USDA's site and am kind of disgusted and appalled about the stuff they allow to be put into dog food. Anything that's labeled "not for human consumption" is basically ok for pet food and just about anything goes, cancerous tumors, uncleared animal intestines, etc, etc.

Sorry this is so long...when it comes to animals I can talk all day! LOL!!

TIA for all your responses and helpful advice.

Jane