Flea Allergies?

My Male to have flea allergies. I read up on it, and he has the exact symptoms that the website said it to be. I am now treating him for it. what I want to know is He didnt start this until he was 8 months of age, shouldnt he have show this earlier in life? He is an outside dog, how can I keep this maintained? I also have his sister and she is an outside dog, they eat the same food, and have been eating the same food for quite sometime. i feed them purina dog chow once a day, or is purina not a very immune efficiant? I know from what I've read that flea allergies are caused by weak immune systems. What are some tips you can give me to help boost it? Can I et vitamin shots from the vet? Do I need to switch my dog food? any advice would be very helpful for me and my buddy white boy. And could him being a white pit bull have anything to do with it too?
Thank you you all are always a bug help

 

Allergies can develope at any age. To maintain this you will probably have to use a monthly flea treatment such as Advantage.

 

Being that he's a white outside dog, are you sure it's not a skin allergy, or just a mild sunburn? Either way, I'd try switching to a different brand of dog food. Look for something that has meat as the first ingredient, and try to make sure that corn is not one of the top ingredients.

 

It seems that white dogs may be more prone to overall sensitive skin, which would make them more susceptible to allergic reactions, though I don't know that there's really any proof of it. He could also be allergic to something growing in your yard, or something he's been eating... suspect any supplements you may have started him on recently, and give the yard a scan to see if any new plant varieties are growing. As nern mentioned, it could also be an allergy that is just now surfacing, in his food, or something he comes in contact with. You might try a food with a different meat source and no corn, as corn is a common allergen, and dogs can develop allergies to some of the more common meats used in foods (chicken, lamb, beef, etc). It could be fleas as well, flea preventive will help rule that out. If those things don't help, I'd suspect a contact allergy, common things for that are cedar (used in beds, sometimes in kenneling areas), different types of grass and weeds, carpet products (if he comes into the house any), shampoos, and there are plenty of other things, but I'm drawing a blank right now. They can become allergic to pretty much anything, if that makes it any easier. If you cannot figure out what is causing the breakouts, a vet can run an allergy test, in which they test different allergens, and find out which the dog reacts to, but I don't know that all vets do that.

As far as boosting the immune system, you can only do so much, the rest is up to what nature has given the dog. Feeding a good food and giving plenty of exercise will help, and there are supplements out there that are supposed to help boost the immune system as well, three that I've heard are good are Missing Link, Nupro, and Doc Kruger's, though I've never used any on our own dogs, so can't say for myself.

 

I feed Nutro (swear by it now) and there's some herbal mixtures you can give your dogs as a suppliment to boos their immune system... I'll get the link to another board that talks about this kind of thing.

 

Link to natural remedy message board...

Herbal Vinegar is the stuff I was talking about... Check out the Kennel Cough thread too...

http://members5.boardhost.com/SUPERNATURAL/