Hello everyone,

  Well for all of you that are following my saga I have some news to report.
First of all I am seeing an allergist on Wednesday. He is a virtually
unknown small town allergist but he is capable of performing the tests I
need right now. I am waiting on an appt with Dr. Barry Zimmerman author of
The Canadian Allergy and Asthma Handbook. I cant wait for an appt with him
though right now so I will settle for seeing him later. Well here comes the
good news....

  I think I have found the culprit in Zacks anaphylaxis!!!!! I have been
concerned that it was my german shepherd. Even though he has tested negative
to dogs twice before. But I remembered on Sunday night of last week that
Shadow had licked my sons ear and his ear had a hive on it. I kept the dog
away but let him do it again later as sort of a test. No hive that time. I
dismissed it as a fluke. Then when Zack went anaphylactic on my husband the
following Monday I got concerned again. I have kept the dog outside and made
sure there was NO contact at all. Then Saturday night it happened again. Not
a full blown anaphylactic reaction but a typical reaction for him. With
severe violent vomiting for about 30 minutes. I sit with epi in hand and
wait. These are the types of reactions that my son has. The epi does not
stop the vomiting in these types of reactions, he just needs to empty his
stomach so to speak. Then within 30 minutes he is just fine. Mom and Dad on
the other hand are always pretty shaken up and start to search for the
culprit. Well, until last night we were stumped!

  Then my husband set out to feed our dogs (german shepherd and dalmatian)
with my son (he likes to help). I was watching from a distance and suddenly
I noticed that the food looked different. I asked my husband why did it look
different. He said that last Friday night he was too late to make it to the
pet store so he stopped at the grocery store and bought a bag of Purina Dog
Chow! So here I am, off the chair like a shot to check the
ingredients....sure enough WHEY! My sons most severe anaphylactic allergy is
to Dairy! We ran him to the sink and washed his hands right away. Now it all
makes sense. The dog had licked him almost right after eating, thus explains
the hives. As for the anaphylactic reaction, well I can only speculate that
this is what it is. Its funny how easy it is to make an innocent mistake
like this. Normally we are so careful in checking everything but for some
reason the dog food slipped by. I know our regular brand of food does not
contain any dairy products but just this one innocent little bag because the
pet store was closed almost cost my son his life.....

  I guess this is just proof of how we can never let our guard down or
assume anything. Well, let me say to all those who think you may be allergic
to dogs...consider it may be an ingredient in the food!! Research, research,
research, thats the key. Its funny though, I knew that there could be milk
in dog food but due to lifes fast pace neither my husband or I caught it.
Time to slow down and reassess I would say. I may never know if that is what
contributed to Zacks episode last Monday but at least I have now prevented
another one someday down the road.

  Once again thank you to all who expressed their concern and well wishes,
just to let you know, I got a total of 527 emails. Sure did restore my faith
in the human race. We arent so bad after all! Have a great allergy free day!!!!

Keep the Faith ;-)

Rita
[log in to unmask]
(Ontario, Canada)