Dermatitis in my Labrador Retreiver

Question
I have a 4 1/2 year old female chocolate lab.  At least my husband or I are always home with her, and if she is alone (maximum time alone is about 1hour) we crate her.  We have been dealing with her skin allergies for the last two 1/2 years.  Every spring and fall, she seems to lick and chew on each paw until the hair is gone and it is pink and irritated.  We have had her treated at the vet's office for each occassion with skin scrapings (negative), prescription of prednisone and cephalexin and even have had her on IVD prescription diet for over a year.  No other food is given to her and she seems to have no problem eating.  She is at a healthy weight, and is walked and excercised daily.  We bathe her in "Chlorhexiderm" shampoo (also from our vet), once a month.  We have her taking heartworm preventative and have her on flea/tick drops monthly.  Our vet referred us to a canine dermatologist in Baltimore, MD, but it would be very costly.  So with all of this, is there anything I can do with home treatment for her to help her relieve her chewing?  

Answer
If the dog is allergic, then she would need to be on some type of low doses steroid therapy during the allergy season. I would also advise you to start dietary Omega3 fatty acid supplements, which help prevent  the skin fron overreacting to allergens.  This takes 30-60 days to start working, so starting right away will be beneficial.

You can have the vet do allergy testing to find out which allergens she is most sensitive to and then have allergy shots made (allergen specific immunotherapy).  This can desensitize some dogs to their antigens. Ifyou find out that she is allergicto aspecific indoor allergen, then you can have that antigen removed (carpet cleaning to remove mites, remove certain plants, get rid of feather pillows, etc.)