rash around eyes

Question
Hi,

I have taken my dog to the vet several times.  He's an 11 month old German Shepherd.  He has a rash and hair loss around his eyes.  He's had 2 skin scrapings to check for mites ( once while asleep to get a deeper scraping).  Both were negative.  He was also treated with Revolution twice, just in case it was mites.  We've tried 3 different foods, beef, lamb and rice and fish to see if he was allergic to his food.  He was put on prednisone for a month and it cleared for about 2 weeks , but then returned.  He's itchy and miserable and we don't know what to do.  The rest of his skin is fine.  It's just around both eyes. Our vet thinks its an allergy, but what should we do for him?  Help!

Answer
In young puppies, I always think of mites. Even if the vet got a negative scraping, I always treat for them anyway.  Other things include food allergy and if you have tried some different foods, the next thing to try is Z/D food, which is a hydrolized food protein that the immune system does not recognize.  If all else fails, ask the vet to do a skin biopsy to see what the skin is doing.  That may give a tip as to deep fungal lesions or other skin diseases.