[shniper]

I have a 9 month old American Pitbull/St. Bernard cross who has been struggling with allergies/infections ever since I got her at 10 weeks.

I have been feeding her Orijen Dry Large breed puppy food almost ever since I got her. She soon began getting ear infections, vaginal infection, and dandruff. The vet told me it was most likely due to allergies so I tried switching her food one day to Petcurean GO Natural Grain Free Canine. She ended up puking it up the next morning and having a severe allergic reaction which completely swelled her entire face up and she had to be rushed to the vet for an allergy shot.

We figured it was best to leave her on the Origen after that and deal with the mild allergic reactions, and she actually was doing fairly good for the last while.

Recently she acquired another major ear infection and her dandruff is bad again and I am getting sick of the very expensive treatments and vet visits and so I decided to switch her food again with the vet's consultation. He recommended Iams veterinary forumula for coat/skin. It is a fish based dog food. It has been about a week now on this food and poor Lily absolutely hates it. She is eating less than a cup a day.

I apologize for the long post but I wanted to give you guys as much information as possible in order to help me.

My question is if any of you have experienced similar situations and have any recommendations for another food to try. I am going insane trying to help my poor dog. Thanks in advance!

 

[deege39]

My Donatello is allergic to corn. So I avoid anything with any type of corn in it, corn meal, syrup, meal, anything...

He was losing his hair in bald spots all over... It was terrible, he was shedding bad, and had extreme dandruff.

I changed his food to Nature's Recipe Farmstand Selects and got the matching dog treats... They've worked wonders on him! He too was a slightly picky/spoiled dog, and he eats it happily, as well ever since I've switched his food his hair was stopped falling out, his bald spots are thickening up.

Nature's Farmstand Selects is made with: "Turkey, Turkey meal..." it has no corn, by-products or made with anything that a sensitive dog with allergies can't eat... Beef, chicken, so on. They have a whole line of it, and I've even been getting the corresponding soft dog food which promotes no corn and stuff and it's for Healthy Skin and Coat.

I was fortunate to take Donatello's health into my own hands, I didn't have hundreds of dollars to spend on lab tests and skin graphs, fortunately I narrowed it down in a couple weeks and bam... He's turning back into my handsome young man. : P

Good luck, I know your frustrations...

 

[BluePit]

Shniper,

There are a few different "schools of thoughts" on how to treat Food Allergies.

Most Vet's will suggest up some kind minimum ingredient good and tell you to stick with the same protein jerky as a treat. Which is really good advice.

However, there is two very good known "Kibble" food out their for allegeries.

• California Natural - Made with three ingredients to minimum food sensitivies. Comes in three protiens (Lamb, Chicken, and Herring)
• Wellness Simple Solutions - Comes in two proteins (Duck and Venison).

There are so other low allergn kibble our their, but these are the best for an elimination diet start.

Both are very good foods, I feed my dog California Natural.

The other school of thought is to try Raw food, make it yourself, or find a pre-packaged frozen raw, primal is a good example (Since it doesn't contain eggs).

I do both, primal at night and California Natural in the morning.

 

[shniper]

Thanks for the advice guys. I will check the local stores up here in Canada for similar foods to the ones mentioned. I'm glad I've found other people who can relate to how frustrating this is. My whole family seems to think that me and the vet are both crazy because they've never heard of dog allergies...

 

[deege39]

Oh dear! You are not crazy, they're crazy for thinking dogs can't have allergies!

When all this started with Donatello, I read for hours on dog allergies, and found that they can be allergic to numerous things; Grass, foods, detergents, shampoos, collars (you'd never think a dog can be allergic to nylon, but they can be!)

I just started narrowing things out, I changed detergents, used less softener, got hypoallergenic shampoo, bought new collars/harnesses and then when all else failed, I realized that all the food I was changing on him had one thing in common. -corn- So I went out on a limb and lucked out!

Good luck. (And you're not crazy!) : P

 

[Trixie]

We've also had a long battle (well, OK, a one-year battle) with allergies. The itching never stops, it seems.

We switched to hypo-allergenic shampoo, tried an expensive and relatively ineffective medication, and now we are trying grain-free food. We are feed Taste of the Wild roasted water foul formula. So far she loves it and while she still itches, it has been less than a week since we switched, so I still have hope that this will work.

 

[AkiraleShiba]

We had problems with the normal Orijen formula, and we switched to the fish formula and we have not had problems since. We found out that Akira does not tolerate well chicken or too much grains.

Does your family gives greasy treats to your dog ? anything from low quality rewards to cheese ? or pork ears ? raw hide? If you have not already, stop giving your dog anything else than kibble just to make sure the other stuff is not at fault.

 

[shniper]

Well I found the pet food health store today in my town and I brought a few sample packs back. The owner thinks it may be a chicken allergy so she said to try "Taste of the Wild Pacific Salmon" as she didn't have any California Natural. I was a little hesitant as my dog loathed the Iams fish formula but to my surprise, Lily gobbled down the entire sample bag in about 10 seconds and wanted more!

I will go buy a large bag tomorrow and feed her the Taste of the Wild for a couple months and see if I come up with good results. I sure hope so.


BTW we do not feed Lily ANY table scraps/human food whatsoever. I am very strict about this with everyone around my dog. The only treats she has been on for the last few months is "Want a Cookie Pacific Salmon" biscuits.

Thanks all for the help and I will post an update in a while!

I should probably add that I got ahold of the Lady I got Lily from and she said that all the other pups are healthy except for the one she kept from the litter which seems to be having chronic ear infections as well. She did her own investigating and found out that the Father of the litter had minor Yeast Allergies.

She also said that Yeast is found in almost all dog foods and that she feeds her pup grocery store Beef and Rice and cleans the dogs ears with mineral oil which helps a bit.

Is there any Yeast in Taste of the Wild, and are allergies genetic in dogs?

 

[robotcrankit]

If it's a chicken allergy, you could try Wenaewe Puppy Food...which is beef based. It still has grains, but in my experience most dogs are allergic to the protein source, not the grains.

 

[ioreks_mom]

i have been dealing with possible grain allergies with my pup, iorek. since we got him in june he always had runny poops, not fun with a sammy!! we tried many different kinds of foods and when we switched he would always do good for about a month, maybe less, and then go back to runny poops all the time. when i say he did good, i mean that he had bummy baths every second day rather than 2 times a day!! the last kibble i tried was eagle pack holistic select duck meal and oatmeal. iorek did pretty well on it, but was still having runny poops every second day or so. we switched to raw on december 20th and have not looked back! we cut out all food that came from "plants" anything that was not meat for about 2 months and are gradually adding some things back in like orijen 6 fish kibble for his kong about 2 times a week. now the only time he gets runny poops is if i give him too much meat in a meal. he is doing great! it took me a long time to finally do raw, it was because i am a germaphobe!! but, since we have been feeding raw for a little over 3 months now i am no longer worried, i actually stopped worrying after about a week or 2.

my sister's dog was having trouble with chicken. kaiser was gassy and pooping A LOT, and also shedding a lot. my sister knew it was chicken because sometimes kaiser has a habit of "helping herself" from the counter when they are out, and if she ate some chicken she would be very smelly. since we had a good experience with the eagle pack i suggested it to her and her dog has done a complete 180! kaiser doesn't have gas anymore, she is barely shedding (she is a lab!!), she has tiny poops, and she is losing weight (she is a lab )

my vet told me that as well as corn and soy dogs can also be sensitive to barley. i chose the eagle pack because it didn't have barley. a lot of dog food has barley in it.

good luck finding what is causing the problem. i know what you are going through and i know how hard it is.

 

[InkedMarie]

My now 3yr old dog had recurrent ear infections from the time he was a young puppy. An online friend gave me a list of ingredients to avoid, she got the list from Tufts. The ingredients are:

chicken
soy
wheat
corn
rice
flax

The foods I found that don't have those ingredients are California Natural's herring & sweet potato, Solid Gold's Holistique Blendz, Timberwolf's Ocean...
this was before Taste of the Wild was "born" and I can now add their Pacific Stream to that list. I untimately chose the Calif Natural and he did great on it, the only ear infection he got was when he had a supplement containing brewers yeast so for my dog, I added that to his "no" list.
One thing I can tell you is you have to be aware of everything your dog eats. People forget to check their treats and supplements...also, check the entire ingredient panel, as some foods may not have chicken as a protein but it may have chicken fat, flavoring, eggs and unless you know chicken is okay for him, it could cause a problem.
My dog is now 3yrs old, I tried him on the Orijen adult, which is chicken and knock on wood, he's been ear infection free since being on it (6 weeks or so).
Good luck!

 

[TomN]

I have a 9 month old American Pitbull/St. Bernard cross who has been struggling with allergies/infections ever since I got her at 10 weeks.

I have been feeding her Orijen Dry Large breed puppy food almost ever since I got her. She soon began getting ear infections, vaginal infection, and dandruff. The vet told me it was most likely due to allergies so I tried switching her food one day to Petcurean GO Natural Grain Free Canine. She ended up puking it up the next morning and having a severe allergic reaction which completely swelled her entire face up and she had to be rushed to the vet for an allergy shot.

We figured it was best to leave her on the Origen after that and deal with the mild allergic reactions, and she actually was doing fairly good for the last while.

Recently she acquired another major ear infection and her dandruff is bad again and I am getting sick of the very expensive treatments and vet visits and so I decided to switch her food again with the vet's consultation. He recommended Iams veterinary forumula for coat/skin. It is a fish based dog food. It has been about a week now on this food and poor Lily absolutely hates it. She is eating less than a cup a day.

I apologize for the long post but I wanted to give you guys as much information as possible in order to help me.

My question is if any of you have experienced similar situations and have any recommendations for another food to try. I am going insane trying to help my poor dog. Thanks in advance!

First off your vet mentioned it MOST LIKELY is an allergy. In other words he or she is not sure or the dog has not been tested for allergies (no mention). All the talk about changing foods may be a moot point if it is not an allergy or if it is not a food allergy specifically. If it is a food allergy and you don't know what the offending allergen is, changing foods blindly is futile.

If it were me I would get the dog tested (yes it will be expensive) or at the very least do a 10 week food trial with a prescription diet such as Z/D or something similiar. YOu do this by feeding nothing else, no treats... nothing except the trial food. That will tell you if it is food or not. Good luck