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Hi, my name is April and I am ruled by my dog Charlie. Charlie is an 80 pound german shepherd rescue with allergies and we haven't yet been able to figure it out. He has tried the limited ingredient diets, the novel protein diets, the hypoallergenic vet diet and the hydrolyzed protein vet diet. He is on apoquel and it isn't helping much. He has rubbed off all the hair around his eyes, on his nose and on one side of his ribs. He is suffering and I am aching for him.
Right now I have taken him off all other food and I am feeding him brown rice, broccoli, cauliflower and carrots, and salmon. He has only just today switched full over to this diet and we will do it for two weeks hoping to see some kind of improvement so I can start adding foods back in. Yes, I am aware it isn't a nutritionally sound diet and no, it isn't a long term solution. We have tried everything else and we have no other option for an elimination diet right now.
If this works (please let this work) and we can figure out what it is that is causing this reaction then I will likely have to switch him to homemade, freeze dried raw or a raw diet. I need to have something with fewer ingredients and the possibility of controlling those ingredients. I think that peas and chickpeas are an issue which rules out almost all commercially prepared dry dog foods.
I am going to have a lot of question on raw/freeze dried food and the costs because as I am looking it up today I am feeling like my dog is going to go from a car payment (vet food and apoquel is about $250 a month) to a luxury SUV (because some of these freeze dried foods look like they are $25 to $50 a day - that can't be right).
Right now I have taken him off all other food and I am feeding him brown rice, broccoli, cauliflower and carrots, and salmon. He has only just today switched full over to this diet and we will do it for two weeks hoping to see some kind of improvement so I can start adding foods back in. Yes, I am aware it isn't a nutritionally sound diet and no, it isn't a long term solution. We have tried everything else and we have no other option for an elimination diet right now.
If this works (please let this work) and we can figure out what it is that is causing this reaction then I will likely have to switch him to homemade, freeze dried raw or a raw diet. I need to have something with fewer ingredients and the possibility of controlling those ingredients. I think that peas and chickpeas are an issue which rules out almost all commercially prepared dry dog foods.
I am going to have a lot of question on raw/freeze dried food and the costs because as I am looking it up today I am feeling like my dog is going to go from a car payment (vet food and apoquel is about $250 a month) to a luxury SUV (because some of these freeze dried foods look like they are $25 to $50 a day - that can't be right).
