[zadigofla]

Hello, this is a follow up to my old thread: 5.5 month old Border Collie/Aussie mix's hair thinning around body and eyes.

So we took Zuko to the vet on Thursday and the vet did a skin scrape exam and confirmed that he didn't not have puppy mange. She suggested that we put him on Bravecto, bathe him with medicated shampoo, and keep him on the lamb kibble since his itching and licking stopped when we switched from chicken. It's been two days now since the vet visit and Zuko's itching and licking is back, although not as bad as before. The old chicken kibble and the lamb kibble both have menhaden fish in it, which I suspect might be the culprit to his rash and itching. What do you guys think? Last night he was licking his paws a lot.

But anyway, I'm happy it's not mange but disappointed that we still don't know what's going on.

Thank you

 

[storyist]

The problem is all kibbles have a little of this and that in addition to the main ingredients. For instance, when I first got the test results on my girl, I looked at the ingredient list on at least 20 different kibbles and couldn't find one that didn't have something she'd showed sensitivity to. I did finally find a limited ingredient kibble that had only one thing - alfalfa. Alfalfa is a supplement, not a main ingredient, so I switched her to that kibble figuring it would contain a minimal amount, and she did do a lot better but still had an occasional hot spot and her coat was dull.

The dull coat and the fact her mahogany markings lightened really bothered me. So I switched her to a raw diet. Quite frankly I didn't want to. It's more expensive and IMO a PITA. Now I'm praying I can get the meat I need for her through the virus lockdown. To date my raw supplier is still delivering. It is worth it because the skin problem stopped.

Hope you find what works for you. If they are available in your area, you might look at the limited ingredient kibbles. If nothing else, they might help you narrow things down. Don't forget environmental allergies and think about household products, lawn treatments, etc.

 

[pandora]

This is exactly why we switched to 100% raw. We now have control of what our dogs eat .

 

[zadigofla]

This is exactly why we switched to 100% raw. We now have control of what our dogs eat .

When we first got him we had him on a raw diet and it's when we started noticing the rashes. We discovered that he was allergic to nuts as whenever we'd feed him walnuts his stools were loose, covered in mucus, and contained the nuts undigested. We kinda freaked out and switched him to kibble as I felt we were probably doing something wrong. His base was usually chicken leg quarters. Example of one of his meals: chicken leg quarter, ground beef, spinach, liver, kidney, kemp powder supplement and sometimes fish oil, which I believed caused him diarrhea at times. It sucks that he has to be on kibble right now but I think it was the chicken messing him up.

 

[zadigofla]

The problem is all kibbles have a little of this and that in addition to the main ingredients. For instance, when I first got the test results on my girl, I looked at the ingredient list on at least 20 different kibbles and couldn't find one that didn't have something she'd showed sensitivity to. I did finally find a limited ingredient kibble that had only one thing - alfalfa. Alfalfa is a supplement, not a main ingredient, so I switched her to that kibble figuring it would contain a minimal amount, and she did do a lot better but still had an occasional hot spot and her coat was dull.

The dull coat and the fact her mahogany markings lightened really bothered me. So I switched her to a raw diet. Quite frankly I didn't want to. It's more expensive and IMO a PITA. Now I'm praying I can get the meat I need for her through the virus lockdown. To date my raw supplier is still delivering. It is worth it because the skin problem stopped.

Hope you find what works for you. If they are available in your area, you might look at the limited ingredient kibbles. If nothing else, they might help you narrow things down. Don't forget environmental allergies and think about household products, lawn treatments, etc.

I said the fish because it's one of the first five ingredients in both the chicken and lamb kibbles. My dog was on raw but we stopped when we started noticing the rashes. We did stop including some things like walnuts and fish oil but the rashes didn't stop. We started thinking it might've be the vegetables but before we got to that point we decided to switch to kibble and I felt scared he wouldn't be getting a "balanced" raw diet if we kept removing stuff. With how the country is right now and people shopping around scared and all the uncertainty, I think I wouldn't stopped the raw diet anyway, at least until he turned a year old.

 

[pandora]

It takes time but an exclusion diet can be managed for most dogs on raw. Murphy cant tolerate beef. Most commercial food has some beef so with raw we feed lamb turkey duck pheasant goat chicken venison and fish. He is healthier than he ever was feeding commercial food.

But the best way to feed a dog is with the food that suits the dog (healthwise) and that he likes as well as the type of food the owner can manage and afford. Rae isnt just the cost of the food but you need the space for an extra freezer hygiene protocols etc.

 

[Knute]

Do not give the dog any nuts.

Generally, all nuts have some bad effects for dogs.

I'd suggest to move back to a raw diet.

You never really know what is in kibble or the freshness.

 

[LoLovesPups]

It sounds like a food allergy to me. I would talk to your vet about starting an exclusion trial diet if shampoos and bravecto did not help. There are many different foods your vet might recommend with "novel" ingredients that your dog has never had like venison (be sure to tell your vet any dry food that has been fed before and the all ingredients of the raw diet you fed to help select a diet). There also special diets called hydrolyzed protein diets that your vet could order for you (or get a chewy prescription and have it shipped to you house). The hydrolyzed protein diets have the proteins (which are what cause the bad immune response to cause itching, licking, etc) broken up into very small pieces to where the immune system does not recognize it as something that is bad. Just something to try next since raw food and the regular dry foods aren't working.

 

[zadigofla]

Good morning guys,

Just a follow up. It's been a couple of weeks since I posted on this thread. I'll start by saying that we did take him to the vet and ordered a skin scrape exam for mange, which they said he did not have. I explained to the vet what I was feeding him before and what I was feeding him now (lamb kibble). She recommended that we stay with lamb for a little while to see if the rash goes away, and also to bathe him with medicated shampoo, which we have been doing for two weeks now.

The rash on his belly did eventually go away but the hair loss remained. Apart from the new kibble not having any chicken in it, it also doesn't have fish in it, which was an ingredient we suspected he was allergic to, too. He's been on two different lamb kibbles since we saw the vet two weeks ago, one for adults (which we didn't want him to eat for too long) and one for all stages of life. He's been on the all stages of life one for about a week now.

My girlfriend thinks he might be allergic to grass as we usually go to a park in the neighborhood where he runs around, lies down on the grass and sometimes even eats it. We're getting kind of desperate.
It's been about two days now that we've noticed him itching and licking again. We haven't changed his diet, haven't been feeding him any table scraps or nothing. I've attached some pictures. Notice how it's mostly on his legs and feet.

Thank you

 

[zadigofla]

It takes time but an exclusion diet can be managed for most dogs on raw. Murphy cant tolerate beef. Most commercial food has some beef so with raw we feed lamb turkey duck pheasant goat chicken venison and fish. He is healthier than he ever was feeding commercial food.

But the best way to feed a dog is with the food that suits the dog (healthwise) and that he likes as well as the type of food the owner can manage and afford. Rae isnt just the cost of the food but you need the space for an extra freezer hygiene protocols etc.

I completely agree. There's just a sense of uncertainty right now with what's going on with the covid 19 virus. Now there's talk of a food shortage coming on. If we move on with the exclusion diet this week we'll start by giving him only chicken leg quarters.

 

[zadigofla]

It sounds like a food allergy to me. I would talk to your vet about starting an exclusion trial diet if shampoos and bravecto did not help. There are many different foods your vet might recommend with "novel" ingredients that your dog has never had like venison (be sure to tell your vet any dry food that has been fed before and the all ingredients of the raw diet you fed to help select a diet). There also special diets called hydrolyzed protein diets that your vet could order for you (or get a chewy prescription and have it shipped to you house). The hydrolyzed protein diets have the proteins (which are what cause the bad immune response to cause itching, licking, etc) broken up into very small pieces to where the immune system does not recognize it as something that is bad. Just something to try next since raw food and the regular dry foods aren't working.

We feel that the medicated shampoo got rid of the red rash on his belly but not on his legs. He's still losing hair on his thighs and chewing on his paws even more now. We might do the exclusion diet starting with chicken.