Elimination diet question - HELP!!!

    • Silver

    Elimination diet question - HELP!!!

    I have a dilemma that I'm sure has been discussed before, but I'm frazzled and I'm hoping someone has pity on me and can give me some advice.
     
    My Joey is on an alimination diet right now to see if his chronic ear problem could be caused by allergies. Vet put him on Hill's Prescription z/d Ultra (please don't anyone flame me for feeding him Hill's, I trust his vet and I can't start over now), which is a hypoallergenic food. In the meantime, she has prescribed some oral meds to see if we can't clear up the irritation in his ear. So now we are facing the problem of getting the pills down his throat. SHe doesn't want me forcing them because that could damage his throat and cause even more problems. I can't hide them in a piece of cheese because of the elimination diet. Hill's makes a canned z/d, but it's impossible to find and they refused to ship any to me. Does anyone have ANY ideas?
    • Gold Top Dog
    I would try putting a few pieces of kibble in a bowl and adding warm water.  Let it soak up for however long it takes to get soft and then mush it up, put the pill in there and give it like a little meatball.  You might even want to do that with a little extra and keep it in the fridge and use as necessary.  Hopefully the kibble is yummy enough that this would work
     
    • Gold Top Dog
    Can't your vet order the canned Z/D for you???
    • Gold Top Dog
    how about rubbing a little non-salted butter on tthe pill? allergies are reactions to proteins. Butter is nothing but fat, it should be safe to feed in minute quantities.
    • Gold Top Dog
        Mudpuppy and Cakana both have good ideas. You could also simply mix a little warm water in his dry food and then add the pill. This works with Jessie's heartworm medication. The warm water makes the dry food smell better and your dog shouldn't notice the pill. Good luck in finding out what's causing Joey's problem.
    • Bronze
    Hi, okay I would be concerned about putting the pill into a little butter as that is dairy and from my understanding, dogs can be allergic to dairy.  My dog is as well going through an elimination diet.  I have cheated acouple of times and yes it was with pills.  My shih tzu has a zipper mouth when she wants to and it is not a pretty sight putting a shih tzu into a headlock.  I can't do the 3 benaryl a day for this reason.  It got so bad that my dog would not go near me.  Now about every 3 to 4 days I put her low grade steroid into the canned rabbit she can have and she eats it.  Really would rather do the 3 benadryl a day , guess I could give her a little rabbit 3 times per day, yet I use it on top of her canned catfish which she hates.  Hers is a vet prescribed diet as well and she hates it.  good luck with the elimination.  Brandy is going on 6 weeks and still scratches.  My understanding is to keep the diet simple and never give her anything that she ever ate before.
    • Gold Top Dog
    cindydane, Couldn't you make a little doggy meatball with the canned rabbit and put the Benedryl in it? Works for Jessie.
    • Bronze
    Hi  Jessie's mom.  The Wysong canned rabbit, the only one I have found, is very mushy.  you could never roll it into a ball unless you mixed it with something.  Perhaps if i crushed up her knagaroo kibble it would work (like a flour consistency), I could try that.  She doesn't like the kibble though.  Will see, thanks.
    • Gold Top Dog
    OK, you're using kangaroo, you're using catfish and you're using rabbit.  You are NOT doing an elimination diet.  All you are doing is feeding a bunch of novel proteins and you'll never know what the allergies are actually to this way.
    • Gold Top Dog
    I am going through the exact same thing right now with Jetta. She is also unfortunately on z/d and it is sooooo hard not to feed her fresh healthy food!! Its really a hassle giving her the antihistimine pills. I have to just push it down her throat because i can't feed her anything. I know she hates this.
     
    I also think the butter thing may not work because it is dairy, which is a big allergen for dogs.
     
    Just yesterday i put the pill in a tea spoon of honey, and let her lick it. I hope dogs can't be allergic to honey. Someone please tell me if i am wrong!!!
    • Gold Top Dog
    I've actually read that honey can be a big help for an allergy dog.  The thinking is that IF the honey is from beehives in your local area, it would have just a tiny dose of many of the pollens and you would be sort of be desensitizing them to ;possible allergens thru the use of honey.  This may all be a bunch of nonsense, but I think of all the things you could use, honey might be a pretty safe one (and I'm sure Jetta loves it [;)]).
    • Gold Top Dog
    It has to be raw honey. I'm seriously considering getting some and giving us all a spoonful a day. 
    • Gold Top Dog
    BTW, dogs can be allergic to ANYTHING. Any Thing.

    Emma is allergic to cabbage. And pears. How do I know this? B/c they dog is a PIG. She picked up a pear out of the yard, played with it, ate it, and broke out in hives. I had some shredded cabbage for cole slaw, and threw some on the floor for her (yes, I "drop" things for the dogs) and she broke out from that.... Those aren't things I would have thought she'd possibly be allergic to, but she is.
    • Gold Top Dog
        cindydane,  If you refrigerate the rabbit it should solidify enough to hide a pill.. Glenda is right though about only feeding the elimination diet and nothing else.
    • Bronze
    Glenmar, it's cindydane.  The elimination diet that my allergy dog was put on is both canned and kibble.  First off she isn't a kibble eater but the vet said it is good
    for her as on't be able to chew bones or treats during the diet.  So she has never had kangaroo before which is why he put her on it.  How can she be allergic to sonething that she has never eaten?  The the canned catfish came in because she will eat canned food but prefers scraps.  She also had never eaten fish of any kind.  This dog was basically fed my family diet.  the meat and crbs we ate and veg. whcih she rarely ate and yes I understand now that it wasn't a balanced diet.  The rabbit came up because I was complaining that she didn't like the kibble or can and the vet said cook her up a rabbit (homecooking). as she has never eaten rabbit.  Again, can she be allegic to something that she has never eaten before?  I couldn't picture cooking up a real rabbit and therefor, found the wysong canned rabbit 100%.  I also give her salmon skin bones to chew on for her teeth as she is missing her chewies.  It says 100% salmon skin, can she be allergic to that?   I could try forming a ball with the canned rabbit and maybe a flour made from crushed up kibble.  The rabbit does solidify abit in the fridge but not that much.  I'm happy today as I found a country vet that is going to clean Brandy's teeth for half the price my vet quoted.  hopefully this will help her feel better and can't hurt and if I wait much longer she could end up with an infected tooth.  Also this vet draws blood and checks for problems, eg. kidneys, etc. all for this price and my vet wanted an extra $80.00 for that.  Got to speak with the vet for abit about the black spots developing on Brandy from old hot spots.  I was worried thinking it is black skin disesae that I have been reading up on.  She said that is very common and it is where the skin dies and  is rejuvenating itself.  She is in good shape considering.  The vet herself said that allergies are a nightmare and that many people for their peace of mind go to derm vets and come back to her with very little info and end up soing the same things that she tells them to do anyways.  I am not knocking derm vets and hope to bring Brandie to one when I get some more $ but honestly felt her teeth warranted more at this time.  I will keep a container of tea near the front door and try it as well, yet she rarely licks her feet, more so she rubs her back, top of.