Best Allergy Food--Need Opinions

Hello all!

Just wanted to let you know I went out and bought a big bag of the Natural Balance, Duck & Potato!

I opened it up, and gave her a few pieces, and she went nuts. So I tihnk it's safe to say that she likes it!

I also bought a can, to really test her tastebuds.

Also, at this particular store, you can return an OPEN bag of food and get store credit for something else. Just wanted to let you know

Thanks again for ALL of your help! Every last one of you. I wouldn't have been able to make this choice without all of you.

I hope it works! I will keep you all posted. I didn't realize how much I've missed you guys! So I'm glad I've made a comeback

ORIGINAL: Dulce Pit Bull

I don't appreciate the rolling eyes.

Lol, that's the thinking emoticon with glasses. And also, using all caps on the internet can come across as yelling. []

ORIGINAL: kpwlee

just thought I'd chime in that when you look at kcal/cp and cost per lb for me TWO wound up cheaper per cup than NB - by my calculations TWO Ocean Blue is the same $.48/cp as NB venison (the duck is pricier) but due to the greater kcal per cup of the TWO in our case it is $.71/day cheaper to feed. My dog needs about 2000kcal/day of kibble so YMMV

another thing is that on the NB venison his poops were HUGE, now on TWO he is pooping probably half as much in volume as on the NB

I am only letting you know my experience - good luck

Same here.  The grams/cup was a little less than what TWO says (125g vs 150g), but it still came out cheaper per cup with TWO if you get the free shipping from them.  Also, the Salmon/Sweet Potato is the most expensive of the NB formulas and was considerably more that the TWO.

Just wanted to let you know I went out and bought a big bag of the Natural Balance, Duck & Potato!

 
I'm late to reading this thread, but I feed my allergy lab the NB Potato & Duck and she loves it too and it has helped her allergies.  It hasn't totally cleared them up, but I was very happy with the results.  I hope it works for you too.
 
p.s.  You can go on the NB website and send an email asking for samples and they'll mail them to you along with coupons. 

Thanks cakana! Good to hear some positive experiences.

Dulce loves the duck and potato. I also bought a can of it just to see if she'd like it. Yep!

Thanks again to those of you who havehelped.

If the food you are starting does not work you might want to try Holistic Eagle Pack Duck & Oatmeal. It was the only kibble my boy could keep down next to home cooked (something I was thankful for as home cooked was $$) The company also offer coupons on their website.

Thank you!

Dulce,
 
If you're still reading this thread, I wanted to say not to do the blood serum test for FOOD allergies.  That is not accurate and is a waste of money.  My specialist vet told me that and I had already had a test done early on by a regular vet.  It has not been accurate.  Only the long term true - no cheating - food trial is the only accurate way to go.
 
It would be lovely if they did come up with a test - but they haven't  yet.   From what I hear from others on this board, the environmental one is apparenly more accurate.

It would be lovely if they did come up with a test - but they haven't yet. From what I hear from others on this board, the environmental one is apparenly more accurate.

  Yep; Jessie's was sent to Heska; they had improved allergy blood testing in the 1990's by developing a chain IgE receptor test, which gives results similar to intradermal skin testing. Blood tests for food allergies *may* soon become reliable too because there are now more standardized antigens available as well as improved assay technology. This allows more accurate documentation of the relationship between food antigen-specific IgE and clinically recognizable allergic reactions ( ear infections, licking the paws, etc.) 
 
      There was a study done using 5 dogs with suspected food allergies and 5 clinically normal dogs (the control group). First, an elimination diet was fed and the allergy symptoms improved; then the suspected food antigens (corn, wheat, soy, and milk) were fed and symptoms worsened. Antigen-specific serum IgE levels were measured with the ELISA test in both groups. The corn-specific IgE levels were significantly higher in the allergic dogs than in the control group. They fed the elimination diet again and the IgE levels rapidly decreased; feeding a diet with the known allergens caused the dogs to have clinical symptoms again and an increase in corn-specific IgE.  The corn-specific IgE did not change in the control group even though they were fed the same diet.
 
  If I haven't bored you enough [], here are some links to similar studies; they do not show the same promising results for serum testing for food allergies as the study I described though;
 
     [linkhttp://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=12730012&dopt=Citation]http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=12730012&dopt=Citation[/link]
 
[linkhttp://www.blackwell-synergy.com/links/doi/10.1046%2Fj.1365-3164.2003.00338.x]http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/links/doi/10.1046%2Fj.1365-3164.2003.00338.x[/link]
 
[linkhttp://www.blackwell-synergy.com/links/doi/10.1046/j.1365-3164.1998.00107.x]http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/links/doi/10.1046/j.1365-3164.1998.00107.x[/link]

ORIGINAL: chasza

Dulce,

If you're still reading this thread, I wanted to say not to do the blood serum test for FOOD allergies.  That is not accurate and is a waste of money.  My specialist vet told me that and I had already had a test done early on by a regular vet.  It has not been accurate.  Only the long term true - no cheating - food trial is the only accurate way to go.

It would be lovely if they did come up with a test - but they haven't  yet.   From what I hear from others on this board, the environmental one is apparenly more accurate.

My vet dermotoligist told me the same thing. The blood test is not really accurate enough. If it is a food allergy, elimination is the only way.  Another good NB food that she recommended, and that my dog loves, is the NB Sweet Potato and Fish....

Yep; Jessie's was sent to Heska; they had improved allergy blood testing in the 1990's by developing a chain IgE receptor test, which gives results

 
I thihnk I like Heska.  When we adopted Honey we were told she had been spayed, given vax, wormed and was parasite free, including heartworms.  She had been given a HW pill the day before we picker her up.  But a month later she tested positive at my vet's.  Becaue papers aid she was clear, he did the test again and once again i watched it come up positive.  So i arranged to have her treated.  meanwhile i called the little local branch of the Humane Soceity and told them Honey was hear worm positive.  They had me take her back to there vet, and there she tested negative.  They said my vet was trying to rip me off with the $400+ heartworm treatment.  I know my vet, NO WAY. A couple of days later the HS vet called and asked if i would bring Honey in, let him draw blood and send it to Texas A&M vet school, research/hospital.  I said sure.  I did, and I went ahead and had her treated for heartworms.  A few days later the HS vet called and said the results had come back from A&M, she was positive.  She was not heavity infested, but she did have them.  Why the different results?  My vet uses the Heska Witness test and the HS vet used the Idexx Snap test.  Two different brands of test gave different answers and the Heska gave the right one.

ORIGINAL: chasza

I wanted to say not to do the blood serum test for FOOD allergies.  That is not accurate and is a waste of money. 

I wish someone would have told me that same thing before I shelled out $300 last Oct only to learn the same. Made the vets holiday season a little happier...

Janice -- you didn't bore me!  Those are interesting articles, but still a bit confusing.  From the first article, I kinda got the feeling that if the food was fed recently, then the antibody would be higher - if there was a problem with it.  But, with the test I did early on (and it looked like my test ran the same types of foods), it didn't show a problem with rice, although I'm sure her food had rice in it at the time. So, that correlation wouldn't work since she does have rice issues. I guess the testing wasn't as "in-depth" - this was 2 years ago.  But, it appears that they new testing they are fooling with  - you would have to make sure the dog ate quantites of the suspected food first.?

Well, I hope they keep working on it b/c doing a true diet trial is hard, and is many, many months long.  I see some people post who tell others that they have to do it for a minimum of 12 weeks.  PUUULLLLLEEASEEEE.   It was almost 12 weeks just on the intermediate hydrolyzed protein   before getting to the food trial --- and it can be several weeks between new challanges.  Bottom line, they really need to come up with a good test for the sake of the dogs. 
 
edited:  Yep, know how you feel, Flagrate.  Are you doing a true elimination diet trial now?

Janice -- you didn't bore me

 
   Thanks []  It does appear that the IgE levels drop fairly quickly if the dog hasn't eaten the offending food. I don't know if the levels in the blood drop at the same rate for food allergies as they do for environmental allergies, but one reason intradermal testing has been regarded as more accurate than blood tests is because if the dog hasn't been exposed to an allergen for 6 months it's unlikely to be detected through blood tests, but can still be detected in the skin;   [linkhttp://www.hillary.net/school/dermatology/derm.lec.11.09.98]http://www.hillary.net/school/dermatology/derm.lec.11.09.98[/link];
 
 " currently, we get a lot of false
negatives during the off season. when testing how much IgE is in the
blood, if the allergen has not been around for 6 mos, the level of Ab
will be low in the serum - but it stays high in the skin (and pulmonary tissues). "
 
  This link is 7 years old but when Jessie was having a lot of problems from her allergies and my former vet couldn't tell me much I found this website very helpful. How's your dog doing; I remember when she was losing weight; have you solved that problem?

Thanks for remembering and asking about her.  I was getting pretty upset about that! I didn't want to add more food to her meal since she's already getting 1 1/2 times the amount she "should" get.  On some days, not every day, I am able to add a third meal right before bedtime.  My theory is that I seem to lose weight when I don't eat late at night, so I thought it might work in reverse if I give a third meal right before bedtime. []  I can't do this everyday, tho, b/c some days there dinner is so late that it would only be a couple hours apart.  I upped her oil intake from 1tsp per meal to 1 1/2 tsp per meal.   I remember reading that you could give 1 tsp oil for every 10 lbs.  I'm guessing that would be for the entire day, not every meal.  I'm also guessing that's in addition to kibble, but I'm not sure.  If it is based on addition to kibble, then I could add more to her homecooked. So, I might could safely add more oil - slowly - if needed, I think.   Not knowing, I've been slow to up the oil intake.           Anywaaaaay, she has gained 1 lb in about 4 - 6 weeks, I think it's been, and I am still trying to put more weight on her.  So, it's slowly getting there.
 
OK, your last post made a lot of sense to me.  I get why the skin testing works for environmental allergies.  I wonder why the levels stay high in the skin and the lungs?  That is very curious.  I would think at 6 months, the sloughed off skin would have taken the irritating substance off the body at that point.  And would have thought the lung system would have sloughed it off as well.  But, apparently not.  Maybe there is a memory process going on there? The blood gets a lot of "turnover" so it gets cleared out.  But the body itself is keeping the memory cells of that substance around.  I wonder if it is an "inactive" memory cell that can turn "active" with getting near the substance again.  Kinda like how the vaccines work with memory cells? 
 
But, I also wonder then why blood testing works for environmental allergies, but not for food allergies.  Darn, I would NOT have made a good scientist!  I hope they come up with a reliable test soon.  Even for me, who is being as compliant as possible, this thing is getting old at 5 months now, with more to go.