Help chosing a new food- dog with severe allergies

I honestly have to say that if you really *think* your dog has food allergies, you should consider doing a true elimination diet. You can spend a lot of time & money switching around to different brands of kibble. In the meantime, you're introducing a lot of new things that can then no longer be considered novel if/when you decide to do the elimination diet.

Cathy I totally agree and wish I did a elimination diet before
trying all these new foods!![sm=banghead002.gif]

The other thing to consider with a lot of allergies
is that it may be enviormental.

Tess

I know, I thought so too. You mix the pre-mix with other cooked meat or eggs, but that's 1 cup to 3 scoops of the mix to make enough food for 1 day. any other suggestions?

   Monzie, I'm sorry to hear that Dusty has so many problems. Puppy mills are horrid, cruel operations. I think Lori's dog Willow (her user name is Willowchow) has IBD. I have no idea of what to feed a dog with that condition. If you want suggestions on how to feed a dog with IBD you may want to start a thread under "Illness, Disease or Condition".
 
  " My Peanut is a senior dog and arthritic, he's been having a few bouts of colitis on Dr. H's food so far, but I'm not sure if his system is cleaning out or not? "
  More than likely he's having trouble with the new food. Senior dogs have a more sensitive digestive system; the amount of digestive enzymes the pancreas is able to produce declines as dogs age. Did you change him over too fast or take several days and gradually change to the other food? Have you tried a joint supplement for the arthritis? They take a few weeks to work because they're natural substances but they help.
 
 

Oh - so you add another protein source, such as eggs or meat?  Well, that makes more sense.  As for the 1 cup to 3 scoops, I have no idea.  Have you done the calculations for what the protein ratio is after you've added meat or eggs to the premix.  Regardless of what is in this mix and what you add to it, 5-6 cups still seems like a lot of food for a 30 lb dog.   Is this formula expensive? 

12% isn't actually that low, since it's a wet mix. Canned foods are typically lower in protein than that and raw meat is only around 17% protein. Dry foods are dehydrated, so you see crazy high protein numbers. 

 

ORIGINAL: jessies_mom

   Monzie, I'm sorry to hear that Dusty has so many problems. Puppy mills are horrid, cruel operations. I think Lori's dog Willow (her user name is Willowchow) has IBD. I have no idea of what to feed a dog with that condition. If you want suggestions on how to feed a dog with IBD you may want to start a thread under "Illness, Disease or Condition".

 " My Peanut is a senior dog and arthritic, he's been having a few bouts of colitis on Dr. H's food so far, but I'm not sure if his system is cleaning out or not? "
More than likely he's having trouble with the new food. Senior dogs have a more sensitive digestive system; the amount of digestive enzymes the pancreas is able to produce declines as dogs age. Did you change him over too fast or take several days and gradually change to the other food? Have you tried a joint supplement for the arthritis? They take a few weeks to work because they're natural substances but they help.

Thanks, I'll try that thread.

ORIGINAL: cakana

Oh - so you add another protein source, such as eggs or meat?  Well, that makes more sense.  As for the 1 cup to 3 scoops, I have no idea.  Have you done the calculations for what the protein ratio is after you've added meat or eggs to the premix.  Regardless of what is in this mix and what you add to it, 5-6 cups still seems like a lot of food for a 30 lb dog.   Is this formula expensive? 

Cathy,
I myself didn't do the math. Dr. Harvey did it for me. I'm going to still have to try another food. []

More than likely he's having trouble with the new food. Senior dogs have a more sensitive digestive system; the amount of digestive enzymes the pancreas is able to produce declines as dogs age. Did you change him over too fast or take several days and gradually change to the other food? Have you tried a joint supplement for the arthritis? They take a few weeks to work because they're natural substances but they help.

ORIGINAL: Monzie3
Yes, I did do a changeover, he was already on boiled meat and rice, so we added this in slowly. Oh well, I'll keep looking. Thanks[]

 

ORIGINAL: jessies_mom

  Monzie, I'm sorry to hear that Dusty has so many problems. Puppy mills are horrid, cruel operations. I think Lori's dog Willow (her user name is Willowchow) has IBD. I have no idea of what to feed a dog with that condition. If you want suggestions on how to feed a dog with IBD you may want to start a thread under "Illness, Disease or Condition".

" My Peanut is a senior dog and arthritic, he's been having a few bouts of colitis on Dr. H's food so far, but I'm not sure if his system is cleaning out or not? "
More than likely he's having trouble with the new food. Senior dogs have a more sensitive digestive system; the amount of digestive enzymes the pancreas is able to produce declines as dogs age. Did you change him over too fast or take several days and gradually change to the other food? Have you tried a joint supplement for the arthritis? They take a few weeks to work because they're natural substances but they help.

Thanks, I'll try that thread.

So if I stayed with the chicken/sweet potatoes diet, would that work? Isn't it true that in an elimination diet you do 2 weeks with one carb/one protien (chicken/sweet potato) and then you add something else in for another 2 weeks (whether it be a protien or a carb)? Or should I go with something she hasn't had before (like pork and oatmeal or turkey and green beans) are there any rotien/carb sources that I should stay away from?
 
Cathy, can you PM me what you did for Sassy?
 
Oh, and I was in Wal-mart the other day and I looked up and down the isles for Yucca Root (I looked in the frozen vegetable section as well as fresh vegetables) and the closest I came was ginger root, but not yucca. Maybe I wasn't looking in the right spot??
 
how much of this am I supposed to give her? Currently she gets 1/4 of kibble plus one tablespoon of canned twice a day. I know there is a RAW calculation chart per body weight, but what do you do for home-cooked? She's about 13 pounds.
 
 

It may just be my imagination, but it seems  a lot more dogs have allergies today than dogs use to.   Of all the dogs my Dad had and that I have had in my life time, the first one to have allergies was my 2ed irish Setter.  He did fine in Austin, but down here he had horrible allergies.KayCee has allergies that bother her in the Spring and in the Fall.  Right now we think it is the live oak pollen.  My vet came from Lousiana with an irish Setter who had never had allergies in her 6 years until he came here, and then she started itching.  But anyway,  i have about decided there is so much more air polution today than even 30 years ago, at least down here in the south, and that is hurting our dogs.  Reynolds, OxyChem and DuPont are clumped together just about 4 miles up the road.  I hve no idea what they put into the air.  I just know since we have lived here, we have had dogs with allergies, my neighbor's dogs have allergies, etc.  I am not saying the dogs are directly allergic to what ever is in the air, but I think it possible tha what is in the air is setting up the bodies for allergies to take over.

I don't understand it either Sandra.  Sacramento is one of the worst places there is for allergies (tree capitol or something like that).  However, our other lab has no problems, and the samoyed I had didn't have one single problem.  I'm sure facing all the worst of it with Sassy though.

   thedoc; you stay with one protein and one carb the whole 12 weeks.If she has a food allergy you probably won't see any improvement for at least four weeks. If Daisy's had chicken and sweet potatoes before you can't use them for the diet; it has to a protein and carb source that she hasn't had. If she was allergic to any of the foods she had before, she should improve on this diet. After being on the diet several weeks, if she has improved, you then begin offering the ingredients of her old kibble, one at a time. For example, if chicken meal was in her old kibble you offer her a small amount of cooked chicken for several days to see if her itching returns. If it does you know she's allergic to chicken. If she doesn't react to the chicken after offering it to her daily for about a week, you offer another ingredient from her old kibble, and proceed in that fashion. It's a slow process.

"It may just be my imagination, but it seems  a lot more dogs have allergies today than dogs use to."
 
  I think the same is true for people too. Maybe we're better at diagnosing allergies in dogs. Veterinary care has improved a lot and I also think that because most people have their dogs in the house with them these days instead of keeping them outside like they used to do 20 or 30 years ago, they are more aware of problems their dog is having.
 
 " But anyway,  i have about decided there is so much more air polution today than even 30 years ago, at least down here in the south, and that is hurting our dogs."
 
    That's probably true; studies have shown respiratory diseases like asthma in people are increasing because of air polution.

Hey Doc. Canine Commisary. There is one in Dallas and there is one in Plano. I've been to the one in Plano a few times, as it's closer to me. I don't remember if they have TO, but I have seen that they carry Solid Gold Wolf King, so such a food would not be out of the question, there. Also, I don't know how they are on ordering special for one or two customers but you could check it out. I initially found them by googling "premium dog foods dallas texas."
 

Never mind, Doc. I just called the store in Dallas and they told me they don't carry TO. Sorry.