Dog Community

Good food for allergies?

Posted : 6/19/2006 7:51:51 AM

Oops, put this in the wrong forum! I am looking for a good hypo allergenic food for my 6 mos old labradoodle. He has had continual ear infection for three months. Any ideas? Thanks, Susie

cakana

Posted : 6/19/2006 9:08:22 AM

I feed Natural Balance Duck and Potato and it has helped tremendously with ear infections. You might try that or one of the other Natural Balance allergy formulas. There's also a fish and venison blend that some folks have had good luck with.

tony

Posted : 6/19/2006 9:32:19 AM

This probably will not go over well since it is not a holistic food, but I know many, many

eople that have solved there dogs allergy problems by feeding Pro Plan Sensitive Skin and Stomach.

cakana

Posted : 6/19/2006 10:06:57 AM

many people that have solved there dogs allergy problems by feeding Pro Plan Sensitive Skin and Stomach.

I've read the same thing. I used to frequent justlabradors.com and a lot of folks seemed to use that food and their dogs were doing very well on it.

Melissa Camiel

Posted : 6/19/2006 11:53:16 AM

You can try California Natural formulas. They have only two different ingredients (chicken and rice or lamb and rice). They also have a herring and sweet potato, but that has more other ingredients too.

innacle also makes trout/sweet potato, and a duck/potato formula.

jessies_mom

Posted : 6/19/2006 12:04:34 PM

I've had good luck with Eagle Pack Holistic formulas; I rotate the fish, duck, and lamb.

Luvntzus

Posted : 6/20/2006 5:59:45 AM

ORIGINAL: abbysdad

This probably will not go over well since it is not a holistic food, but I know many, many eople that have solved there dogs allergy problems by feeding Pro Plan Sensitive Skin and Stomach.

I do believe that since it's similar to other Fish allergy formulas like Natural Balance and some of the prescription foods. The first ingredient is salmon and I would think that helps a lot because of the omega 3's. I wouldn't feed the food just because of the "animal" fat, animal digest, and menadione sodium bisulfite. But other than that, the ingredients are good and it obviously does the job as an allergy food!

tamrenee

Posted : 6/20/2006 1:44:27 PM

You will probably get a list of a dozen foods that people recommend. However, you must find out which food your dog is reacting to. Solid Gold with the fish would be good. Most people think that their dogs are allergic to chicken (as I thought mine was because everyone including my vet told me that most dogs were allergic to chicken) so I avoid chicken but come to find out (years later) that it is more of the corn and grains that she can not tolerate. You might have to try one food for a while and if the dog it not better than switch to another food until you find one that works for your dog.

John

Posted : 6/20/2006 2:57:47 PM

Pinnacle also makes some good allergy formulas - trout and sweet potato being one.

Margaret Tyler

Posted : 6/20/2006 3:48:29 PM

Avoid wheat. Try to find a food without wheat. My dog is allergic to wheat and the first sign that someone slipped him a piece of bread is ear infections. I used to work at a pet supplies store and I recommend avoiding wheat to every customer with a dog with ear infections. I had wonderful feed back from them. By the way, most dog biscuits have wheat in them.

As for a food suggestion all of the above are great choices. I know alot of people are scared of Merrick due to mistakes they made when it first came out, but they've made alot of changes since. I have had the best luck recommending Merrick Wilderness Blend formula when it comes to ear infections. Merrick Wilderness Blend is Bison, Salmon, and Buffalo with barley, brown rice, and oatmeal as the grain sources.

tony

Posted : 6/20/2006 6:27:29 PM

I would also be leary of flaxseed, many of the premium foods include this in there formulas, and my dog and several others I know have a sensitivity to flax.

Luvntzus

Posted : 6/20/2006 10:40:11 PM

ORIGINAL: abbysdad

I would also be leary of flaxseed, many of the premium foods include this in there formulas, and my dog and several others I know have a sensitivity to flax.

That's really interesting, weird though because it's a source of fatty acids so I thought it normally helped with allergies. Confused here. [&:]

tony

Posted : 6/21/2006 5:54:51 PM

That's what I thought, but if your dog has a sensitivity to it, it doesn't matter. I kept feeding foods with the flax in it, thinking it would help my allergy girl, and the more I fed the more my she would itch, I also noticed those foods would cause her to have dandruff. If I switched to a fish based diet, she would do great as long as it didn't have flax or sunflower oil. I have found many people on some of the other boards I belong too, experience the same thing. I would not exclude flax or sunflower oil as causing itching in a dog since they both do in mine and with others I know. Here is an interesting link talking about Omegas.

[linkhttp://chetday.com/omega3fattyacid.htm]http://chetday.com/omega3fattyacid.htm[/link]

Margaret Tyler

Posted : 6/21/2006 8:44:31 PM

ORIGINAL: abbysdad

I would also be leary of flaxseed, many of the premium foods include this in there formulas, and my dog and several others I know have a sensitivity to flax.

Actually from my expirience working at a pet supplies store, when people would come in with allergy lists, flaxseed was almost always on the list of stuff the dog was allergic too. I don't think Pinnacle contains flax seed and I think that Pro Plan Sensitive Skin doesn't either, but Natural Balance does.