Nutro Lamb and rice Large Breed adult

  It sounds like the change in food has helped but not cleared up the itching completely. Jessie has an allergy to chicken but also has environmental allergies; when I did an elimination diet she improved about 25%; it sounds like the change in foods helped your dogs more than her. If they are allergic to pollen the best way to tell ( and I don't recommend it except perhaps for a short time)  is to give them a steroid and see if that stops the itching; may not be possible to give a steroid to Cole. A steroid will relieve itching from environmental allergies but not food allergies. If you make some black tea using two tea bags to a cup of water and apply it to their feet a couple times a day ( use a spray bottle or dip their feet in a container like an old bowl with the tea in it) that will often stop the licking. Does the Nutro have any ingredients that their old food had? If so you may need to try another food; I feed Eagle Holistic Fish but many here feed Natural Balance. Jessie is about as big as a Lab and is also 7.5 years and shows no sign of arthritis but I have heard of dogs who had it by the time they were 6 so that could be his problem. I sure hope the vomitting stops soon and he gets his appetite back; poor sweet peanut. Have you tried digestive enzymes or yogurt? Did he eat well during the HW treatment?

My little guy doesn't like Nutro Natural Choice lamb and rice either.  Maybe try Natural Balance Potato and Duck.  I've heard that alot of dogs like it.  While mine doesn't like Nutro Lamb and Rice, he loves Eagle Pack Lamb and Oatmeal, plus his stools are more compact on Eagle Pack Lamb and Oatmeal.  Eagle Pack Lamb and Oatmeal still has glucosamine and chondroitin and yucca for the joints, but supplimenting with more glucosamine and chondroitin will be most beneficial as niether Nutro or Eagle Pack contain therapeutic amounts, or enough to really help.

I wouldnt be at all surprised if he is getting arthritis in his hips.  You might want to talk to your vet about starting him on some supplements.  I am so happy for you that he came thru his HW treatment without problems.  To well I remember those days with Honey, and at the time i didn't have a computer, didn't even know how to use on, so was "on my own". These boards and forums are the greatest things.

All good advice from everyone. Either you could stick with the dry formula and add a dog supp that includes fish oil and gluc and chon, or try the Eagle Pack formulas or Natural Balance, with which a number of people here are having success. It is not possible for one food to be suitable for every dog in the world. That is why I do not say Nutro is the best, but is the most appropriate, for now, for our dog.  And, as for adding supps, any dog formula will be middle of the road, in order to hopefully apply to a maximum number of customers. So, your dog may need a little more oil than is in the food by adding a supp with a little more oil. Even I, who will unrepentantly defend my use of Nutro, will tell you to try another food if it is not working out for your dogs. For me, it is about what my dog needs, rather than what I think.
 

Coal was eating great thru the HW treatment its just the last 2 weeks or so after he eats he throws up a bit.    I just clean it up and tell him its ok and he just starts wagging his tail.   But like this morning he ate basically everything in the bowl but a bite or two and Casey didnt eat at all.  Will talk to the vet on Friday about Supp.'s  for both dogs and see what he has to say about their food.  Will take a copy of the label in.   We are about halfway thru the bag so if we are going to switch now is the time. 

Do your dogs get acne under their chin??    Whats that from??   Casey doesnt have it but Coal does...lol..  my guys are falling apart here lately... feel like a bad mom some days cause dont know what to do for them.... 

So is a 7.5yr old lab considered a senior??  He is 97lbs and the sweetest dog ever.   Casey is 6.5 yrs old and an English Setter Mix.  The really cool thing about these two is that they were both born on November 16.. So they have a b-day party together...lol

My cats on the other hand also switched to the Nutro and they are looking great.  Their coats are so much better and the one cat isnt sneezing anymore.  He used to be an outside cat and i made him into an indoor cat and he had allergies for years off and on and the past month i havent really noticed him sneezing any.  Which is awesome. 

ORIGINAL: robinsegg26

Do your dogs get acne under their chin??    Whats that from??   Casey doesnt have it but Coal does...lol..  my guys are falling apart here lately... feel like a bad mom some days cause dont know what to do for them.... 

So is a 7.5yr old lab considered a senior??  He is 97lbs and the sweetest dog ever.   Casey is 6.5 yrs old and an English Setter Mix. 

 
As far as the acne, do you use plastic bowls? That's been known to cause acne because from what I understand, plastic harbors bacteria, now matter how much you wash. I would use either ceramic or stainless steel bowls. I'm not sure what other causes of facial acne could be.
 
I would think that 7.5 years is approaching senior for most labs, and larger dogs tend to age faster, so at 97 pounds I would think that he might be considered "senior".
 
My Cocker had the same reaction with Nutro- throwing up undigested food. I'm really not crazy about the ingredients in Nutro. Some dogs do well on it, but I know a lot of people whose dogs do really badly on it. Seems to be almost 50/50 success rate from what I've heard. Does your dog have allergies? Sorry if you already answered that; I didn't see it though.

Oh, I just re-read your post and saw that your dogs have been itching and licking their feet. It could very well be a grass or pollen allergy and not be a food allergy at all. Allergies can be tough to figure out. My dog is chewing on his tail as I type this.
 
Below are the ingredients for Nutro Natural Choice and I've highlighted the ingredients that could be a problem.
 




Ingredients

Lamb Meal, Ground Rice, Rice Flour, Rice Bran, Soybean Oil, Sunflower Oil (preserved with mixed Tocopherols, a source of natural Vitamin E), Poultry Fat (preserved with mixed Tocopherols, a source of natural Vitamin E), Natural Flavors, Rice Gluten, Dried Egg Product, Dried Beet Pulp, Potassium Chloride, L-Lysine, Dried Kelp (source of Iodine), Salt, Choline Chloride, Zinc Sulfate, Vitamin E Supplement, Taurine, Ferrous Sulfate, Ascorbic Acid (source of Vitamin C), Biotin, Copper Proteinate, Niacin, Manganous Oxide, Calcium Pantothenate, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Riboflavin Supplement (source of Vitamin B2), Vitamin A Supplement, Glucosamine Hydrochloride, Chondroitin Sulfate, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride (source of Vitamin B6), Thiamine Mononitrate (source of Vitamin B1), Vitamin D3 Supplement, Menadione Sodium Bisulfite Complex (source of Vitamin K activity), Calcium Iodate, Folic Acid.
 
The glutens and flours are probably not a good choice for a dog that you suspect allergies. They're highly processed and a lot of dogs have problems with them. I'm personally planning to switch my dog, Gingerbread, over to California Natural. He has problems with itching and I thought it was most likely inhalant allergies, but he's been having some digestive issues lately so I figured it's best to switch him to a simple food. The other allergy food that I would feed is Eagle Pack Holistics. I would really recommend giving one of those two foods a try.

No he has a stainless steel food bowl and his water bowl is a ceramic heavy duty one.. cause they like running thru the house and sometimes the water bowl goes sliding across the kicthen floor so found the heaviest one i could... and they get washed with antibacterial soap..  was just curious...
 
and thank you for the info about the dog food...  Found a place right down the road from work that sells Eagle Pack.  Will look into switching them after his vet appt.  
 
thanks!!
LIL

Oh Luvntzus... what a really cute dog...lol.  Love the hair..