Fresh Pet Select/Shamrockmommy food insanity/kibble guilt

 Umm... why would you be a terrible mom?????? I was totally shocked, and in awe, in March. I gave up. I threw in the towel. I was defeated, once again, by the almighty Emma. I went to my vet, and bought a small bag of Z/D. I'd paid a nutritionist. I'd done RMBs (which made her horribly ill, in the, prep her for surgery type of ill way). I've done all homecooked, all raw. I've done vegetarian. I've done NO veggies. I've done an elimination diet. Nothing worked.

Bought the Z/D, saw a change THAT WEEK. She was obviously feeling much better, in a matter of days. I cried. I'm serious. I felt like such a terrible person, for putting her through everything she'd gone through, with food. She eats Z/D, still, and will, unless it stops working. It doesn't matter that the ingredients are horrifying. She gets a bit of topper, and some scraps, but not many. 

I vote, if it works, do it. Sometimes, that's all you can do.

Oh Jennie, I could hug you :) 
I remember all the trouble Emma was having and how you wrote a few weeks ago about wanting to change and we all encouraged you to stick with the z/d. 

I do think depending on the results (watch it be environmental!) I'll go back with kibble/extras, increase the RMBs because I do like how it's doing wonders for their breath/teeth. 

I called my vet yesterday and they promised just as soon as tey got the results they'd call.  I think that was the polite way to say "stop calling lady!!"  LOL

 LOL, I drove mine CRAZY!!!

Nothing else has ever worked, and it took me some time to see that. It doesn't mean I didn't try. It doesn't mean I'm a bad Dog Mom. It just means that she doesn't have the kind of tummy that tolerates what regular tummies tolerate. She needs VERY easy to digest, balanced, hypoallergenic food. 

Sometimes, you just have to do what you have to do, LOL. Ena Bean eats kibble, too, now. She looks awesome on a low protein/fat kibble, and meat toppers. She's feeling great, happy, good digestion, skin is about all it's going to be, and she's haaaaapppy. What else could I want? Seriously. I never wanted to spend the time/money on a raw, organic diet, designed by a nutritionist, with 15 bottles of human supplements, measured by the gram.  I thought it was best for her, so I did it. Turns out, she looks better on kibble, LOL. Kibble it is!

I feel much better now talking to you about this!

Once I get those results then I can come to some sort of 'final' decision and possibly be able to go back to the way I was feeding before. 

I have actually strayed from the turkey/potato diet and doing raw wings with either leftovers of my dinner or this freshpet stuff, which they really liked. They have had beef and chicken and I haven't seen a huge increase in scratching.

Plus, I am miserable myself with allergies currently. Bleh. Lovely ragweed.

If kibble will work, kibble it will be!  I recall you said Ena was on Precise light? Going to have a look at that,  think it ships free from k9cuisine.  Might work well as they all tend to put weight on very easily.

Thanks again Jennie :) 

 She is. She's been a little "fluffy" since her spay, and I can't bring myself to take food out of her bowl, LOL. She loooves to eat. She gets 3/4 cup a day, with a spoonful of topper, and she's looking really nice. It's a nice, simple food. Chicken, rice, and oatmeal.

I'd be thinking you were a bad dog mom if you insisted on feeding a food that your dog isn't doing well on because that's just silly, but if you're doing what you are (trying to find the best fit no matter the trouble) then that's all you can do.  A food is absolutely useless if it doesn't work for your dog - go with what makes everyone as healthy and happy as possible and ignore those who say otherwise! ;)

I posted in general chat too but their tests came back with no allergies! I guess that is good news but still!  Now I will lump them into a category of "sensitive dogs" and "small white dog syndrome" LOL.

I am still not sure how I want to proceed as far as feeding them... ugh.

I have a coupon from Natura for a free 6.6lb bag of one of their foods. I think I'm going ot try out the low fat Innova plus meat toppers and kefir and such.  I really really like the look of precise lite but I can't find anywhere that has free shipping...  I've not had them on innova for several years, I didn't write any notes on it in thier notebooks, so that must've meant they did alright, so will see how it goes. 

The girls are still randomly itchy here and there even on freshpet select and homecooking AND raw, so I'll just chalk it up to "sensitive skin" I suppose.

Thanks for listening to my goofy ramblings LOL.

you know, I had Jetta food-tested for allergies and the results said that she had no real allergies either, just "slightly sensitive" to corn and wheat. Well guess what? She eats corn and wheat just fine, but i KNOW she is allergic to flaxseed and brewers yeast, and most likely barley, though she doesn't itch as bad on barley as flax or yeast.

 I know exactly how you feel with the food guilt. Sometimes I put jetta on royal canin  just because I know she does really well with it. Royal Canin may not be the best, but she is happy and itch-free! 

I'd be willing to bet that one of the problems is brewer's yeast. It's the one ingredient that will make Gingerbread itch like crazy and break out in hives on his chin and tail.

I completely agree with both you guys, especially brewer's yeast.  That is really the only ingredient that they hadn't ever had and it's in that volhard NDF2 big time and then the itchign insanity started.  Maybe it's an intolerance, eithe rway it made them both very uncomfortable.

I'll keep an update on them in a while, see how they do I did go with the low fat Innova since I supp with meat/veg mixture hopefully they won't gain weight as usual.

I really need to get a grip LOL.

I also like PetGuard, as you guys know but 1. it's gotten very costly, almost $3/lb and i'ts pretty high calorie.

Ugh, insanity LOL