I need some dog food help for my pom with allergies

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eagle

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 28, 2008
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5,449
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I have a pom Sparky who will be 10 in August. We have been battling with allergy issues since last fall. I thought it was enviromental issues, but the first part of the year I figured out is was more food and not the outside. I was feeding my dogs Merricks Whole Earth farms dog food.
http://www.merrickpetcare.com/consumer/ ... &age=Adult

They liked it and I loved the price. I would also feed the grain free chicken at times also.
I switched Sparky off that around December and put him on Wellness limited salmon and potato. Fish is suppose to be good for him and his coat. Yeah NO. The itching continued and got worse.
I tried adding a supplement made by Solid gold on the recommendation of a customer who has labs with massive skin issues. It is dried seaweed. Tried it for a week and he was scratching himself to death. I finally made the connection to anything fish related is bad for him. He is currently eating Natures Recipe http://www.petco.com/product/3079/Natur ... -Food.aspx as it is the only food I could find that does not contain any fish products at all. We have been to the vet and he was placed on antibiotics (simplicef) for 10 days healed up his back pretty well and the fur is growing back in. The vet had me put him on 2000 mg daily of fish oil even though I made it clear he was allergic to fish products ( sometimes vets really need to listen to the client). He is still itching himself alot. He is on a prescription antihistime hydroxyzine and he can have up to 3 a day of this.
I am to the point of making his food to see if that will help. I do know that peas and pototoes and sweet potatoes are big allergy causers.

I am looking for some input and suggestions of what I can feed him. I have access to a meat place that has meat with no growth hormones and is farm raised. They do make their own dog food it contains beef heart, liver and tongue.

Any help or suggestions would be appreciated.
 
I highly suggest feeding him raw.
My dog (well my mom's) has been having these rashes for many years now, and no vet has been able to find out what causes it. They even did a skin biopsy and couldn't find anything.
My mom switched him over to raw a couple months ago and he is doing amazing! Great energy and no more skin rashes (well, just a tiny bit, but it's not gonna get any better). They had to try out different meats to find the ones that cleared up his rash the best (they had him on chicken but it gave him rashes, so now he's on beef and lamb and it's all good)

So I think that if your dog has allergies, you should try out raw food... plus it will do him so much good on every other level (my dog is now so much happier and has so much more energy)
 
I have considered raw for him, but there is so much to consider about it. I will have to do more research on it and see what is available at my meat place. I know they have the basic meats ie the beef, pork and chicken. I will have to check and see what else they may have. There are a couple places around here that sell premade raw and I found a couple places that have the freeze dried raw.
 
My Gypsy has allergies too. I'm currently switching her to V-Dog. I order it from the US. It's human grade food.
When doing my research on dog foods, I found out that most dog foods get the remnants of scrap from slaughterhouses. The bad stuff left on the floor! So I'm giving this a try. I find it very reasonably priced. It's not a big corporation, it's made for the pet in mind. www.v-dog.com
I'm really hoping this will curb Gypsy's rhinitis, itchy eyes, ears and paws.
 
I'd also suggest raw... been feeding it for over 10 years, it's awesome. The nice thing is you can fully control what your dog eats. Also dogs don't react the same to certain proteins if raw e.g. my dog reacted to chicken and beef when he was on kibble but he now eats chicken and beef raw without any problems though we had to wait about 6 months until we started to introduce him to those proteins, esp. beef.
 
littledevils said:
I'd also suggest raw... been feeding it for over 10 years, it's awesome. The nice thing is you can fully control what your dog eats. Also dogs don't react the same to certain proteins if raw e.g. my dog reacted to chicken and beef when he was on kibble but he now eats chicken and beef raw without any problems though we had to wait about 6 months until we started to introduce him to those proteins, esp. beef.
Click to expand...


Does it take 6 months for the dogs to get rid of everything in their bodies when going from dry to raw or was their other reasons for waiting 6 months.
 
Raw is fantastic! If that's an option, I would take advantage of it!

In terms of kibbles, have you tried Natural Balance? That's a really good one for allergies because they have a whole line of food that are limited ingredient diets. So, the food will have one protein source and one carb source (for example: lamb and rice). Another good thing about this brand is that a lot of the limited ingredient diets feature "novelty" proteins (like rabbit or bison, for example) because a lot of those tend to be really good for allergies.

http://www.naturalbalanceinc.com/pr...category=Dog+Dry+LID+Limited+Ingredient+Diets


These 2 are Canadian brands, so I'm not sure how available(not to mention economical) they are in the US but here you go:

Go! Sensitivity and Shine Duck formula: http://www.petcurean.com/for-dogs/go/sensitivity-and-shine-duck

Acana's Single line (one protein and one carb)

Duck and Pear: http://www.acana.com/products/singles/duck-bartlett-pear/

Lamb and Apple: http://www.acana.com/products/singles/lamb-okanagan-apple/


These ones are from New Zealand and Australia so, again, I'm not sure how available or economical they would be, but they are very good:

Addiction Pet Food

Venison: http://www.addictionfoods.com/index...m_virtuemart&Itemid=57&p_catid=1&p_subcatid=0

Lamb: http://www.addictionfoods.com/index...roduct_id=105&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=57

Kangaroo and Apples: http://www.addictionfoods.com/index...m_virtuemart&Itemid=57&p_catid=1&p_subcatid=0


ZiwiPeak is also from New Zealand and they have a quite unique food. It's air dried, not cooked so it's pretty much as close to raw as you can get. It's also not really a kibble...it's more like pieces of jerky. They only have 3 formulas (Lamb, Venison, Venison and Fish) but with the exception of Venison and Fish, they are all single protein. Honestly, this food is AMAZING but it is quite pricey, unfortunately.

http://www.ziwipeak.com/air-dried-dog-food-ziwipeak-daily-dog-air-dried-cuisine/


In terms of supplements, I would recommend this one: http://cranimal.com/vibe.html or this one: http://www.katoby.com/store/product.php?productid=16397&cat=0&page=1
 
eagle said:
littledevils said:
I'd also suggest raw... been feeding it for over 10 years, it's awesome. The nice thing is you can fully control what your dog eats. Also dogs don't react the same to certain proteins if raw e.g. my dog reacted to chicken and beef when he was on kibble but he now eats chicken and beef raw without any problems though we had to wait about 6 months until we started to introduce him to those proteins, esp. beef.
Click to expand...


Does it take 6 months for the dogs to get rid of everything in their bodies when going from dry to raw or was their other reasons for waiting 6 months.
Click to expand...

It depends... Some dogs do fine right away, other dogs after a few weeks/months/years... others are still going to be allergic. It's hard to say

One more point - Keep in mind it could also be environmental allergies. My boy doesn't do well with fabric softener so we don't use it and the laundry soap we use is all natural, not scented etc.
 
littledevils said:
eagle said:
littledevils said:
I'd also suggest raw... been feeding it for over 10 years, it's awesome. The nice thing is you can fully control what your dog eats. Also dogs don't react the same to certain proteins if raw e.g. my dog reacted to chicken and beef when he was on kibble but he now eats chicken and beef raw without any problems though we had to wait about 6 months until we started to introduce him to those proteins, esp. beef.
Click to expand...


Does it take 6 months for the dogs to get rid of everything in their bodies when going from dry to raw or was their other reasons for waiting 6 months.
Click to expand...

It depends... Some dogs do fine right away, other dogs after a few weeks/months/years... others are still going to be allergic. It's hard to say

One more point - Keep in mind it could also be environmental allergies. My boy doesn't do well with fabric softener so we don't use it and the laundry soap we use is all natural, not scented etc.
Click to expand...


I don't use fabric softener at all and my laundry soap has to be natural unscented for me. I think I will start him on raw diet next week when I get paid. It can't hurt.
 
If you wanted to try kibble here are a few foods that should be found in vet clinics: (they seem to work great on dogs that iv seen so far here where i do my co-op placement. Though if your dog has really bad allergies, raw would be the way to go. One dog there can only eat raw lamb with a few veggies, no other food works. The vet was actually helping them come up with a balanced meal.)

http://www.purinaveterinarydiets.com/Pr ... gFood.aspx
http://www.hillspet.ca/en-ca/products/p ... s&x=26&y=3
http://www.royalcanin.ca/index.php/Vete ... rgenic-Dry
http://www.royalcanin.ca/index.php/Vete ... sponse-Dry
http://www.royalcanin.ca/index.php/Vete ... genic-Dry2


Good luck
 
amanda1472 said:
If you wanted to try kibble here are a few foods that should be found in vet clinics: (they seem to work great on dogs that iv seen so far here where i do my co-op placement. Though if your dog has really bad allergies, raw would be the way to go. One dog there can only eat raw lamb with a few veggies, no other food works. The vet was actually helping them come up with a balanced meal.)

http://www.purinaveterinarydiets.com/Pr ... gFood.aspx
http://www.hillspet.ca/en-ca/products/p ... s&x=26&y=3
http://www.royalcanin.ca/index.php/Vete ... rgenic-Dry
http://www.royalcanin.ca/index.php/Vete ... sponse-Dry
http://www.royalcanin.ca/index.php/Vete ... genic-Dry2

Sadly they contain fish oil and that is one thing I have determined he is allergic to.

I will be going with the Darwin raw. They have a 5 star rating and no recalls I searched back to 2009.


Good luck
Click to expand...
 
Through my research, I've read of doing completely raw and only meats or doing the opposite and no meats at all. I've decided to try the no meat for Gypsy.
 
Sparky is on a vegetarian dry food now and has been for over 3 months he still scratches alot, I suspect it may be some of the veggies in their, but to be honest the only way I will really know is through allergy testing and that is not in my budget so I am doing the trial and error method.
 
eagle said:
http://www.petco.com/product/3079/Natures-Recipe-Healthy-Skin-Vegetarian-Recipe-Adult-Dog-Food.aspx
Click to expand...

Ya, it's got soybean meal and barley which is gluten. :(
It's funny because they advertise it for healthy skin and those are the two ingredients that could be a big trigger.
 
So true, I rechecked the food you are feeding now. It is free shipping so what the hell I may order it next week. It can be fed dry or wet so that is a plus. I will be curious to see if your dogs still like it after a week.
 
It'll take two weeks to transition them fully. After the two weeks, I'll be doing V-dog in the morning and homemade food for their afternoon meal.
We'll see how that goes.
 

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