Food Allergies?

Lizbet · Posted: Fri Apr 04, 2008 9:05 pm Post subject: Food Allergies?

Hi! I'm new to the board. I have a 9 1/2 year old male named Norton. He's a great dog!! The only problem that we've been having with him is allergies. His eyes are red and runny, his belly and legs are red, his ear flaps are red and he scratches all the time!! The dermatologist told us that he had mites and to have him treated by our regular vet (which we did). This didn' t improve the situation. Around Christmas he had terrible diarhea and vomitting. After $1200 worth of tests, the vet couldn't find anything wrong with him. I decided to take him off of his regular kibble, Hills Prescription Venison and Potato, and feed him only boiled chicken cutlets and rice. Within a week his skin problems cleared up and so did his stomach problems. One evening I decided to give him a treat and boil some chop meat for him. Within 30 minutes he was throwing up and the rash returned! My conclusion - allergies to red meat.

After 6 weeks of just chicken and rice, Norton lost 10 lbs. (83 lbs. - 73 lbs.) The vet told me to try and add some kibble to his diet so we've been trying Hills Z/D. It's not working. We're back to square one. Scratching, itching, etc.. I don't know what else to do. The derm. said it's probably not a food allergy - I disagree. Has anyone had any experiences like mine? Also, any suggestions on what I should feed Norton? I can't watch him scratch anymore.

Thanks in advanced.

Liz and Norton

greydogs · Posted: Fri Apr 04, 2008 10:11 pm Post subject:

maybe if you feed him more?

what about canned chicken?

as i wrote in some other post, vishnu had problems since he was a pup, and was finally diagnosed with IBD. we tried many different diets, cooked for him etc.
accidentally almost, we got him started on wellness canned food, and added yogurt and cooked oatmeal, with various supplements.

initially i fed him FOUR cans a day. he gained enough weight that i had to give him less. now we are down to 3.5.

if you know he does well on chicken, you may want to start there.

there are also people on the forum that feed raw. i am sure someone can tell you more about that.

WeiMe · Posted: Sat Apr 05, 2008 2:05 am Post subject:

If you do want to add some kibble there are some high quality kibbles that are specialty allergy diets. I am not a fan of Science Diet. I actually hired a dog nutritionist after spending hundreds of dollars at the vet to try to fix Scout's skin issues. They always wanted to sell me another version of Science Diet. Some allergy formulas contain red meat but they are meats that dogs haven't been exposed to like bison and duck so they are less likely to cause allergies. Here are some ideas.

http://www.blackwoodpetfood.com/bw5000.htm

http://www.eaglepack.com/Pages/HS_Fish.html

http://www.solidgoldhealth.com/products/showproduct.php?id=62&code=170

You might want to consider feeding raw if you want to continue to feed chicken and there are some really knowledgeable people on this site who can help you.

Idaviruma · Posted: Tue May 06, 2008 10:12 am Post subject:

there are some kibbles designed for allergic pups, I know a lot of people use natural balance, I think its like potato and fish/venison, but what I didnt like about it is that the main ingridient is fish, not meal, once the water is removed it goes down the list so potato becomes the main ingridient, same with california natural and couple other ones. I finally settled on Wellness core Ocean formula which is fish and potato based and raw. Of course if hes allergic to beef, there are plenty of other raw fods available, try them out, it definitely helped out with his allergies a lot, gave him more energy and muscle mass and nice shiny coat.

forgot to mention, also try fish oil which helps to reduce inflamation and aids with skin and coat, I'm using fish oil and vit. E.

freespiritmom · Posted: Tue May 06, 2008 10:34 am Post subject:

First welcome to the addict...
We can only feed Pedigree dog food and Pedigree treats to Bullet he is allergic to everything. I tried several different kinds an this is the only one that worked for us. We went on-line and told several companies our problems and they all sent us some coupons to try their food. Pedigree is the one that worked wonders, no more scratching or red ears. Bullets were so bad he had antibiotics and ear drops . We were scared he was going to lose his hearing his ears were so bad. But we have a great vet who help us discover what he could and could not eat.

Welches · Posted: Tue May 06, 2008 12:51 pm Post subject:

We feed California Natural which is for dogs with skin and coat sensitivities.

Here's their website..check it out.

http://www.naturapet.com

soniadutton · Puppy Joined: 07 May 2008 Posts: 1

Pasha had a sonogram to determine that he has chronic irritable bowel disease. At first she said to put him on a diet of kangaroo, but theoretically the dog needs any protein hasn't been eaten at length before, like venison or duck, it's fine so long as that is all they get!

it has to be that you don't mix the proteins - just stick to one protein!

So i feed him evo venison canned food twice a day; raw food once a day; and supplement it with dry food kibble as his 'treats' which i have out all the time and is Hills Prescription Venison and Potato.

this is the venison i feed him once a day which he loves:

http://www.onlynaturalpet.com/product_detail.aspx?item_guid=E5C00590-21C0-41EA-8416-BB033CA8E6B6&click=124&mf=2

he is totally fixed - it has transformed his life! I really hope it works for your sog too.

iris · Posted: Wed May 07, 2008 3:06 pm Post subject:

Hi there!
My baby as well was going though some or almost though the same problems that you weim is having. I feed raw and its been the only thing that stopped the diarrhea and all the scratching and ear infections.
Please check out this post that was written just a couple of days ago. I posted several long messages about the diet here:

http://www.weimaraneraddict.com/discussion/ok-diarreah-talk-i-need-help-vt8564.html

I am no expert but i have been though a lot with my 8 month old baby which pushed me to do a loooooottttttt of research on nutrition. Oh by the way, my vet suggested Hill`s and i said NO thank you from day one.