Food allergies - What to Feed - Page 1

Does anyone have any sugestions on what to feed a 8yr old German Shepherd with food allergies. Unsure of what is causing the allergies now.

Start with lamb and rice dog food. These are the least likely to be the cause. After about 4 - 6 weeks, if the allergies are clear, slowly add human cooked food (no extras) to test what the allergy is. Below is a recommend order of introduction. These are in order of most likely to be the cause. ----------------------- I had a mix breed a number of years ago with allergies. This is what we did. Good luck. Try to stay away from Prednizone; a steroid given to control the reaction; this does bad things on the kidneys.-----------------1 beef. --------- 2 salmon -------- 3 chicken (if this is it, stay away from all poultry. Watch all pet foods; this is an ingredient in most and comes in all forms) ----------- 4 bison ---------- 5 venison.

Side note on lamb...".. I got mixed information on this. Some say it is bad for dogs over a long term; once we identified the allergy, we took Angel off the lamb just to be safe. Angel had other allergies, so we had an up hill battle all the way.

Most allergies in dogs are caused by something they breath, not food.

If you want to prove a food allergy,  you must make a homemade diet. Commercial diets contain too many ingredients and preservatives. You can find many recipes for hypoallergenic diets on the internet. The protein source is generally the cuplrit, so you need to select a protein the dog has never eaten before. 

Allergies are very common in this breed and before I'd spend a lot of time and money switching food every couple of months, I'd take this dog to a dermatologist and have her skin tested. That way you know exactly what is causing the allergies and you can desensitize her. Odds are it's going to be molds  and pollens, not food. 

Home made diet would be the best thing, like Blitzen says, too many ingredients in dog foods.  Plus it is also possible to get negative reaction to eating meat that ate a diet of something you're sensitive too.  So if a dog is sensitive to corn or soy and it eats chicken meat or eggs from a chicken that was fed a corn or soy diet, then you've still got problems. 
There is also the issue with what chemicals that the ingredients in pet food were treated with.  Take corn for example, commercial growers often spray their crops with insecticides, fungicides and herbicides, then that corn is put into pet food, quite possible that an animal developes a reaction to those chemicals. 

When I make food for my dogs I always try to source meat and eggs from humane-certified pasture raised farms, these are least likely to be contaminated with poor feed and chemicals.

Allergies are a sign of an immune system that isn't very strong, even if the dogs allergies are environmental and not it's food it's still a good idea for the dog to eat food that it will thrive well on and strengthen it's immune system.  Most dogs just survive on dog kibble but they don't thrive well to their full potential.

If you can't or don't want to prepare food, try a grain free, potato free dog food.  We just switched to Nutrisca and our dogs love it.   Not only is it great for allergies, but also diabetic dogs since it has low glycemic ingredients.  We buy a 28 pound bag for $50.

http://nutrisca.dogswell.com/


http://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/dog-food-reviews/dogswell-nutrisca-dog-food/

WOW, I never thought about considering what the animal ate.  Wish I knew you 5 years ago....

OP - Good luck.  Allergies can be controlled, just make time to exactly ID the allergy. 

Be careful of the vet's quick and temperary fixes.  I am not doing downer posts this week, but trust me...many times the vet's cure is worse than the allergy.

Most GP vets don't have a clue about allergies. They dispense cortisone, sprays, shampoos, prescription diets, sometimes antibiotics and never get to the source of the problem so the beat goes on. A vet dermatologist will skin test allergic dogs using the appropriate allergens for the area in which one lives. Allergies are never cured, they are managed.

or you can go raw and save yourself a lot of headache and vet bills