Allergies? - Page 1

Wonderful! Anyway if you suspect your dog has allergies to something, what is the best way to pin point what is causing it? What are the best foods to feed, if it is a food allergy? What can be done if it something you can't get away from?

4pack, the most common food allergy is Wheat, Corn, Soy and Beef. Probably in that order too. Natures Recipe has a good food with out those 4 ingredients. I went to a raw diet with one of mine who had allergies, she did better, but she was also allergic to grass. I do know some one who had a dog that was allergic to plastic, he had chronic ear infections and total hair loss on his belly. They kept him crated in a plastic crate. Which also made the allergy worse. They discovered his allergy by accident, when the took in a lab puppy who ate every thing. Because of the pup, they removed all plastic toys, bowls, and everything and started crating the pup. Their dogs allergies cleared up almost over night.

Blitzen, Louise...Nobody???

I'm feel left out booho! You did not ask for me opinion/ lol My first shepherd has the worst allergies. very dry coat, nasty gunky ears with lots of black crud. No matter what i did they would nloy inprove for a short while. My vet tested the dog for first food specific then other items. My gal went off the charts on many items. (don't remember which. Seems age has gotten the better of me) I spent thousands of dollars and tthen we moved onto shots weekly to boost her immune system. What worked you may ask. RAW DIET!!!!!!Have not had a problem in the last 20 years and there have been quite a few dogs over those 20 years

Well....I feed RAW so NEXT! I guess I nix the chicken and try some other protein sorce?

What are the symptoms of what you suspect may be an allergy? I have friend who was having scratching issues with a few dogs. Along with raw, meaty bones and salmon oil, he found great improvement when he started giving one raw egg daily and began feeding the Honest Kitchen "Embark". I don't like to feed my dogs chicken--even though it's cheap. They do better on beef, turkey, and pork.

I had this problem with one of my bitches a couple of years ago. I switched to dry food with lamp which is supposed to be hypoallergic but things just got worse. After my vet's recommendation we did an analysis of the blood which was sent to a company in Spain. They sent me a list with 4-5 things that caused the allergies including lamp, milk products, etc. The company is called Allergovet. They also sent me a series of injections with the specific allergens so as to make the dog immune to these. Things worked out well. No problems so far. I think you should try it. I am feeding Orijen dry food for the last 2 years.

4Pack: Go to turkey and pork for a while....chickens have a lot of chemicals in them fed to make them grow overnight and might be effecting him...plus other ingredients chickens now seem to be injected with......unless you are feeding yard eggs also and yard bred chickens....

Probably not food, but you can try a homemade allergy diet, recipes on the net. Commercial food isn't the best way to prove a food allergy. If you already make the food and/or if you are feeding raw, then just start to eliminate one ingredient at a time and wait for at least a month to see if that helps. If not, add it back and try something else. If the food challenges fail as they probably will, have the dog skin tested and desentitize it. There are blood tests, but according to the statistics and in my own experience, they are not nearly as accurate as skin testing. Haven't tried the compnay is Spain, but used 3 here in the US with no success. Common allergens - fleas, pollens and molds, molds are year round, pollens seasonal. BTW if the dog responded to steroids and stopped scrathing when he was taking them, then you can count on the problem NOT being food assuming you didn't change his diet at the same time. I wasted 3 years with my first GSD switching food, blood tests, fatty acids, etc.. Finally had him skin tested and desensitized and I wish I'd have done it a lot sooner. Allergies are the dirty little secret of the GSD world. These dogs should never be bred and their parents should also be withheld from further breeding. It's indicative of a compromised immune system and is genetic in nature. Seems not many breeders even consider not using an allergic dog for breeding. Maybe they don't understand, maybe they don't care. It's a bloody pain in the butt for owners and a food allergy is even worse to manage than an inhalation allergy. Good luck.