[Akari_32]

Hey guys! Bentley is once again having itching problems as the weather stars to warm back up. We aren’t sure if it’s chicken, grains, grass, fleas or a combination of any of these. He’s constantly chewing his feet and tummy, and scratching his neck and chest, and his skin is bright red all over his body.

We’ve got a little (really little) problem with fleas in the yard, and he gets maybe 3 or so a day just from going out side. I wouldn’t think it’s enough to cause a problem unless he’s allergic to them. He’s on Trifexis, which kills the fleas after they bite. We have stuff to treat the yard, as well that we are going to try. He does get pretty decent sized welts, but that could be from fire ants (the dog is pretty stupid– he likes to play with ants), so it’s hard to say.

As for food, he used to be on the red meat Innova Prime before the recall. And before that we tried just about every brand and meat/grain combination all sorts of brands there is in the area, ending with chicken without grain, and non-chicken with grain, just to be sure. We finally settled on no chicken and no grain as it caused him to itch less and his skin looked better, and used $10 off any size bag Innova coupons, which is the only way we could have afforded it at the time. He’s been doing good since then so I figured I’d try him back on chicken, and he did good for a month or so, so I tried him back on grain. For the last 3 weeks maybe, he’s been on half and half, grain free and grain inclusive, with mixed protein sources, and it doesn’t seem to help much, but it has helped some.

We aren’t really sure on the grass allergy either, as it all started to die off for the winter when it occurred to us it could be grass/weed pollen and started taking precautions for that as well (wiping him down with a baby wipe after going outside). But now the grass is starting to grow back, so I’ll have to see about that.

So basically, we have all of these possible irritants back all at once, and we are back to where we were last year: he’s chewed his back legs almost bald, he’s scratching himself raw on his chest and neck, and his sole purpose in life is to chew the bottom of his feet.

Since fleas and grass are easy to take care of (sort of), I need some help on picking a food. The only catch is, it has to come from Pet Supermarket. It’s the only place close that isn’t a grocery store. AND…. Around here it’s pretty much either Natura or Diamond for (“good”) grain free. Lucky me. Being so close to the South Carolina plant (I live in Florida), I have my reserves about feeding Diamond products, but he’s been on most of the TOTW formulas and my other dogs have been on Kirkland with no issues. Here’s my list:

Wellness CORE Wildgame
Taste of the Wild High Prairie PUPPY
Taste of the Wild Sierra Mountain
EVO Red Meat Small Bites
Innova Natures Table Beef and Red Lentils (doesn’t appear to be available here yet, but I’d like to hear thoughts on it)

He doesn’t like fish, and it makes his breath smell nasty, or else I’d be able to add the CORE Ocean Fish in there, too. I was looking at Blue Buffalo, despite what ever they’re going through right now, but I’m fairly sure all their grain free foods have chicken, don’t they? Any thing else to add that Pet Supermarket carries?

If you could just pick one, because the chances of mom rotating are slim, which would you pick? And what are your top three, if I can get her to? And thoughts or concerns about any of these? Any other tips as far as natural flea treatments, itching relief, and whatever else goes are also greatly appreciated!

[theBCnut]

Wellness, Evo, Innova would be my picks, in that order.

Fire ant bites always leave a pustule, not a welt, so I’m assuming he has a flea allergy, but that doesn’t mean that he isn’t also allergic to grass. Put a kitty litter pan by the back door and rinse his feet/lower legs off before coming back inside.

[Akari_32]

I’ve been bitten by fire ants and been left with dime to nickel sized welts. Then again, when I’m bitten by mosquitoes, they swell up to quarter sized. So maybe I’m the one allergic bug bites… lol

But anyways, we’ll take baby steps, to see whats really causing the itching, rather than taking all the factors away at once like last time, like a genius. I’ll start with grass, since thats the easiest, and we’ll treat the yard next weekend (mom works out of town during the week, and other people have planned our weekend this week– how nice). I’ll also be looking into a homemade flea repellant to help keep the fleas from getting on him in the first place, with out interfering or adversely reacting to the Trifexis. Both of those should yield pretty immediate results, correct?

Have you tried the Wellness CORE Wild Game, or know anyone who does?

[Harpers Mom]

I haven’t tried the wellness, but It is on my list to try. My girl has a grain, chicken, turkey allergy. The only reason we haven’t tried the wild game is because it has chicken fat as the fourth ingredient I believe. I’m hesitant that it might flare up her chicken allergy. But I have had my lab mix on it and he did fine, but then again he could eat a house and still be perfectly fine. I swear he has a lead stomach, before we got him he was on beneful and did fine. But I refuse to feed him something so low quality. He once at a cake and was perfectly fine. Sorry for the ramble! Long story short, the wellness is great, but if your boy has a chicken allergy is might bother him, but it might not. I agree with patty though, I would go evo then innova. I thought about innova but haven’t gotten around to it. But I like the ingredients of evo better. I also live in Florida and the SC diamond plant is too close for comfort. TOTW is tempting, but I can’t bring myself to try it. But who knows, the plant hasn’t had a recall in about a year, so they may have finally done something about it.

[Akari_32]

I’ve tried all the other flavors of Wellness CORE for the other dogs, and the mix he’s currently on right now has CORE Puppy and Ocean Fish (and Purina One Beyond Lamb), and as far as the dogs doing good on, I’m happy with them, and it is my go-to brand. I’d love to see a red meat based CORE that has the protein profile that the other formulas do, with no plant protein boosters, which is my reservation about the Wild Game one. However, it still does look like its got a good protein level when you factor those out. I don’t think chicken flavors and fats are supposed to bother allergies, because theres none of the protein that causes the problems. Thats the way I understand it, anyways. I could be wrong.

I took mom in Pet Supermarket today to look at the foods, and the she was having a heart attack about the prices. She wants to put him back on the Innova Prime, despite it being more expensive than the Wellness, because she knows he does good on it. Has anyone used it (or EVO) since the recall last year? I have her leaning more toward the Wellness, though, because with coupons, I can get $9 off any size bag ($5 off any bag, and $4 off $20 purchase). If she wants to put him on Innova Prime, I’d rather her spend the extra $3 and put him on the EVO, though. They’re pretty much the same, just EVO is better.

She liked the price of Nature’s Recipe (thats the orange bag, right?) Grain Free Salmon ($14 for a 4 pound bag), but potato is the second ingredient, and its only like 25% protein. I’m wondering since he gets soooo bad on grains, if I should avoid anything that is so starchy? And if she wants that, she’d have to go all the way out to PetSmart for the larger bag, as 4 pounds wouldn’t last long.

On the Diamond note, I was looking at the Canidae PURE or whatever their new grain free line is called, and he could have two of three formulas. Again, they are low in protein (25ish %), but the price isn’t bad, about the same as the Nature’s Recipe, and it looks better than the NR does. Has anyone quite figured out which of Canidae’s foods are made by Diamond? I know they don’t like to let that information out. She also asked about TOTW.

Mom was asking about what she could get at WalMart that would work for him. I’m sure we all know that only grain and chicken free food at WalMart is the Pure Balance Salmon and Pea. It is a good price, and its not too bad, but given his food issues, I wonder if it’d be ok. I guess we wouldn’t really know if never tried. Thoughts on that?

[theBCnut]

Sorry, I meant if it was just a fire ant bite, not an allergic reaction to a fire ant bite.

You should see results within 2 weeks with either one of those. It takes at least a couple weeks and up to 10 weeks to clear all of the histamine out of the body after there is no longer more being added, but you should see the reaction getting less much faster than that.

Diamond makes all their kibbles.

• This reply was modified 10 years, 2 months ago by theBCnut.

[Akari_32]

Gotcha. So he’s pretty much allergic to anything that bites? Fantastic LOL

Diamond makes ALL of Canidae?? I thought they only made certain ones! Well thats out, then…

Oh, I forgot one other food. Nutrisca. Its a bit expensive for the lamb one, but its not too bag considering the medium sized bag larger than most other brands medium sized bags. Anyone have experience with this?

[GizmoMom]

I used to feed Nutrisca lamb. It’s pretty good.

It has chicken fat in the ingredients. If you’re looking for food with no chicken at all, it might not work for you. Depending on if your dog could handle chicken fat.

• This reply was modified 10 years, 2 months ago by GizmoMom.

[Akari_32]

So I’m thinking of just going with the EVO. Given the red meat aspect of the food, and higher calories, it seems like the best choice for the money, and the dogs needs and flavor preferences. I think next week we will buy a medium sized bag of it, see how long it lasts, and how well he does on it, and then if it works out well, we’ll use that for a while until his skin clears up.

As much as I hate to do it, he may have to be a one-food-only dog. He gets several treats a day, though, given his small size, a treat is like half a meal for him, so he’d still be getting a variety in his diet. Besides that, I can’t control what my mom does. She had the dogs (not Bentley, as we got him after I took over the dog food) on dog chow for…. 9-10 years? And they did “just fine.” I will try him on some other foods once he settles, though, and bother her about keeping him on 2-3 different brands, given we find that many that he does well on.

Does anyone have any info on the Pure Balance Salmon grain free? Like feeding guide lines, or a website? I think she’d feel better about the price of the EVO if we could squeeze in something a bit cheaper every now and then. It’d also be a good emergency food, since WalMart it always open.

I was looking at Chewy and PetFlow, and I might set her up for automatic delivery once we figure out how long a bag of EVO will last him. But she won’t get the buy 10 and get one free Pet Supermarket offers on all their foods.

[Akari_32]

Good news! I dug up a coupon for the Nutrisca that good for the rest of our lives (ok, 2015, but close enough), and after some calculation, both the EVO and Nutrisca will last about 2.5 months for the 13.2 pound bag (EVO) and the 15 pound bag (Nutrisca), and after coupons are applied to each food ($4 off $20 for the EVO and $3 off any bag of Nutrisca and $4 off $20 for the Nutrisca), it would cost the same to feed him each. So we have two foods that I’m comfortable with mom feeding him, and mom is actually happy with the price after doing the math. Does anyone know if EVO puts out coupons?

I used this website to help me figure the over all costs, using the price per bag as tax and coupons applied. http://www.goldendoodles.com/care/food_calculator.htm It’s not perfect– it has the other dogs eating TWO TIMES as much as they actually eat, but its a start, and Bentley does actually eat what the bag says, given his activity and young age.

Also forgot to add earlier, the reason I’m putting this off on mom (I’m in charge of the dog food for a reason– she figures dogs do fine on corn based foods and expensive food is a waste of money) is because she is sick of watching Bentley scratch himself raw, and I don’t have the money to buy Haley special food AND Bentley special food, and still feed my 130 pound beast that is Dweezle. I told her she’d have to pay for his food, and she ok, what ever it took to get him to stop scratching. As I said earlier, I took her to the store today to scout out prices and whatnot, and she was very put off by the price of good dog food. Me doing the math just now for her actually seemed to lighten her up, and she seemed pleased about how long the food would last, given the price. I told her she could go back and forth between the EVO and Nutrisca and she didn’t make a fuss, and sounded ok with it. I’d still like to try him on the Pure Balance as a just in case food.

The good news for me is, I no longer have to feed her dog (why am I, a 20 year old college student, feeding my 40 year old mother’s dog?? I’d rather be broke than see him on dog chow.). Not feeding him means once I’m done with the Purina ONE Dweezle is on (long story short, coupons got me paid $7 for every 3 of the 3.5 pound bags I hauled out of the store), he too can go on grain free like Haley. With coupons, as high calorie food as I can find (and afford), and some major budgeting, I can make it work.

Anyways, with a little work, I’ve made mom see how its actually really cheap to feed a better food. Now if only it was that “cheap” to feed such large dogs on a college budget…

[Susan]

When My boys feet are red & itchy I put some cold water in a shallow bath enough to cover his paws & add 2 capfuls of Detol Antiseptic {for humans sores & cuts} or Betadine in the water with the Betadine water must look like tea & it works out too dear so the Detol Antiseptic does the trick.. sook his feet as long as you can then empty bath & towel dry his feet this kills any bacteria & stops the itchy feet, excellent for ant bites too…

[Akari_32]

He isn’t going for soaking (he hate baths, too lol), so I bought him some anti-bacterial baby wipes (used regular baby wipes before winter and they worked pretty good but the poor package design made it hard to seal it back up and their dried out pretty quickly).

I also went to get him some new food today. I went in for EVO, I was still kinda sketchy about it, and proceeded to look again at the Wild Game CORE, and after so many back and forth’s, the manager asked if I needed help (he’s the nicer of the two managers. The other one is a cranky butt face, to put it nicely, though she wasn’t too bad today LOL), i explained my problem to him (found out today that any purchases after 12 months do not count toward their b10g1 deal, so I had to re-do my math and such to decide the cheapest option) and after talking for a bit, he directed me to the Nature’s Variety vendor who just happen to be there today.

The vendor and I got to talking about what Bentley needs, and he told me that most of the formulas the store carried had no chicken at all (meat, fat, or otherwise). We eventually got on the topic of coupons (with how I usually go to PetSmart and get wellness for $2 a bag), and he gave me a coupon for $3 off any size bag of Nature’s Variety. So I got a 4 lb bag of Beef and Lamb Meal Instinct, and I’m very happy. Got out for $15. He should even eat about the same amount that I calculated on the EVO. So it shouldn’t be much more expensive, and I’m not worried at all about the brand, and I’m corfortable sending mom out on her own to buy this (with coupons, of course :p). And once his skin is cleared back up, she can go between any flavors she wants, as well as the Nutrisca (once I try him on that). Yay!

[Susan]

Gee we dont have coupons in Australia, I think that’s an Americian thing the coupons. At our Pet Barn we swipe a Pet Barn Card then on ur 10th purchase of kibble u get the same size bag free.. Probably works out the same in the end…

[Akari_32]

Coupons are awesome! Since the store does this program independently from the companies, can combine store and vendor coupons with the buy 10 get 1 free to save even more.

I’ve worked it out for wellness just using a $4 off $20 and $5 off vendor coupon combined with b10g1 at Pet Supermarket, and using $4 off $20, $5 off vendor, and $5 off competor (PetCo) coupon, and it’s cheaper to do it at PetSmart with more coupons. Pet Supermarket is also $3-5 cheaper on all their foods compared to PetSmart. Just all depends on coupon policies and prices, I guess.

[Akari_32]

Dropping in to let you guys know Bentley is fully on the Instinct, and even after being on it for only a few days, I can already feel difference in his fur, which is crazy. He’s eating 3/4 of a cup right right now, as per our best guesses from the bag and calorie calculator (apparently dogs don’t weigh 6-9 pounds according to Natures Variety LOL), so we’ll see how that goes and work it out from there. Hopefully he can go down to a 1/2 cup, but probably not, since it’s 460 calories a cup, and he’s a crazy little dog.

(Also, is anyone else having issues posting new threads today? I’ve tried to three times today and got an error the first time, a duplicate content message the second time, and absolutely nothing happened the third time. Like, it went through, but I have nothing to show for it. Very strange….)

[theBCnut]

A duplicate content message sounds like you titled your thread with the same title as an already existing thread.

[Akari_32]

I did a search with the exact title of the thread I tried to post to see if I could find it and the forum was just being stupid because few days ago, after being on the site for an hour or so messing around, I clicked back to the main forum page and all the posts were saying 1 week+ as when there last updated, when clearly that’s not true, when just seconds before there were several saying they’d been updated just a few minutes ago.

But anyways, there’s not another topic that’s got the same title or anything. I got the duplicate content message when I tried to repost the thread immediately after it didn’t work and gave me an error message the first time. It’s like it’s been submitted, but it’s not showing at all.

It was a thread asking about breeders and had a few links to breeders and rescues, so my only thought, beyond a bug or glitch, is that maybe the forum software red flagged it as spam or something? I don’t know how fancy the sites anti-spam software is or anything, though… It took forever to type out on my phone so I copied it in case something like this happened, so I’ll try it again in a bit when I feel like dealing with it lol

[Akari_32]

I guess it’s been too long and I can’t edit my last post lol Just tried posting my new thread again and still nothing! I just email Mike about it, I guess?

[theBCnut]

It probably went in the spam filter. Yes, email Dr Mike about it.

So I’m not the only one to see the little glitch the other day. I emailed Dr Mike about that, but by the time he looked it was back to normal.

• This reply was modified 10 years, 2 months ago by theBCnut.

[Akari_32]

It’s fixed now lol

/forums/topic/wanting-an-english-bull-terrier/#post-33694

Anyways, I was looking at Bentley last night, and his skin is also already looking better. It’s not so red, and he’s not clawing at himself so much. Now we know not to ever put him back on “regular” dog food, no matter how good he’s doing lol

He also really seems to like it. He’ll run over to one of us, and run through the house to the kitchen and stop at the dog food and stare at us, then run back to us, then back to food if we don’t do anything. Even if he just ate he’ll do that! I’ve been putting some in a treat ball if he keeps asking for food. He loves to chase it around the house.

[Akari_32]

So this dog is back to scratching like crazy. I’m wondering is it’s more of a pollen thing…? Cars are litterally covered in yellow dust, and my fish ponds have yellow Inge around the edges– it’s disgusting! He’s much worst this year than he was last year, and my allergies are terrible this year as well (I might as well have a cold at this point, because at least it would be over soon!).

I’ve been wiping him down with baby wipes, and I bathed him that neosporin stuff once, and he’s got flea stuff on, so he doesn’t have any fleas on him. His feet are the worst, and his knees and thighs are pretty bad too (everywhere he comes into contact with grass, basically). There’s an empty lot with about 40 pine trees behind our house, which is the main source of the areas pollen.

If this is the case, there’s really no way around it, other than potty pads or a potty patch thing inside, and our house is so small that there’s really no where to put either (besides the fact that both if those options are pretty disgusting lol). Or we could just constantly run Benadryl on him and get cortisone shots every so often …

[Honeybeesmom1]

Hi Akari, my Chi. is doing the same thing. He also started his bad cough yesterday – and I asked my husband was pollen out…he said yeah on sidewalk and cars. I ran to see
and pollen everywhere! He also has the red paws and itching.
I’ve decided yesterday to lay down puppy pads because when he gets this way it’s so hard on him. He will be 11 Y/O next month…and 6 lbs. For a long time he’s been allergic to grass also.
I think keeping him inside is the best thing I can do for him right now.

[Akari_32]

Bentley coughs every now and then, as well. Usually after eating, but he’ll also just cough randomly (I don’t know if the food bothers his throat or if it’s allergy related). Let me know how keeping your guy inside helps! It may be what Bentley needs.

[Honeybeesmom1]

Hi Akari, I don’t know why your sweet Bentley coughs. Maybe dry food on his throat?
I give my other 2 dry food w/ a tiny bit of water – but Honeybee only eats canned & dehydrated. He inhales dry food and he just doesn’t do good on it. He coughs when his trachea is acting up or when he gets itchy skin. I didn’t even see the pollen when I had him outside yesterday…or he never would have been out! Keeping him inside is easy…it’s COLD out and he don’t like it. LOL He also gets this way in summer with the grass. Breaks out in hives and skin turns red.
What do you think of Dr. Harvey’s Emune Boost supplement with bee pollen and other good herbs? Maybe that would do Bentley and Honeybee some good.
I rinsed his feet with water and vinegar and no outside for awhile for him. They can keep us on our toes, huh? Lil stinkers!

[Akari_32]

So I just bought a bag of grain free Pure Balance. There was about a cup and half of his Natures Variety Instict left, so I put about the same amount of the Pure Balance in there and mixed it all together, and gave him a scoop of the mixture. He ate it happily, so maybe his dislike for fish has taken a back burner… I guess once he’s fully on the food in a few days, we’ll know for sure lol

I went with this food because, besides the fact it’s almost twice as much for the same price as the Instinct, I thought the fish base would benefit his skin problems. I was going to go for the salmon Instinct, but the house really needed some big things, and mom was reluctant to give up $15 for a 4 pound bag of food. I don’t blame her. I told her we’d try him on the Pure Balance, because I thought the fish would do him some good, and she agreed. Fingers crossed this does the trick!

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