[Susan]

Hi Alisha,
all the advice I have given has been Patches treatment thru Patches vet who specializes in Skin, Stomach & Bowel health….
Keep a diary & as the months & years pass you will start to see a pattern when his skin allergies are worse, it probably be in the Spring & Summer months or after eating certain ingredients the scratching, itching, gas will be worse … Best to do an elimination food trial in the colder months Winter when plants aren’t flowering & pollens arent as bad as they are in the Spring months, plants, trees, grasses all can make the dog itchy & you’ll think it might be the food he’s trialing/eating….Allergies are VERY confusing, my vet & I thought my boy couldn’t eat turkey & potatoes for 2 yrs, later I realised he can eat potatoes & turkey it was something else causing sloppy poos & itchy smelly skin barley, chicken & oats.. also after he haas had a bath keep your boy off all grass areas for a few days no walking, lying on any grass & see how he goes, does his stomach improve??? We thought grass was making Patches paws red, every morning I feed him breakfast then we go for a walk thru the park when we’d come home Patch would start licking his paws, I’d have a look & his paws would be RED & sometimes hot, 1 back paw would be swollen red & hot, so I made sure he just walked on the pathway cerment etc it turned out to be the chicken & corn in the vet diet he was eating at the time for his IBD, I did a raw elimination diet, while he was eating raw Kangaroo with blended green veggies he was fine, his itchy yeasty skin & paws all went away within 2-5 days, then I tried raw chicken breast for dinner within 15 mins after eating raw chicken breast he reacted with red hot paws, rubbing his bum on carpet, I soak paws in cold water with the Malaseb medicated shampoo, then before bed applied some Hydrocortisone cream on bum & paws cream had fixed his paws all back to normal…

You’ll get there, Winter will be coming soon in America & hopefully he’ll get a break & you can start working out the food side, what foods he’s sensitive too… vet diets are the easiest way to do elimination diets & the diet is balanced, then after eating teh vet diet you might have to trial a few but once dog is itch & smell free you start adding 1 new ingredient to his diet for 6 weeks, it can take from 1 day for a dog to react to an ingredient up to 6 weeks, with Patch I know with that day or night with sloppy poo or diarrhea skin can take up to 4 days to start to smell yeasy, carrots make his ears itchy within 20mins of eating them, then they start to smellyeasty in 3-5 days, he starts shaking his head/ear after eating something with carrot in it, the only way I knew this was elimination diet adding the carrot to home made rissoles, you start with a lean mince, I started with Pork mince made small rissole 1/2 size balls & baked in oven & added boiled sweet potato, he was fine then next batch of rissoles I added 1 whisked egg made 1/2 cup size rissole balles baked in oven, boiled more sweet potatoes that I freeze in freezer & take out as I need same as teh rissole they freeze well, he was fine with egg, just keep adding 1 new food to your rissoles & you will see what ingredients are causing any skin, stomach/bowel problems…. Good Luck..