Thank you! I’m glad your dog is feeling better on the wet food! I talked to the vet about possible allergies and I still want to get him tested for them eventually. The other thing the vet mentioned was that the last time he had blood work done, his thyroid levels were low but they couldn’t tell if that was due to hypothyroidism or something else. (He’s also had some difficulty losing weight, even with a reduced amount of the Nulo senior food, but again it’s hard to tell if that’s his thyroid or he just hasn’t been active as much because of his hip dysplasia.) They took some blood for a thyroid panel so we’re waiting to hear back about that. I have heard that hypothyroidism can cause skin issues in dogs as well.
I unfortunately didn’t get a chance to ask about the best time to give him the taurine supplement, but the vet did recommend 1000 mg twice a day and mentioned “adding taurine to his meals” so I’m guessing it’s OK to give with food. (As an aside, something I’ve learned working at Pet Valu is that they do test the nutrient levels in their private brand, Performatrin, and they add taurine to their dog food if it doesn’t already contain a certain amount. We’ve had a few customers come in worried about grain-free food and heart disease and that was the company’s answer, so I thought I’d share that too in case it’s useful to anyone.)
The other thing the vet recommended was keeping him on a fish-based food because of the omega-3s. He’s crazy about anything with fish, so hopefully no problem there. 🙂
