Hi Patty,
When I got my rescue Cocker Spaniel she was a mess – ear infections due to neglect, her improperly cropped tail ( looks like a done at home job…yikes) was swollen and split in two actually. She had bouts of rubbing her butt on the floor due to what think was an itch..
Long story short a Vet suggested perhaps some of the issues was due to a food allergy. I immediately jumped on the grain free train and the one I picked happened to be salmon based and lower in protein ( for a 7 year old dog). Her conditions did seem to improve.
The other day at a great new vet the doctor told me how much she was AGAINST grain free dog food as it can cause heart issues and she stated that usually a dog’s food allergy is due to the type of protein vs the grain.
It makes perfect sense to me and if you think about dog’s wild cousins (Wolves and Coyotes) they all eat some amount of grain…if they catch a rabbit or deer or mouse usually the prey has some grain in it’s stomach…right? This tells me a dog’s digestive system is probably geared to eating some amount of grain..perhaps not massive amounts though.
This differs greatly from say a cow which developed solely from grass eaters. There was not massive corn fields or wheat fields growing across the plains of Europe or America when cows were bred to what we have today and I have heard that the cattle industry is the single largest user of what is basically Tums to settle the cow’s upset stomach when it is forced to eat corn to fatten up.
All said and done I suspect my pup’s allergy was the protein vs the grain. I have switched to a regular salmon based dog food and she seems just fine and dandy. I will repost if her allergy returns.
Hope this helps a bit!
Cameron
