[Sophia C]

my dog has been suffering terribly with allergies for last 6 months. we had blood allergy test done and found that one area to address is food, she is allergic to venison, lamb, and flax. I’m finding it difficult to find a good quality limited ingredient kibble that doesn’t include the flaxseed. Any suggestions of food that might not include these? I’d also like it to be grain free.

TIA
Mom to Bella

[zhiba]

It’s one thing to feed your dog honey with local pollens, but it’s another to find one that has pollens your dog is actually allergic to. In theory, yes this can help, but without knowing the pollen content/concentration it is difficult to dose correctly.

What you are trying to do, and what you really want, is sublingual immunotherapy (SLIT) – building up tolerance to allergens by introducing them slowly over time. SLIT does have research, particularly with humans, to back it up: http://www.allergychoices.com/Physicians/Research/Bibliography/default.aspx

You can have your dog allergy tested and get a custom formula of allergens made for you. One company that does this is Heska – http://www.heska.com/Products/ALLERCEPT/Allercept-Drops.aspx

There are non-custom formulas available, based on regional allergens as well. Even products labeled for children (alcohol free) are fine if the rest of the ingredients are dog-safe.
Region 1 – Alaska, Oregon, Washington
http://www.meditrend.com/allergena-kids-formulas/

[theBCnut]

The only time I object to using grains specifically is for dogs with inflammatory conditions and dogs with grain allergies. For SOME of these dogs, getting off grains really helps.

[Alea S]

both my rescue dogs are severely allergic to any poultry and grains, rices, pastas and bread. Somewhat less allergic to beef, lamb, rabbit, wild boar, bison. Any suggestions on dog foods? Been feeding Natural Balance venison and now kangaroo since these are what they are least allergic to.

[DogFoodie]

My Golden reacts to fish, among other things, and his ears immediately get yeasty when he eats any fish. My Golden doesn’t have any true allergies, but plenty of food intolerance / hyper-sensitivities. I’d look for a new limited ingredient food that is a different animal protein and binder and is as different as possible from what you’re feeding currently.

[theBCnut]

It’s true that true food allergies are uncommon, but yeasty ears aren’t associated with true food allergies as much as they are with food hypersensitivities, which are an Ig response, just not the same Ig as true allergies, and also aren’t as rare as true food allergies.

[Jane E]

Have you taken your Golden to the vet and had the vet determine if it’s yeast or bacteria? His ears need to be treated effectively . True food allergies are not very common. It’s much more likely that the sweet potato (starch and sugar) is aggravating and feeding the yeasty ears IF that is what he is dealing with… I would look for a food without sweet potatoes and even one without potatoes altogether. Pure Vita has some nice foods,Fromm,Zignature. I would look for a single source protein (you may have success with a novel protein) and of course grain free.

[Karra L]

I have an 11 year old Lhasa that I believe is suffering from food allergies. She was on Eukenuba Adult dry food until a year ago when she had pancreatitis. She spent the weekend at the vet, and came home with Science Diet Low Fat GI Restore. We use the dry formula. She has terrible allergies, and seems to always have a yeasty ear infection. We have taken her the vet more times than I can count, and he said she has environmental allergies ( we live in Florida), and pretty much told me to try Benedryl. We took her to a specialist and had a consult, the treatment and testing was going to be over 6,000.
Lately, her mouth area has become swollen and red and has the smell of yeast as well. She has crusty material in her beard that is coming from her swollen mouth area. She is always scratching and licking her paws.
My gut is telling me that she has a food allergy. I want to switch her food, but am scared since she has had pancreatitis a year ago, and we almost lost her.
If anyone has any suggestions, I would appreciate it! Thank you in advance!!

[Dog_Obsessed]

If the drainage is colored when it comes out, I would recommend taking him to the vet. It could be an infection. If he comes back with a clean bill of health, then you could look at the possibility of allergies and/or changing his food.

[Dori]

That information is very much outdated. It would be like my telling you that eating a bunch of crunchy graham crackers will clean your teeth. No! Absolutely not. The only thing that will prevent plaque and tartar buildup on teeth is brushing. Just like us. Brush their teeth.

Once again, it’s just my opinion, but if your dog is an adult then it is best for him to eat twice a day, not three times a day unless he has a medical condition that your vet has told you it would be better for him to eat smaller meals throughout the day. Twice a day is the recommendation. It gives the gut time to properly digest meals in between and also gives the gut a resting period. Fed more often (or often) throughout the day the gut never gets the resting period. Some people even feel that dogs need 12 hours in between each meal. Now that method I guess depends on what time you feed a.m. meal to be able to feed p.m. giving enough time for digestion before bed time and bathroom elimination time. I don’t wish to be woken at 3 a.m. to take my dogs out for walks.

By the way, I have three dogs. Lola is a 5 1/2 year old Yorkipoo weighing 5 lbs. Katie is a 5 1/2 year old Maltipoo, she weighs 6 lbs., and last, but always first in my heart, is Hannah. She is my 15 1/2 year old Maltese and she weighs 7 lbs. I do know about small dogs. I’ve had small dogs (I’m allergic to animals so all my dogs have had to be of the hair variety and not fur) all my life. I’m 66 years old (or shall I say 66 years young since I continually say I haven’t hit middle age yet).

As to feeding strictly by the manufacturers recommendation, please keep in mind that it’s just a guide, not an ultimate. So much comes in to play. In winter most dogs are not as active, in summer more active. Your dogs temperament and energy. Is your dog a couch potato or an Ever Ready Bunny type with an “on” switch only. All this comes in to play. The package is just a starting point. Then you adjust either up or down.

• This reply was modified 10 years, 11 months ago by Dori.

[Dog_Obsessed]

Yeah, Dori was mentioning that with Heartguard, which is one of the reasons I decided to switch. The main other one is that Sentinel also does fleas.

I agree that it is totally ridiculous, and true throughout the human and animal medical industry. I worry about allergies, as you said, especially people who have severe allergies to milk, eggs, nuts, etc. that could be inactive ingredients in medicines.

[Karma]

Also, if your dogs are allergic to chicken, you’ll need to avoid ingredients labeled poultry fat (if it doesn’t specify the meat you can guarantee it has chicken fat in it, learned the hard way), and of course meal/bone by products that don’t specify the animal type it came from.

[Karma]

Victor Grain Free Yukon River. My dog is also allergic to chicken and Victor is a great food and is in our rotation.

[Rachel M]

I would start by trying a limited ingredient diet, I’m fond of Acana singles pork and apple. I also like Orijen Six Fish as a place to start for digs with allergies. Allergy testing is expensive, I’ve found that an elimination diet was a less expensive and more accurate way to determine what my dog could eat.

Check out DogFoodWizard.com for my food selector tool, you can tell it to exclude foods that contain poultry and any other suspected allergens for your girl and it should give you a whole list of foods she can eat.

[Jill T]

Hi, I have a Bischon and I believe she is allergic to poulty, she scratched quite a bit and she has dried brown tears below her eyes. The vet wants to charge me over $300 for allergy testing, which I don’t have. Do you suggest any brand of dry dog food that will help alleviate her symptoms? Thank you!

[Katy G]

Here are some of the benefits of giving coconut oil: http://www.dogsnaturallymagazine.com/the-health-benefits-of-coconut-oil/

It’s usually suggested to give them a tablespoon for every 10 pounds of their weight. Try the Wellness Simple, but if that doesn’t seem to help them, I would suggest having an actual allergy panel done to see exactly what they’re allergic to. My guy hasn’t had an issue since I switched to that food, and I’ve noticed a big difference in all of their coats and skin with the coconut oil. I hope this helps!

[Sarah W]

Katy,
The vet assumes it’s a food allergy because that is usually what it is. I feed them Merrick canned and dry and they both have Mike’s 5*’s. I can try a different meat because it is chicken which can usually be a culprit in food allergies. I’m going to try the Wellness turkey or duck. I give Sammy fish oil the vet suggested and he get’s it with breakfast. I have organic certified coconut oil in the house. I’ve never heard of giving that.

[Katy G]

Sarah, what are they allergic to? I have one dog with food sensitivities and feed him Wellness Simple Limited Ingredient food. They contain different proteins like turkey, lamb, duck and salmon, and the carb source is potato or oatmeal instead of rice. I also give them a scoop of coconut oil every night.

[Sarah W]

My vet said it’s not processed with other meat and dog foods. Is that a good choice for my 2 small dogs with allergies? I’m not happy giving my dogs Royal Canin or Science Diet prescription wet and dry food.

[theBCnut]

Some dogs are allergic to only chicken muscle meat, others to chicken bone, others to everything chicken. Try turkey instead.

[Vanessa K]

Hi All! Doing the research to start my pups on a raw diet! My GSP/Pit Bull mix, Keisel, has had an allergy to chicken since we adopted him as a pup. Has anyone noticed that perhaps chicken allergies are only to the chicken in kibble or all chicken in general? Might be a dumb question? Haha, but I wasn’t sure if fresh/raw might be different than processed.
Hope that makes sense! Thank you!

[Dori]

Cheryl,
The commercial raw frozen foods that I use in rotation are:
Answer’s Detailed Raw Frozen (if you can’t find it, please call them and speak with Jacquie, she’s the owner, and she’ll let you know who sells the food in your area. Don’t go by the store locater on their website because a lot of stores carry their goat milk but not their food and they are listed in their store locater because they do sell Answer’s Detailed just not the food).

Primal Pronto and Primal Formulas. Vital Essentials Raw. Nature’s Variety Instinct Raw.

Stella & Chew’s Raw (I feed this once in a blue moon. My dogs eat it but I’m not crazy about it. I come back to it periodically to give it a try because it does get good feed back from posters and is highly reviewed on this site and wonder if I’m just missing something). I will say that the company has a great reputation.

Commercial Frozen Raw foods are, by nature, high in fat. None of my three toy dogs have issues with high fat so it’s not a concern of mine. Beef, in my experience, will always be higher in fat than other proteins. If memory serves me, I think Nature’s Variety Instinct Raw and Vital Essentials Raw are probably lower in fat than most others. As I said, my girls don’t have issues with high fat diets. I have always contended that it is not the quantity of fat in a diet, it is the quality of the fat. Now, with that said, I don’t feed foods that have a higher level of fat than they do protein. I’m not paying high prices for fat. You have to keep in mind that the lowest % of fat that I feed is probably around 38% and up to around 58 – 59%. You have to know your animals and what they will be well with and can tolerate and thrive on. That goes not only with fat but protein and carbs as well. Also I think I’ve told you that I do not feed any food that has poultry, fowl, of any sort. One of my girls is highly intolerant of all forms including the different chicken and turkey fats that are put in some foods. Interestingly enough, she has no problems with eggs so long as it is no more than once every two to three weeks, maybe longer.

Moving on the Freeze Dried, I feed Primal Freeze Dried, Vital Essentials Freeze Dried and again, once in a blue moon I’ve wanted to like Stella & Chew’s Freeze Dried.

Dehydrated Foods: The only dehydrated food I feed is The Honest Kitchen. I’ve tried a lot of the others and for one reason or another I don’t like them.

There are, of course, foods in all categories above that I don’t feed for my own various reasons but that doesn’t mean that because I don’t care for them or how my dogs do on them, that they are not going to do well for other dogs. Katie, my allergy girl, has a list of food intolerances as long as my arm that I must avoid. Katie is the reason that I went to commercial raw foods and my other two dogs were lucky enough to come along for the ride and thrive on their diets. Dogs, like people, are all different. We all react to different ingredients differently. Some issues I have with some foods may not be an issue with others or may not be any issue for their dogs. (I don’t mention cats because I don’t have any. I’m allergic to animals which is why my dogs have always been of the hair variety and not fur). I am, fortunately, in a position that I can feed all 5 star rated commercial raw, freeze dried and dehydrated foods from companies that I trust that (in my opinion) have quality ingredients and quality customer service.

Ask away, I’m happy to help with my experiences and my trials and errors of which there have been many along the way. I’ve pretty much got all the kinks worked out for Hannah, Katie and Lola. I’m hoping that Millie and Pepper are well. Though you didn’t take Shawna’s advice years ago I’m glad you’ve jumped on board now. Better late than never as the saying goes.

[Ivchister]

Cheryl,

Q: What do you mean gastro sensitive?
A: She vommits immediately when she eats something she can’t digest, for eg. raw meat, any kind of fruit or when my mother gave her some inappropriate food. She ate grain free food with salmon but was stressed out when we were moving and had very bad gastritis that culminated by blood in vommit. We gave her Hills i/d after which she had a bad case of skin allergy so we tried with z/d and it worked for a while..
Q: Does she eat a grain free diet?
A: Not now..
Q: Is she sensitive to certain proteins& or grains that you are aware of?
A: I’m not sure because she first reacted badly while eating grain free food (with fish).
Q: Did your vet culture the ear discharge to see what it was exactly(yeast, fungal, some other infection)?
A: The vet said that there is no inflammation or otitis just a lot of dark brown ear discharge. But A LOT, like there is mud in her ears. I clean it with Otifree fluid.
Q: Do you think the ear discharge is diet related?
A: Yes, it might be related..
Q: Have you changed foods recently and this happened?
A: It is happening for a while now.. It started before the horrible gastritis period and I can’t connect it with anything else but food. We moved, the aparment is clean and new.
Q: Have you been feeding the same food(s)? I know lots of questions
A: No, because of the gastritis episode and the allergie reaction..
Q: Does the food have to be dry? If so, have you ever tried soaking the kibble in warm water before feeding? softer foods might be easier on the stomach.
A: Yes I have and there is no difference because she just doesn’ drink water if I soak it. She normally chews the dry food and drinks some water, she’s not only swallowing..

• This reply was modified 10 years, 11 months ago by Ivchister.

[l h]

What an excellent read on this! I too am leery of this food had e-mailed back and forth and kept getting scripted vague answers, such as bone content is not important we use the whole carcass, fermented veggies and fruits are more digestible. Anyway, finally got no response when I said I found it very odd that there was no nutrient panel, and no bone, muscle, organ ratio something disclosed by most every raw company I have dealt with.

As for the fish formula and peoples dogs getting ill, I for one would not feed raw fish, and there are varying opinion, but many who say fish, and pork are two meats to stay away from in raw, dehydrated or frozen for various reasons, bacterial level and other.

Yes their food calculator is way off, but then I have found the same thing with a number of brands… including darwins and vital essential freeze dried. A food with high protein and fat GA … yet food like Stella and Chewys, Primal with added veggies etc and lower fat I need LESS of, but with VE, a richer food, which you would assume you need less of, in fact you need MORE calorically.

Hard to trust so many foods, one of my dogs has major allergies, and GI sensitivities. I had hoped to add BDN into the mix, but am leery as to their lack of forthcoming info that is easily disclosed by other companies.

On their positive side, the whole bacteria and air drying process.. that is a catch 22… any food that is air dried( think people that used to make jerky long ago not in an oven) will risk that. Even frozen raw has bacteria once thawed… you cook the meat over a certain temperature, and BDN having supposedly bone in content, then you risk cooking the bone, and making your pup very ill. Plus a healthy dog, should be able to eat all these forms of raw… no issue and digest.

If BGN ever decides to disclose more info I may try, but I find their responses and secrecy very strange… sad as it does look like a good option, with the fermented veggies and all as a better way for the dog to process and digest, rather than pooping them out the other end. That being said, not fond of the potato in it although they insist only 3% as everyone knows starch and raw meat and bone digest at different rates.

Oh, and lastly for those that feed pre made raw, MOST companies Darwins, S&C, Primal with their added vitamins the vitamin E/tocopherol mix, and any Lecithin of course are most always soy based. So if you have a dog with soy among their allergies like mine, many of these foods are a no go, one of the reasons I had hoped to try BDN no synthesized vitamins, which again, unless a company claims are usa sourced are usually from China.

Yes I have researched and contacted many companies… sigh…

[Akari_32]

I’ve got a dog that hates fish oil. He gets coconut oil instead and he loves it.

Random question, this isn’t the only dog you have, it is?? She doesn’t need any larger than maybe a 12-15 lb bag of food for herself…. Lol

That said, I’ve been testing out Purina Veterinary Diet Joint Mobility on my 14 year old Dachshund. She’s only been on it a couple weeks and I already see a difference. A 6lb bag runs something $25, a 15(?) lb bag is $40-ish, and the 30-whatever lb bag is around $60. I pay half price working in the veterinary field, so I don’t recall the exact numbers, but i do recall the large bag being comparably priced to most other foods. I was skeptical at first, but having tried many other things, and with fish oil causing her terrible stomach problems, I was ready to try just about anything. Your case may be a point in where you might want to try this food. Just a side note, I’ve looked at other vet diets (for joint health and otherwise) and this is the only one I would ever consider feeding, as it has a good amount of animal protein in it. If you have other dogs, a big bag wouldn’t hurt anything at all, provided there are no allergies to any of its ingredients.

[Naturella]

C4C, thanks!

BCnut, no known to us allergies, maybe I should get him tested? His food has duck now, which is sort of new for him, idk if that may be it?

Also, no blood vessels showing, and it has been kind of windy here in GA but his eyes water a lot even inside. Another thing, Bruno and the roommate’s dog lick each other’s eyes all the time, maybe they put too much bacteria on each other? And maybe my wiping irritates his eyes more, though I try to be super gentle. Maybe I should just dab the corners of his eyes with a Q-tip and let it suck the moisture like that?

[LD L]

Newbie here, just joined this site. I’m currently researching some possible options to replace my Diamond Performance food. I searched (clicked) around on this site but didn’t really find anything that could quickly get me any ideas? with out clicking through a lot of links? For the moderators – I would like to suggest breaking down the Editors Choices even more if possible i.e. HiPro, Overweight, Adult, Allergies, Puppies, categories, etc… I’m not trying to be critical, just some thoughts.

Thanks, LD

[Dori]

Akari. I’m so glad Bentley is doing better with his skin issues. He’ll continue to get better. If his paws are still itchy I would suggest what BC has stated in other posts and that is that you keep some sort of container….rubbermaid rectangular type or any brand for that matter, right outside the door you taken him in and out of and rinse his paws in the water just before bringing him back in the house. Keep a towel inside the door to dry his feet. That should help if it’s due to environmental issues.

Just another thought. Don’t forget to remove carbs from his treats. We so often forget that most store bought treats are full of carbs and other inflammatory ingredients. Which is another thought….try to remove all inflammatory ingredients from anything he eats. Some are white potatoes, tomatoes (all night shade plants). Rice is another pro inflammatory ingredient. Every little bit that you can remove from his diet is going to help. Some commercial raw foods contain white potatoes which is an ingredient that, if your dog isn’t allergic to, you don’t think to remove. Just google inflammatory foods, fruits and veggies. I’ve had to do that because of Hannah’s arthritis so Katie benefited from the removal of inflammatory ingredients which wreak havoc on the allergy prone animal and human.

[Akari_32]

Aimee, since you’re here, what’s your take on Fresh + Oasis?

http://www.completenaturalnutrition.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=73

It’s one of the more affordable mixes I’ve been eyeing up. I’m unsure about using something that’s almost completely synthetic, almost as much as I am about keeping Bentley on just SSLL, and I’m also unsure about the use of yeast in the mix because Bentley already has his own yeasty problems, and he doesn’t need any help from his diet lol Dang dog and his allergies lol

[Jeannie B]

Dinovite has helped my black lab with his skin allergies. My boys skin cleared up within 2 weeks and no more itchy skin or bumps. Check it out on line, we are so happy we did.

[InkedMarie]

If I had a dog who I thought was sensitive or allergic, I’d be steering clear of grains. I wouldn’t use that muffin mix.

[Cheryl Pepper Millie Sophie]

Dori,
They have never had a grain inclusive diet-always fed Pepper grain free.Millie too
Believe me I am so nuts, I see a little wax I go crazy.
Millie is the puppy and she is on the freeze dried raw & then the commercial raw.
Pepper the 11 1/2 y.o. is on the HK with cooked meats or turkey.
I am to much of a scared cat to put pepper on freeze dried or actual commercial raw due to its high fat content-I just think her system couldn’t handle the high fat-She is the 1 with IBD/IBS gastritis issues.
They have never had an oatmeal based shampoo either.
Schnauzers are known to be highly allergic to a great many things. When I first got Pepper 3 yrs ago ,I would cure 1 thing and then a noter thing would pop up.
Thanks for the info.
The girls are driving me crazy no walks today 20 degrees its just warmed up to 30 pepper hasn’t stopped walking around crying.
Stay warm

[Kris J]

Same problem here. We fed our dog Wellness small breed for puppy and then adult – and he has unknown allergies that are driving him nuts. We did environmental blood testing and saw high reactivity to mites and mold, and he’s on allergy drops now.

I’m feeding him nothing but sweet potatoes and white beans for eight weeks to see if that affects his itching; I just don’t know if it’s food or strictly environmental.

My confusion with the elim diets is — what if he’s allergic to something in that? Like sweet potatoes? So frustrated.

[Dori]

Hi Cheryl. I will definitely report back once I’ve received and tried the KBPF. How long have your dogs been on grain free and now on freeze dried raw foods. All three of my dogs suffered from wax, yucky ears. Never smelled or anything like that but they were yeasty brownish and gunky. Sometimes they would shake their heads but mostly they were always scratching their ears. None of them had ear infections because I had them all checked out. I had to clean all of their ears every day to try to keep up with it. Once I removed all grains, soy, corn, rice and all poultry (fowl) from their diets their ears cleared up within a matter of weeks on their own. Now that they are on raw foods none of those issues have ever returned. Another thing I did was switch shampoos. I had always been told that if you had a talk with allergies you should use an oat meal shampoo. Well, that is really very wrong. Oatmeal may be soothing to humans but if you are allergic to grains, oatmeal being one of them, you cannot bath your dogs with oatmeal shampoos. I didn’t know any better at the time. Poor Katie. I was constantly bathing her with oatmeal based shampoos because of all of her allergies. Along with her food intolerances and sensitivities she also has environmental allergies. I couldn’t figure out why nothing was working until a light bulb went on over my head and I thought….DUH????? So I switched and she’s all good. It’s been a while since I had to use any particular ear cleaner now I just make sure to put cotton balls in their ears for bathing and then dry them out after bathing. The one ear cleaner called Clean Ear by 21st Century for Pet Health cleans & dissolves was build up. That one worked pretty well actually. You just squirt a little in their ears, massage it in, then they’ll shake their heads and then I would dry out their ears. You have to do it on a regular basis until their new diets kick in and it stops happening. I haven’t had to use it in years but I’m sure it must still be around. There are other over the counter products like that also of course that would work the same way.

[Dori]

Hi Cheryl. I’ve been in Atlanta for 13 years now and still consider NYC home. I sometimes feel like I went on vacation and couldn’t find my way back home. lol We left the North East because we were so sick and tired of the cold weather. Well, I just took a look at the thermometer on my patio while I was out with my three girls and it is 17 degrees. I don’t know kind of global warming this is suppose to be but it’s had the opposite effect in Atlanta.

On cooking the veggies. If I’ve cooked veggies for our dinner then I’ll give them some cooked. Fruits I give raw. Most of the time I give the girls the fruits and veggies raw because I don’t give them for their nutritional value I give them to the girls as treats. I don’t feed any commercial treats whatsoever. Too many recalls with too many treats. I don’t give bones as I said, I certainly would never give them raw hide stuff, most commercial treats include some sort of grain or gluten and I feed grain free. So I give fruits and veggies and don’t have any concern whether they come out the same way that they went in. They’re happy chomping on what they think are treats and I feel it’s better than taking a chance on store bought treats. As to fruits and veggies, it’s also what happens to be in the fridge or on the counter. They love little bits of bananas so if I’m eating a banana I share it with them. Mostly me, little for them.

As to THK and more pooping, my three dogs did initially poop more often at the beginning and then eventually it tapered off and now they only go twice a day regardless of what they’ve been fed. Initially on THK their poops were pretty big too compared to their raw foods but then that went back to normal size also. My girls love THK and also lick their bowls clean to the point that they shine. Glad your girls like it too. It always makes me happy to feed them foods that not only do they love, but do so well on.

Kristin C. I tried Steve’s Real Food for Dogs once and I didn’t care for it. I didn’t like the consistency. I also didn’t care much for what was coming out of them either and they very rarely if ever have loose stools so that was another issue. It’s been a long time since I fed it and eventually gave the rest of the food away. I used to be big on trying different brands and seeing how the girls did. I now have a pretty big variety that they eat with no issues at all but as we went through the trial and error period my local shelter adored me. I was over there all the time dropping food off. One of my girls has a lot of food sensitivities, intolerances and a couple of out and out allergies so the process took me quite a while. That’s actually what led me to feed commercial raw. As long as I always remember to check all ingredients (companies do from time to time decide to make some formula change), Katie no longer has any food issues.

[Dog_Obsessed]

I agree with everything that’s been said. I just wanted to ask, if you don’t mind saying, what your son’s allergic reactions are. If it is a very severe reaction, (anaphylaxis and the like) then you may want to email the companies to double-check that these foods do not contain the allergens.

[adam s]

We just acquired two large breed puppies (golden retriever mix) for our five kids. FANTASTIC. However, my two sons have severe food allergies. No, they are not eating the dog food, but the allergies are also contact allergies. So, in order to keep the puppies, our dogs have to submit to the same food allergy awareness list as my sons. The big issues are gluten, egg, & nuts. I can easily find adult dry food without those three ingredients but puppy food like this is not so easy to find.

We’ve been using California Natural: Herring and Sweet Potato, which I thought would work since it is egg free and wheat free. But it is not gluten free because of the Barley in it….My son had an allergic reaction to the dog because the dog licked his face. This now precludes my boys from caring for the dogs (feeding and grooming and playing) because of the possible reaction.

Please, any advise would be appreciated. I need large breed dry puppy food without egg, wheat, barley, rye (gluten containing grains). I can easily find the gluten free, but almost ALL puppy food has the egg for the needed fats. AND, GO!

[debra r]

I have a 4 year old Miniature poodle who has never had any issues with allegries. But the past 6-8 months hes had outs of skin rashes and now he constantly naws at his groin area to the point of making it raw. At first i thought it was seasonal outdoor allergies, but now it’s winter and he is still so itchy and rashy. The vet gave me a steroid which does help, but i only give it to him when he gets really bad because i don’t like giving him steroids. I want to figure out the root cause. I have been adding omega 3 capsules to his food and Use Canine Life home made muffins (i make them with the mix and my own ingredients) which is his wet food once a day. I have had him on Wellness Complete Health for years and never had any issues with it, but i think this may be the cause. I want to change his dry food but am having a hard time deciding which brand to change it to. The vet is pushing the Ultra Low Allergen Hills Z/D prescription diet, but i feel its lacking nutrients and is super expensive. Any ideas or brands someone could recommend. I just want my pup to stop itching and want to give him a nutrient dense diet… Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

[Kris J]

Please help. I’m so frustrated and confused and I just want to help my sweet boy.

Eli is a 2-year-old shih tzu, and his allergy testing showed high reactivity to food storage mites, fusarium mold, bayberry and one or two other environmental things. We’ve done what we can about those, and he’s on prescription allergy drops formulated from his test results (Heska).

All along, though, my vet has been certain he has a food allergy. We fed him Dick an Patten’s LID dry, then, when the scratching didn’t subside, a diet of sweet potatoes and white beans, both at the vet’s direction, with no relief, but she had us do that BEFORE the allergen blood testing. She says that there’s no point in testing for food allergies, as there is no accurate test (though others have sworn by VARL Liquid Gold serum testing).

He’s been on the drops a month now, and I think he’s scratching less.

But now — what do I feed him? I don’t KNOW if he has a food allergy. Can anybody guide me through this fog?

Many many thanks,

Kris

• This topic was modified 10 years, 11 months ago by Kris J.

[Kristin C]

I think you should stick with one protein per meal if your dog has allergies. Omit one ingredient at a time if you can. I make most of my own food so I guess that’s easy. Raw eggs make my dogs’ eyes run, sweet potato makes them itchy.

[Ezra H]

InkedMarie: He likes lamb and has always tolerated it well, so I don’t want to make too many changes.

DogFoodie: Thanks for finding me here! Thank you for such good input. Interesting that Ezra loves peas! We even use them as a high-value treat (in moderation!). I think we will try the Acana. I had an interesting chat with a Chewy’s rep about the two different Acana lamb and apple offerings (both of which say “singles” somewhere on their labels!). She suggested going with the grain-free, since both ZiwiPeak and the NVI are grain-free. Though I’m tempted, based in part on your input, to go with the non-grain-free. So many options!

I’d always thought it was important to stick with one protein in a sensitive/allergic dog. So much to learn!!! Thank you!

[DogFoodie]

Hi Ezra,

Glad you posted over here. I was just trying to reply to you on the review side, but was having trouble.

A couple of things…, it’s odd to me that the fish oil supplement your vet recommended used peppermint as a carrier. I can certainly sympathize with your fish woes. You mentioned that your pup also has environmental allergies, but that the fish oil might have made it much worse. While you have things pretty well controlled, I think would I’d try adding fish oil to his food and see what happens. If he reacts, stop and you’ll have your answer about the fish oil. I’ve been using Ovega-3 and Springtime Naturals Skin and Coat Oil. Both are vegeterian and I’d recommend both.

The change in bowel movements could be the result of the increase in peas. Is he gassy at all? I believe, the other varieties of NVI LID, have a bit less pea protein. I really would encourage you to try one of those. I would also recommend adding a digestive enzyme to his food – I had great luck with Swanson’s BioCore, which works great at digesting carbs. Canine Caviar Lamb and Pearl Millet is fish free as is Canidae Pure Sky, which is a duck based food. Canidae is also a Diamond product if that concerns you. Addiction Viva La Venison is also fish free and uses potato as a binder. As we talked about on the other side, Acana Duck and Bartlett Pear (not Singles) and Lamb and Apple (not Singles) would both be good fish free choices, also.

I know you said you feed other proteins for treats, but I really think it’s important to rotate proteins in kibble, too. Even though NVI LID Duck is far and away my dogs best food, I’m constantly looking for others to rotate it with. I rotate brands with varying proteins and binders. I’d encourage you to rotate varieties of ZiwiPeak that you use also.

I think you also said that transitioning him from one food to another food takes a long time. That’s OK, he’ll adjust, the important thing is to keep rotating. If he’s not used to switching, he doesn’t have optional gut health; keep rotating and he’ll improve.

[Jon h]

Hi everyone,

So I’ve lurked here for a while now collecting information regarding nutrition and have come across an interesting topic. I became interested in natural allergy remedies as it seems our Australian cattle dog has some itchy skin problems the vet believes is related to allergies from the environment.

Now before we get on to the topic of honey I would prefer that this be a FACT based discussion not a personal opinion, anecdotal evidence type discussion. Unfortunately as humans we are able to make extremely irrational and unfounded correlations especially when we don’t understand something or want something to be true (ie we desperately want a natural remedy to be as effective or more effective than a pharmaceutical remedy). This has no place in the canine nutritional world (or human) as toying with an animals nutrition based on weak non-scientific beliefs is in my opinion horribly ignorant and in some cases an unethical thing to do. So please keep responses scientific in nature and cite articles if you can (petmd, blog posts and natural canine health daily articles type sources with no references don’t count as scientific!)

The theory behind the honey supplementation seems to be this: Local honey supposedly contains local allergens and supplementing with it acts similar to a vaccine by exposing the animal to low levels of an allergen and helping to develop an immune response to the allergen.

Now this sounds all fine and dandy in theory and certainty a naive layman will take this as face value and argue this as being fact (i’m am trying to be an informed layman!). But does this actually have any scientific value? That is what I want to find out.

I have read several claims that in fact there is no scientific basis for this. The argument is that bees do not extract pollen from the common plant sources of airborne pollen which cause the allergic reactions in our dogs. They of course get pollen from flowers and a few other sources, they do not collect pollen from say pine trees or most grasses. Any contamination during transport or in the nest from the common local allergens is said to be negligible and will not help build an immunity.
example of a study on humans:
http://www.annallergy.org/article/S1081-1206%2810%2961996-5/abstract

There is also a Finnish study on humans which took 3 groups, one group as a control, one supplemented with regular honey and one supplemented with a honey that had birch pollen added to it. The Ones taking the honey with birch pollen saw improvements and had to use less antihistamines to control their symptoms while the ones supplementing with regular honey saw no difference.
abstract:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21196761

Now my problem is that I see honey toted continuously on natural canine remedy sites. However I do not see a signal study either in humans or canines showing any truth to the theory. Any evidence is extremely weak correlation evidence with no control or consideration for other variables. All actual scientific studies of this theory i’ve personally come across show that their so no truth to this theory. So is this just a myth?

The second problem I see that REALLY concerns me is there are huge ranges of supplementation dosages. Some references say to feed your dog 1/4 teaspoon per week while other such as the lady in the non-scholarly article below say two tablespoons per day for larger dogs (in her case her lab and staffordshire terrier). Now that is extremely worrisome to me as there are 17 grams of sugar per table spoon of honey. if I am to assume her dogs weigh approximately 80 pounds (upper end of pure lab retrievers and beyond the upper limit of staffordshire terriers) then I estimate their daily requirement of calories (using online calculator) to be 1630. If there are 64 calories per tablespoon of honey (google) this would mean they are getting 7.9% of their daily intake of calories straight from simple sugars. Comparing this to my daily intake of ~2300 cals (because from my understanding canines metabolize simple sugars similar to the way humans do) this computes (if i’ve done my math right) to 48 grams of straight simple sugars a day for me. This is over my targets for the day even making the assumption that my other foods have zero sugars in them…. Now assuming that the dog is already getting sugars from their regular food source you are probably doubling their recommended sugar intake per day. This doesn’t seem right to me at all as a human consistently doubling their recommended sugar intake daily would be a good candidate for type 2 diabetes. So why are people recommending this to do to our dogs?

Michele Crouse interviewed about honey supplementation (under “honey for dogs” section)
http://www.whole-dog-journal.com/issues/10_9/features/Bee-Honey-Products-Help-Canines_15967-1.html

I’m hoping this sparks some interesting conversation. As you can probably tell I am somewhat against this theory. Mostly because I have yet to see a shred of scientific evidence for it and I don’t personally like adding or subtracting things from my dogs diet based on personal opinions and weak, unfounded theories. I’d be interested to see if there is actually research supporting this idea.

Is there any truth to this theory? or are people just pumping their dogs full of sugar and added calories?

[Ezra H]

Had been feeding Ezra Nature’s Variety Instinct Limited-Ingredient Lamb for several years (chosen after we discovered he is allergic to chicken). The recent formula change has resulted in way fewer (and larger) poops, and he doesn’t seem to like it as much. We add ZiwiPeak lamb to each meal, but we want a dry kibble option as his main food.

Need suggestions, please, for a highly rated limited-ingredient lamb kibble.

Thank you!

[Dog_Obsessed]

Thanks, I saw some things about this on the review comments. I was looking for a grain-free poultry-free fish-free food to use next in my rotation, but if the company is sketchy then I don’t want to use it. Do you have any suggestions?

Just to be clear Lily is not actually allergic to any of the above things as far as I know, but that’s what I want next based on her most recent kibbles and toppers.

[Barbara P]

Hi DogFoodie,

Thank you for the website. I have reviewed it and feel that I have determined most of the foods that Colby is allergic to over the past three years of feeding him, and again with the follow-up of the test. I still don’t know about some fruits, nuts, and veggies but I can test those after I get him onto something that is balanced and complete and healthy. It’s finding a basic, nourishing food to start with that I’m finding most difficult.

Thank you for your guidance.

Gratefully,
Barbara

[theBCnut]

Kelp and kale are not at all the same thing.

Take your list of foods you are avoiding and sit down at the computer when you have a few hours and bring up Chewy.com. Go to dog foods. Tell it to give you grain free and no chicken. Then order the foods from most expensive to least, and start going through them one by one to look at their ingredients. It took me about 4 hours, but I ended up with a short list of foods to try on my allergy dog. Good luck, I know what a bear it is to find a food when your dog has multiple food allergies.

[DogFoodie]

Hi Barbara,

Yes, I would suggest that you go back to square one and complete a proper elimination diet. Did you conduct your elimination diet using veterinary guidance? Here’s an article that will give you an idea of what your elimination diet should look like: http://communityvet.net/2010/03/diy-elimination-diet-for-the-dog-an-cat/

Elimination diets take a long time, many months, in fact; and require strict discipline. If your diet wasn’t conducted like the one in the article, it’s time to reconsider starting fresh.

You’ve mentioned some other items that your dog cannot have that you didn’t originally mention. Were those ingredients that you unearthed or did they show up on your dog’s allergy test?

Once you’ve identified his allergies, you can safely begin looking for foods. A raw diet, either homemade or commercial is great, but not if it contains any of his allergens. You could consider looking at Rayne customized diets, if you’re unable to find a commercial diet that meets your requirements or are not comfortable making home-prepared meals that contain none of his allergens, and are most importantly, properly balanced.

[Dori]

Barbara P. Thought I’d jump in and say that one of my dogs has many many food sensitivities. In my opinion, (and it’s the path I took three years ago) dogs with multiple allergies do best on either a home made food, home made raw, or commercial raw dog food formulas. I feed commercial raw dog food formulas (complete and balanced). Unfortunately, it’s the most expensive way to go. I also feed some freeze dried and The Honest Kitchen dehydrated food. I’m not inclined to spend time making dog food at home. I barely cook for my husband and myself. I also don’t want to worry about whether I got everything complete and balanced. My three dogs are small so the cost of feeding them in this manner is not outrageous. Before I started feeding raw, Katie would scratch 24/7, horrible breath, gas to clear out a house, not just a room, yeasty smelly ears, shedding all the time (she’s a Maltipoo…they are not suppose to shed), really coarse hair, goopy gunky eyes, runny loose stools and diarrhea, I could go on and on and on. I am happy to say that all those issues are a thing of the past. She doesn’t have a single one of those issues anymore. She’s a real happy camper now as am I and her two little sisters as they all eat the same foods. I believe in rotating proteins within brands and also rotating brands. Let me also add that the only time she needs to go to the vet now is her yearly physical. Before the change to commercial raw dog foods she was always at the vet, allergist and dermatologists trying to figure out what was going on with her and they always had her on different prescription anti-histamines and wanted to put her on steroids (I didn’t allow that). Those costs were way more than it costs me to feed all three of my dogs commercial raw dog food. I am also happy to report that Katie does not need any anti-histamines anymore. None!

• This reply was modified 10 years, 11 months ago by Dori.

[Susan]

Hi Karen you’ll have to just try it & see, I know when the vet wanted Patch on Hills Z/d the vet nurse told me that a lot of dogs get diarrhoea when they first start this vet diet, so I never tried it, but all dogs are different, just introduce very slowly, it says 7 days to change over, I’d do it slower over 14 days… if it helps & relieves ur dog from skin problems it’s worth a try, you can also feed the Z/d wet as well once you have introduced the kibble…
Royal Canine has their Hypoallergenic kibble if the Hills Z/d doesn’t work they are both money back if you do have a problem…
I have my boy on the vet diet Eukanuba Intestinal this kibble worked the best for him, he has food & environment Skin Allergies & IBD, it’s was very hard to find a food to fix both health problems & yes the Eukanuba Intestinal has corn grites in the ingredients, the corn doesn’t seem to bother his skin problem like the potatoes, sweet potatoes, barley, wheat, oats, rye, peas did….