[Kimberly R]

Thanks for the advice about reading the label each time, Denise. It would never have occurred to me to do that. And a Brittany that can’t go outside…a cruel twist of fate for sure. On the dog food hunt- we also almost went back to a cheap grocery-store brand because of the difficulty of finding pea-free food. At least corn did not make her face blow up to the size of a basketball. I was dreading it but after spending every evening researching over the past two weeks I finally found a dog food from an excellent company. Excellent in that it has never had a recall and controls all of their manufacturing – they have their own facility and they have their own labs – all USA made and still a family business. I sent them an email 2 two days ago asking if they used pea products from China and they responded almost immediately. They do not use anything from China. Sourcing comes from the US, Canada and France (the duck). They are very serious about maintaining their quality record. They also produce some well known “people” food snacks as KLN Family brands (but not in the same facility), so they are no strangers to safety and USDA monitoring. The pet food side of the company is Tuffy’s Pet Food and their web site is http://www.nutrisourcepetfoods.com. Long story short-their NutriSource Chicken and Rice is what I am now feeding my allergy prone puppy. It did not get a 5-star from DogFoodAdvisor but it is a quality dog food. It contains no potatoes, no soy, no peanuts and NO PEAS. All ingredients are identifiable – nothing generic. And it is a reasonable price for the quality. Check out http://www.chewy.com to research and purchase – it will be delivered to your door in just a few days. Chewy’s sell a bunch of Tuffy’s products, although many with peas like all the top brands now. On the 5-star rating – we used to feed a Wellness brand that was 5-star rated by DogFoodAdvisor but it was much too rich and fatty. No allergy issues but the dogs never had solid stools while they were on it. Hugs to your gal!

[Kimberly R]

Do not discount the possible link to Peas as a source to a dog’s allergies. Peas, pea flour, pea protein, pea fiber is now in almost all dry dog foods to get the protein numbers up. My dog started to develop allergies, or what appeared to be allergies, 6 months ago, while on a very good grain-free dog food. It started with an itchy tail head, then itchy back, then some hives on the face to full blown facial, neck and spine swelling, with difficulty swallowing. After 6 weeks of allergy testing and food “trials”, every food, including treats, that contained a form of “pea” created the same allergy symptoms within a half hour.

A recent finding by truthaboutpetfood.com shows that pea flour/pea fiber/pea protein is an ingredient from China. It is very likely that the allergy is actually a response to a toxin or poison. This scenario is all too familiar. The problem is that now that this cheap protein is available, it is difficult to find a dry dog food without it.

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