[Brie B]

Thanks guys! Lots to think about. Its good to know that the swab test isn’t that expensive. Its definitely cheaper than having my vet do it! (they would charge the $60 office visit fee plus the lab fee, which they said was $100. So its good to know theres other options than going through my vet).

I’m going to try the “new protein” thing first. Just to see whats up. My local store has some uncommon protein food with limited ingredients. That should help me start narrowing things down. Shes on salmon now, and although thats an uncommon allergy you just never know!

I found Darwins pre-prepared raw food to actually be fairly cheap considering. If it comes to that.

And thanks, Pitlove! (for the comment about taking her in with issues). Shes stranger aggressive, but a complete love if she knows you and is comfortable. Shes scared of everything, pretty much. Most of my work is trying to come up with a routine she can follow when meeting someone new that lets her get comfortable. Strangers reaching for her is still bad news tho (although why you would reach for a strange dog without asking is beyond me! One guy kept petting her when she was growling, I almost was going to body slam him to get him away “its ok, she’ll back down” uh….no she wont, you might get bit and then I’ll have to deal with my dog having a bite history! ugh). With her skin and ears flaring up it makes it difficult for her to feel comfortable. She was extremely reactive and aggressive for a month, and I took her to the vet and thats when we discovered her terrible ear infection and skin infection. Now that thats treated and shes back to her “cautious, but generally friendly” state I’m doing everything I can to help prevent flare ups. But her skin still looks like its covered in dime-sized flattened domes all over. And I discovered the metal on her collar was causing her neck rash. I definitely got such a wonderful grab bag of issues when I adopted her, shes lucky I love her so darned much 😉

• This reply was modified 8 years, 7 months ago by Brie B.
• This reply was modified 8 years, 7 months ago by Brie B.

[Brie B]

Thanks for the input, guys!
I guess I’ll have to reconsider my stance on raw. I would like to find a balance between cheap/easy. Doing it from scratch just isn’t realistic for me timewise, and I can’t afford totally premade frozen meals. Her vet hasn’t pushed for testing yet, just because she is fairly certain its food related, and that we can get to the bottom of it through elimination, or (her suggestion) is to do raw. She said she doesn’t recommend it for every dog but shes known a lot of “itchy pit bulls” that really respond well to it.

In that case it sounds like having a veggie dehydrated base and adding raw meat (or cooked, I guess!) would be the easiest? Is Honest Kitchen the same as Dinovite? the dinovite seems cheaper?

I could probably spend $100 a month on food, MAYBE $200. Its hard to tell just because I’m so broke due to all of her vet issues lately (last month between her vet bill, her behaviorist, tests, anxiety meds, and training I spent over $1000 on her. And I don’t make that much money). But if it saved me money on vet bills it would be worth it.

But anyways, I live in the Bay Area (in Oakland), and I have no idea how much it realistically costs to feed your dog raw (if you use a dehydrated base like Honest Kitchen, OR do it from scratch). The prepackaged stuff is way too outrageous to even consider. Anyone have some base numbers?

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