Single protein food?

[loye]

I'm having some issues w/ my poor pup. He has allergies really bad. We were told it's a flea allergy, which made sense b/c he was only having issues in the warmer weather...one vet thought it was a food allergy...though he'd been on the same food and never had problems...except for the first summer we had him, once that fall, then not again until this summer and well...now. The vet wants us to try to change his diet to a single protien diet. Can anyone recommend one? He wants us to buy the zd diet...however I honestly right now can't afford $83 for a 25 lb bag of food. I'm getting desperate. He was getting depomedrol (sp?) shots when he would start having his issues and now is showing signs that he is getting other problems due to the steroid (possible cushings...def liver probs). I'm desperate for help!

[starrlamia]

I personally reall like Acana's lamb and apple. However Natural Balance makes a bunch of limited ingredient formulas that are great as well, neither of the foods are that pricey. You have to remember when you go to a LID formula, that you need to watch treats as well, to do a food trial you need to monitor everything that you give them, Natural balance has LID treats as well which make things a bit easier.

[Savage Destiny]

Nature's Variety has some excellent LID diets. One protein (lamb or turkey), tapioca, peas, some oils for the coat and green tea. That's it.

They kick Natural Balance's LID diets right in the butt, since they actually keep meat as the first ingredient rather than potatoes.

Here's info on the turkey variety:
http://www.naturesvariety.com/Instinct/ ... /LIDturkey

[pblove]

see if any of this applies to your dog

http://www.nzymes.com/store/pc/articles ... d=&panel=4

[Misskiwi67]

OTC foods have been shown in multiple studies to be high in contaminants... your only option for a REAL diet trial is to go with a prescription food.

Z/D is the best, but also the most expensive. I usually save it for the most complicated cases, so there is always something to fall back on. Ask you vet if there are other alternatives, such as having a home-cooked diet.

Also, depomedrol lasts 3 months or more in the system, its horrible and should NEVER be used for allergies unless it is a last resort. There are far too many other effective options that are much safer.

[pblove]

question for misskiwi
is it worth it to do a food trial unless your certain it is food allergies, environmental allergies or yeast

[Misskiwi67]

question for misskiwi
is it worth it to do a food trial unless your certain it is food allergies, environmental allergies or yeast

Absolutely, because a diet trial is how you find out it is food allergies. The ONLY way to know if an animal has food, environmental or flea allergies is with testing. Anything else is just guessing, and trust me, its REALLY easy to guess wrong because so many factors play a role in an animals comfort and clinical signs.

A diet trial is not a method of feeding, it is a diagnostic test. There is no other adequate test for food allergies. However, if your dog is allergic to soy, and you feed them a duck/potato diet contaminated with soy, then you will get false test results. The diet trial is only as good as the diet you feed, and its an awful lot of work, especially if you are used to feeding treats and chew toys that suddenly have to be taken away. Even worse, a dog with food allergies is MUCH easier to control than a dog with environmental allergies, and poor testing can result in the dog not getting the care it needs as soon as it would have if a proper diet trial had been performed.

The test for yeast is a simple cytology, but yeast are sometimes hard to find. Treatment involves long-term medications which can be hard on the liver, or treating the underlying disease, most often allergies.

The test for environmental allergies in intradermal testing, serum testing can help, but its not as good as we'd like it to be.

Since food is something you will give your dog anyway, its often the easiest first step to just change the diet and cut out all other foods to see if the problem resolves. Young dogs are also statistically more likely to have food allergies, so dogs that were symptomatic prior to 2 years of age should always start with a diet trial.

[loye]

Thanks for the help everyone! I'm definitely gonna look in to some of these. I feel so bad for him! He was a rescue and was in really rough shape. He is chewing on himself like crazy! He chews his feet to the point he has puncture wounds that I am trying really hard to keep clean. He just got put on antibiotics. He gets chronic ear infections (mostly his left ear) so he is on drops (and gets his ears cleaned out on a regular basis to keep wax build up to a minimum...bc the vet thinks he has a hormone or something that produces too much wax).

Couple questions:
1. How long should I fee him one specific food before I will know if that is what is bothering him? I was told that you gradually switch the foods from one to the next, but how long should he be on just the one food?

2. What are some things I can look for to see if that food is ok for him?

That's all I have for now...I'm sure I'll think of more...oh...and just out of curiousity...does anyone know how to read the bloodwork that the vets do? The vet totally confused us and I'm not quite sure about everything he was saying...asked him to break it down a little better, but he still was talking to us like we were vets too :S

[Misskiwi67]

I'm a vet, post the labwork

[loye]

Oh sweet!!! Thank you so much!!! (I hope I remember how to do this )

[Misskiwi67]

I don't see anything on that labwork I would be concerned about. None of the changes are high enough to be a big deal, and when they are elevated, there isn't anything else elevated that matches up with any particular disease process.

The only thing really elevated is the globulins, which would correlate with the chronic skin infections, and doesn't tell you anything you didn't already know. Globulins are antibodies, and they are elevated when there is chronic disease (viral infection, skin infection, dental disease) or very specific types of cancer (not high enough to worry about that).

Therefore, labwork is likely normal for your dog.

[loye]

Thank you so much!!! That makes me feel so much better. He had me completely freaking out. Thank you!

[amelie]

I have a dog that has allergies, food an environmental. It took a while to find a food that worked with her, actually she was on a raw diet for years but time constraints and money caused e to look for a kibble she Could eat. Natural balance venison an potato worked for her then they added peas so I switched her to nutro Venison that also had peas but was a little less $. She does great on that. I also can not use chemicals in my house or yard for cleaning other than bleach or vinegar. No febreeze for me! I hope you can figure out the root cause of your dogs itching and get him some relief. Its sometimes a long frustrating road, but in the end it is worth it.