[DogFoodie]

I’m trying to convert a friend at work from Pedigree (yikes!) to a high quality food for her seven year old Cocker Spaniel with allergies and resulting yeast issues.

Her dog had allergy testing completed; and was borderline for the following: duck, rabbit, barley, wheat and cow’s milk. She tested borderline – positive for peanut and sweet potato (white potato was normal).

I’ve been trying to research ingredients for a few days now and have come up with, might potentially be, a couple of contenders; ie: Nature’s Variety, Canine Caviar grain free, EVO, Dr. Tim’s grain free Kinesis to name a few just to start. I wish I could recommend Nature’s Logic, but it contains cheese powder which I presume is out due to the cow’s milk result.

I’d love to hear your suggestions!

[Mom2Cavs]

I don’t usually recommend California Natural, but they might work in her case and they are not all that expensive (at least where I live). If I think of others, I’ll post them.

[DogFoodie]

Thanks, Jan!

You know what, I think I had actually recalled looking at California Natural also and that’s funny you say that because I wouldn’t typically recommend it at all either. I was struck by how few ingredients there are in it and it would definitely be in her price range. I’m putting that one on the short list. : )

[pugmomsandy]

Nutrisource grain free. 4Health GF. Addiction. Authority GF. Avoderm Revolving Menu, Canidae Single Grain Protein Plus (rice), Back to Basics, Earthborn, Horizon Legacy, Innova Prime, some of the Nature’s Select formulas don’t have barley and wheat and sweet potato, Instinct LID, Nutrisca, Pinnacle GF, Pronature GF, some Victor formulas are barley free, Zignature.

[DogFoodie]

Thank you so much, Sandy! I was hoping you’d also chime in. : ) Those are all great recommendations.

I’m so glad my friend is willing to switch foods. I think what she’s feeding actually contains some of the allergens that are problematic for her dog. Thank you both, Jan and Sandy, so much for your help!

I also happened to read this, posted by Hound Dog Mom recently to someone else whose dog has yeast issues and thought it would be great advice for my friend as well:

“I would recommend adding a high quality multi-strain probiotic – probiotics are “good” bacteria that will help keep the “bad” bacteria (like yeast) in check. I would also add a supplement with natural anti-fungal, anti-bacterial anti-parasitic and anti-viral properties. Some good options would be coconut oil (organic virgin), oil of oregano or fresh minced garlic (make sure you give an appropriate amount of garlic and don’t give for more than 3-4 days consecutively, take at least 2 days off after every 3-4 day cycle). If your dog has yeast on her paws (or any other area, such as the ears) they should be disinfected daily. Soak the paws in a solution of 1 gallon water, 1-4 cups of white vinegar and 1 cup of hydrogen peroxide. Clean the ears with 3 parts white vinegar to 1 part witch hazel. If the whole body is infected with yeast bathe the dog in a natural anti-fungal shampoo – I would look for a tea tree oil shampoo, avoid oatmeal shampoos as the oatmeal acts as food to the yeast. ”

I think those supplements are easy enough to add to her dog’s diet ~ easy enough that I think she’d actually do it!

[InkedMarie]

What did your friend decide on? I’d probably start with Dr Tim’s, good food and decent price so as not to sticker-shock her.

[DogFoodie]

I’m not sure yet! She was planning to go shopping over the weekend, so I’ll find out tomorrow what she decided on. Dr. Tim’s made the short list.

You know, I tried the Dr. Tim’s grain free Kinesis and must say we had excellent results with it. Both of mine really liked it, tolerated it well and had perfect stool. The only challenging part of it was that the kibble seemed fairly hard. Bella, my Cav, managed to crunch it up, but it looked like it took some work.

I’ve already talked with my friend about rotation, so maybe she’ll turn into a dog food junkie like us! : ) In fact, I “had” to check out a new boutique pet food / grooming place that just opened near my house and I walked out with a huge bag of food and treats and, of course, we didn’t need anything at all!

[InkedMarie]

I’m going to try the Kinesis GF for Ginger with the next bag. She’s doing fine on the Momentum but I admit that I sort of feel guilty that she is getting grain inclusive LOL

[DogFoodie]

My friend ended up choosing NutriSource grain free chicken.

She did the simple cost analysis and determined that she’ll actually be paying less in the long run since she’ll be feeding less than she was with the Pedigree! And, even better, she’s still researching and is looking for a couple of other foods to rotate!

Then, I have another friend at work who came into my office the other day when we had a big blizzard rolling in. She jokingly asked if I had any dog food in my horde that she could have. She said she was out of dog food and wondered what else she could feed her dog since she wanted to go straight home and not have to stop at the store ~ she grimaced and said she feeds her pup whatever is on sale at the grocery store. I asked her if she had any fresh meat at home and she happen to have a whole chicken. She ended up giving her Chihuahua a whole chicken wing for dinner! She was really open to trying it and said he loved it! She took pictures and brought them in to show me. I asked her if she had any interest in continuing and she smiled and said she saved the other wing to give him for dinner tonight. I brought her a small bag of Solid Gold Just a Wee Bit, which I figured was at least better than anything she could buy at the grocery store. She threw away the giblets and I told her next time she could give him a little bit of that as well. Wow! What a conversion!

[theBCnut]

You work with interesting people. I homeschool my kids, so most of my conversations are with other homeschool moms. Guess what they want to talk about. What about high school? Where is so and so going to college? Do you have to have 2 years of a foreign language? BORING!!! People ask me about my animals, but in a “How are you?” way. They don’t want a real answer, unless they are asking about the availability of eggs.

A friend of mine was telling me how her puppy had to have a very expensive special high protein diet. I said “i know what you mean, I have the same problem.” Then I asked her what she was feeding. Diamond Naturals Puppy. Never mind. It suddenly became like we don’t even speak the same language. I finally did get her convinced that her dog was too precious to risk on Diamond.

[DogFoodie]

LOL, Patty! : )

I did have to give up on one co-worker who insisted that she was going to stick with Nature’s Recipe chicken, no matter what. I talked her into at least trying the grain free version and she insisted that her Cocker Spaniel (whose poor ears are so yeasty, red and swollen shut) got so much worse when she switched them to the grain free version. Forget trying to talk about the detox process with her ~ despite the fact that the majority of our “clients” are addicts. She’s stubborn… at least she was willing to try something different, that makes me think maybe she’d try something different again some day. She did add Greek yogurt to the Cockers diet and was happy that it seemed to help some of the paw licking and contributed to some regrowth of fur. It’s a start.

Convincing your friend to switch from Diamond was a great move on her part. A part of me felt bad giving my other friend the Solid Gold food, knowing it’s a Diamond product, but it’s a decent product otherwise and I wasn’t going to use it. I had bought a couple of bags of it once at Petflow.com. I always grab their cheap “trial” offers of products ~ the Wee Bit for $3.99 for a four pound bag and the regular price is $13.99.

[theBCnut]

It’s not like she was going to feed the Solid Gold for life either. For your coworker that has started feeding yogurt to good effect, you should try suggesting probiotics and digestive enzymes. They will help some even on a truely crappy diet.

[DogFoodie]

I thought about that Patty. I even brought “extra” Mercola probiotics and enzymes to work the other day in case she was interested, but she feeds her Cocker and a second, much bigger dog, out of the same bowl of dry food. She doesn’t add anything to the dry so the powder would sit there and get sifted to the bottom of the bowl where it probably wouldn’t be ingested.

[theBCnut]

A lot of it sticks to the oils on the food. I feed dry kibble once in a while and just sprinkle the powder on top and stir up the bowl. But it sounds like she likes her arrangements just fine and doesn’t intend to change them until something forces her to. To each his own, live and let live, and all that.

[Alex p]

since meat is high in phosphorus and lower in calcium, too much meat is not good for dogs over long periods of time”. (Many people still confuse the disastrous all meat diets with meat-based diets; one is not good the other is ideal.) Grain-based diets for dogs, and even more so for cats, do not make nutritional sense.

You can offer some natural foods to provide some variety. Natural foods include fresh human-grade raw meat (e.g. raw lamb), raw meaty bones and vegetables

[Author]

Posts