[Sally C]

I am new to this site and a fairly new dog owner. Here’s the history of my pup: we adopted a 9 month old yorkie from a local rescue in November. He came to us eating Eagle Pack dog food which I kept him on. He was also coughing a lot, then he started itching and chewy his hind legs. He developed severe ear infections, then diarrhea and then he finally started vomiting roundworms. This was all over the course of 6 weeks. Before the worms were found (despite 3 stool samples), we were certain he had allergies. So, I tried him on Blue Buffalo Basics which was not helpful and caused diarrhea then switched to Nature’s Variety limited ingredient Salmon meal. He has completely quit scratching and the hair on his hind legs is starting to grow back. His skin is also less dry. The problem is that he really smells, he has gas, his breath is awful and his stools are very soft , large and smell awful!!! Now I don’t know if he really has allergies or if it could have been been getting worms.

I have read about raw diets but I just don’t know if I could do it. Maybe if it was already prepared. Dry kibble would be my first choice, but I don’t know if it will help him. This has been a very long process of trial and error and any advice would be wonderful! I have wasted so much dog food!

[pugmomsandy]

Deleted. Posted on wrong topic.

• This reply was modified 10 years ago by pugmomsandy.

[theBCnut]

Fish based foods are known for giving dogs body odor and really bad breath, so you might want to switch foods again. Several companies have limited ingredient foods you could try. Canine Caviar and Nature’s Variety Instinct are two of my favorites.

[Susan]

Hi Sally, go & get a really good dog probiotic, for the bad breath…Dr Karen Becker has one, there’s also DickVanPatten’s “Natural Balance” limited ingredients either the Kangaroo & Potato, Rabbit & Potato or the small breed bites, Potato & Duck these kibble have just 1 protein & 1 carb… make sure you read the ingredients as some other flavours do have peas, these ones I’ve suggested do not have the peas, with my boy he couldn’t have peas as he’d have real bad wind pain & gas….also get some good shampoo I use the “Malaseb” medicated shampoo, it kills any bacteria on the skin but doesn’t strip good oils….if you decide to look at “Canine Caviar” look at the Special needs kibble…

[DogFoodie]

I second BCNut. Canine Caviar and NVI LID are two of my favorites. Maybe if you were to try a different protein of the NVI LID, that would be a good litmus test of sorts to see if the fish is the problem. I frequently use NVI LID Duck for my dog with food issues and its practically been a miracle food for him.

[Sally C]

Thank you all so much! He has done better with this Nature’s Variety LID, so changing the protein will be the answer. I will also check for peas, I know the salmon recipe does have them. Nature’s Variety says it contains probiotics. Should I still add a supplement?

[theBCnut]

Because of how kibble is made and stored, most of the probiotics on the kibble are already activated and dead long before you get the food, so add a good probiotic. Look for one that has as many different strains as possible.

Just remember that what food ingredients your dog will have issues with is individual to your dog. Avoiding certain ingredients because someone else has a dog that has problems with them does not make sense.

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