[panda]

Hi Everyone,

Its been a while since my last post. I wanted to update. I want to thank everyone’s support and well wishes.
Bailey our 7yo male yellow lab (as soon as I figure out how to add a pic I will) is still licking. We started with Royal Canin Lab years ago. Last year he developed paw licking, got worse last fall and this spring. Changed to grain free Nat Bal sweet potato/fish. Still licked, not as much. To save $ changed to Costco fish meal/sweet potato. Same result no change. He’s still licking. I’m not sure the food had a lot to do with the licking. Our vet prescribed vanectyl-p. That seems to help, he licks less. Called our vet to ask about a ‘shot’ and am waiting to hear back. I’m trying to find a solution that does not involve testing for allergies, which could be $$$$$. In the mean time I’m trying to do a little research on raw. Seems like raw might be the way to do. Have a pamphlet on Mrs. Meadys which brought me here. I’m anxious to hear what the forum has to say.

[pugmomsandy]

Some folks in my raw feeding group do not feed chicken during the summertime. Instead they feed duck (a cooling meat) and this helps with itching/allergies. Also they have reccommended Herbsmith Clear Aller-Qi over herbal allergy products by Seven Forests and Tibetan Natural Healing.

[DieselJunki]

I have noticed my 7 month old dog doing the same thing. It is so disheartening because I’ve fed what I thought to be good kibble, then switched to THK. I’ve noticed him chewing/licking his paw and you can tell because the redness of his skin sticks out like a sore thumb underneath his white short hair. I will be switching to raw here in a few weeks, got the freezer all stocked for a months supply. Hopefully it will help the issue, although I’m sure it could be worse, it’s just his white hair brings out the tiniest of skin irritations. Will definitely have to get some duck instead of chicken once he gets accustomed to the beef he will be on.

Just remember raw isn’t a cure all overnight type of thing, so don’t be disappointed if things don’t improve drastically over a week, but it is the best thing you can do for your animal.

I’ve never tested for allergies before but perhaps you could call your vet for a quote? Honestly I think you’d spend more money on different bags of food trying to figure out exactly what ingredients he’s isn’t good with.

[NectarMom]

I work for a vet and even if you decide to do the allergy testing it is not 100% accurate and cost at my vet is $270. There is no perfect kibble out there and with Raw from my expierence my dogs cannot handle high fat Raw so we are going to try low fat Raw meat such as Rabbit and Young beef but we will not be adding any veggies due to my dogs right now are smelling of yeast more so than they ever have and from what I have heard from a long time Raw feeder CO is that some veggies such as carrot have sugar in it and that just feeds yeast. Its all trial and error and just doing research and learning what your dogs can tollerate.

[Hound Dog Mom]

Hi panda –

I agree with NectarMom – allergy tests are not accurate. I think they’re just a waste of money, they often give false “positives.” If you really want to find out if a food is causing the reaction you should perform an elimination diet. If you’re interested in feeding raw that’s great because elimination diets are much easier to do with homemade foods than commercial foods like kibble (due to the inclusion of so many ingredients). What you would do is feed your dog a novel protein and novel carbohydrate (something your dog has never eaten before) for at least two months. Once the symptoms clear up (which they should if the issues are food related) you would gradually start introducing new ingredients one at a time and carefully monitoring your dog’s reaction to each ingredient. This way you can pick up on what ingredients elicit the allergic response. There’s a lot of information about elimination diets online and your vet may be able to walk you through the process.

I hadn’t heard of “Mrs. Meady’s” so I just checked out the website. It looks like they offer quality products but you’re going to need to research prior to feeding a “food” such as that. They aren’t balanced foods (just different organ meats and RMBs, some vegetables) and you’re going to need to be knowledgeable about your dog’s nutritional requirements to create a balanced diet from items such as these. There will be some supplementation necessary when not feeding a pre-balanced raw food. Dogaware.com is a great online resource and “Unlocking the Canine Ancestral Diet” by Steve Brown is a great book for beginners.

Good Luck! 🙂

[InkedMarie]

I personally wouldn’t bother with allergy testing. When my now 7 yr old dog was four months old, he started ith ear infections. An online friend gave me a list of ingredients to keep away from: chicken, corn, wheat, soy, rice & flax. I found out that he can have organic flaxseed, none of the rest but no yeast. Its lol trial and error.

He eats half raw and I was hopeful that raw chicken would be fine but its not. Oh, well.

[Author]

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