Itchy Dog

[lindy rig]

My yellow lab is itching pretty bad. Been trying to figure it out with a couple vets for over 1 yr. Nothing really working except prednisone. Can anyone recommend a good dry dog food in case of allergies?

[maxpower17]

Fromm grain free.

Worked for my 7.5 yo lab. Changed to Fromm 5 years ago and will never go back.

[harvey lee]

I feed Taste of the Wild for this exact reason.

[Pherris]

I feed Taste of the Wild for this exact reason.

+1

[Lunker]

Read the recent post about 'expensive dog food'. Lot of discussion/suggestions, and not all expensive. But yes, grain free did the trick with my dog who had severe allergies resulting in itching, eyes weeping, hair loss, and ear infections.

[onthefly]

Just switching to TOTW as well to try to take care of excessive hair loss & dull coat.

Was feeding Nutro Source, then Exclusive, but neither made a difference... Hoping TOTW is the ticket.

[Pherris]

Just switching to TOTW as well to try to take care of excessive hair loss & dull coat.

Was feeding Nutro Source, then Exclusive, but neither made a difference... Hoping TOTW is the ticket.

It took a few weeks after switching before I noticed the itching stopped. It may have worked a little quicker but I realized about a week after I switched I was still giving dog treats and they hadlot of grain products so I quit giving them to her.

Good Luck!

[lindy rig]

Thanks a lot guys. I knew I should have just posted a long time ago and skipped all the $$ and drama with the vet. Granted her skin got so bad it was infected so we needed antibiotics. Anyway... I read the other post and bought some TOTW last night. Hoping like heck it's the fix

[Gordie]

My yellow lab is itching pretty bad. Been trying to figure it out with a couple vets for over 1 yr. Nothing really working except prednisone. Can anyone recommend a good dry dog food in case of allergies?

We have the same problem with my Chocolate lab and we moved to grain free and it has helped but not totally we also give her benedryl to her 100 ml twice a day per the vet orders and that seems to help out too. We used the prednisone but its not good for the dog long term.

The Diamond brand at Menards is what we use and we are going to go with the stuff that has the salmon in it.

Here is some more info:

http://www.hotspotoutdoors.com/forum/ubb...really_w#UNREAD

[harvey lee]

Thanks a lot guys. I knew I should have just posted a long time ago and skipped all the $$ and drama with the vet. Granted her skin got so bad it was infected so we needed antibiotics. Anyway... I read the other post and bought some TOTW last night. Hoping like heck it's the fix

Talking about sore and dry skin, my Mother's cocker would get small sores on her back, I explained to here that instead of the zVet spending a pile of money every few month's to go and get a better grain free food.

It was simply amazing as the dog looked like a new dog, skiny coat and sores healed up within 6 weeks. My Mom could not believe it.

Part that is sad is the Vet office treated this dog 4 times for this issue at the tune of $125 each time with the med's to cure it. Makes one wonder about some Vets.

[lindy rig]

Been on TOTW for about 4 weeks. She is still itching pretty bad, looks almost infected again.

Any idea how long it normally takes on the new food? How long I should keep going with the new food?

[LABS4ME]

Are you positive its a food allergy? If it's not, it won't matter what food you are feeding...

Is it dry skin from being indoors? Do you bathe her in the winter? Has she been looked at by a vet?

Good Luck!

Ken

[lindy rig]

To update my intial post, yes she's seen 3 different Vets. Had 4 different rounds of antibiotics to resolve the reoccuring infection. Been on and off predisone. (currently on Apoquel a new drug for itching that supposedly is safe for long term use) Been trying to figure this out for over a year so I really don't think it's seasonal allergies. We've tried medicated shampoos and even lotions. But it's going to be impossible for me to give her baths every other day and I don't even think it helps that much.

Anyway...... wondering how long to give this new food. 8 weeks, 12 weeks?

[LABS4ME]

Got it, Just was wondering if it was ever confirmed it was a food allergy... I was thinking if you bathed her often and the dry air in a winter home can exaserate the issue.

Not a vet, but I would think if it was a food allergy you should see a dramatic change in a short order. If the issue is corn for example, taking it away should cause the allergic reaction to cease... my gut is questioning if it is a food allergy, but again I'm not anywhere close to a specialist... so I'm just guessing.

Good Luck!

Ken

[Eagle217]

Lindy- I know exactly what you are going thru. Our 2 year old yellow is driving us and himself crazy. Back in June we switched to a salmon and pea brand of dog food that we even froze to eliminate any chance for a reaction to storage mites. That has helped some. We are also running a humidifier in the house and that has also helped some. We have tried temaril-p, hydroxizine, the shampoos, lotions and are currently giving him prednisone just to get him some short term relief. We are not sure what the next logical step is.....and this has been going on since about January or early February 2013. I guess I am not much help but just to let you know someone else out there has the same issues with their hunting pal. And curious to find out what we can do exactly...

[Archtek]

This time of the year it very well could be just dry skin. But if she has been doing this for a while, it's more likely food-related

I would start with a food that says grain-free and see if that helps; that's by far the most common food allergy. If you have not seen an improvement in four weeks, then you have a tougher process of elimination. What you have to do is, one by one, eliminate a specific protein in a food and try it for four weeks. For example, find a food that has absolutely no chicken in it and try that for a while. If that doesn't work, try eliminating fish and see if that works. You will get VERY good at reading labels and decoding how some manufacturers list ingredients.

A good friend of ours just went through that and it took her a year(!!), but she finally figured out that her dog was allergic to chicken and any other kind of fowl. She was forever giving/throwing away partially used bags of food. Like she said, try finding a food with no fowl of any kind in it!! Her dog's itching problems are completely gone!

The other thing you can do is go to the U of M. That's what we do when our vet can't seem to figure out a problem. Remember that vets are, by necessity, a general practitioner. At the U they have all the specialists who are up on the latest and greatest. You do usually pay a higher price, but if they can figure out your problem on the first trip, it's cheaper to pay the U once than your vet twice.

[lindy rig]

Man getting desperate here...

Has anyone ever done a hypo-allergenic food trial?

[bottomdweller]

About 14 yrs ago I had a yellow lab, and according to the vet at that time said it was allergies, went through a specailist that ran tests and said she was allergic to about everything. He prescribed shots and they were not cheap. I moved to wisconsin and started seeing a different vet, he said did u ever check her thyroid and whoola! no more allergies. So hopefully the food thing does the trick if not have her thyroid checked

Some vets just do not think outside the box!

[jentz]

Its been a long time ago, but I had a dog that would scratch so much she'd get sores then infections.The vet suggested cod liver oil after I said I couldnt afford the drugs that really didnt seem to do anything.It was only winters she got the itchies.The fish oil helped more than drugs.It wasnt much something like a teaspoon or 2 a day.Google it and see what you can find.Its a start away from the drug pushers.

[lindy rig]

Good ideas. Actually we did have her thyroid checked. Her levels were on the low side, so we did a thyroid supplement pill for awhile with no real results.

[311Hemi]

U of M might be a good call to make!

I forget, did you check into the allergy testing for her? I would probably be bringing her to the U to look into that if you didn't want to try a totally different food again.

Did you keep her on pacific blend?

[CANOPY SAM]

Has anyone suggested or looked at changing the dog's water? Is this dog drinking enough water?

We have a home in the country, and obviously we have well water. I could give our dog the well water, and he'd probably be just fine. But because our well water tends to have a bit of iron, calcium, and enough sulfur to give it a tad of a smell, AND it tends to give us tummy aches, I don't even give it to the dog.

We have a very high quality water filtration system to provide us with drinking water, so I also give our dog this same filtered cold water. He loves it. Drinks several large bowls full every day.

Maybe you've already done it, and maybe I'm just barking up the wrong tree, but perhaps you should take a close look at your dog's drinking water, and is he/she getting enough. Dry skin issues often start because of dehydration. Just a thought.

Hope you can find a cure. Tough to watch a dog suffer like that.

[lindy rig]

I did call the U of M yesterday. They said the main thing would be coming in for allergy testing, where they test the skin with different samples. They wanted the dog free of meds for two weeks first.

So, I'm going to try the hypo-allergenic food now, to see myself if it is a food allergy or not. If that doesn't work, will have to head to the U, I guess.

Interesting question on the water.... It doesn't seem like she drinks enough water, my wife and I have often thought that. Maybe a half bowl per day at best. But we recently moved, and this issue has been going on at two different houses, two different water supplies. Our current water has a whole house filtration, and seems pretty good I think.

[CANOPY SAM]

Only a half bowl of water per day? That might be pointing at a problem in and of itself? I could be wrong, but I'd think a full grown lab would be plowing thru way more water then that!?!?

I wonder if the dog has this same rash or irritation internally as well?

Our dog is pretty active, and runs around outside as much as he wants everyday, and he easily goes thru 3-4 full bowls of fresh water everyday. I suppose that equals maybe 1/2 to 3/4 of a gallon of water everyday on average. During the summer months he goes thru WAY more then that.

Lindy, has any one of the vets asked about this, or have you offered it to them? Like I said, I could certainly be wrong, but less then a half bowl of water each day sounds like way too little water.

Anyone of you dog experts out there care to weigh in on this issue? I am by no means a dog expert. Does this sound unusual to you?

[Archtek]

A have heard a number of vets say that dogs tend to drink less water than WE think they should and that it's not necessarily bad. Does she show signs of dehydration? If you lift up the skin of her back, does it immediately drop back in place? A dehydrated dog's skin will tend to almost stand on it's own and somewhat gradually drop back into place. What we have done with any dog of ours who doesn't seem to drink enough is add water to their kibble and let it soak for a few minutes. That way they get their water when they eat. Just be prepared to possibly take her out more often. The other thing we do when we are out in hot weather and a dog doesn't seem to drink as much as we think it should is fill a squirt bottle with water and squirt it in the dogs mouth.