[SteppinEasy]

I have a wonderful six year old Great Pyrenees, Sophie. About three years ago, she developed severe food allergies which manifested primarily through painful ear infections and itchy skin. For a time, she did well on California Naturals, but that doesn't seem to be working anymore. She is allergic to most grains, but corn and wheat especially, and doesn't do well with turkey, although she can handle chicken.

We moved last year and Sophie has seen two different vets in our new area. This brings us to a total of six vets who have treated her for this, including an allergy specialist.

Every vet has given a different recommendation and has basically told me completely conflicting things about a dog's nutrition needs in terms of protein, fat, and carbohydrate content, etc. Add to this the fact that every Pyr breeder I've dealt with recommends a raw diet and every trainer I've encountered has some different idea, and my head is spinning.

I will say up front that the raw diet will NOT be happening. I have trouble touching raw meat anyway, and I simply can't deal with the meat "parts" which are recommended.

The latest vet recommended a Before Grain food, probably the Buffalo. Does anyone have any experience with this brand? Or have another dog food recommendation I can investigate?

Help! I feel like I've fallen through the Looking Glass here...

[tradewind]

You need to find the food with the least amount of ingredients, especially protein. It is very difficult to find a single source protein food. You may think you are feeding chicken, and avoiding the protein your dog has issues with only to find it lurking way down the ingredient list. Dog food packaging even on the most expensive allegedly superior brands can be VERY misleading. You may want to take a look at the EVO brands. You may not want to do the raw thing, but perhaps you could cook up some meat, rice and veggies and get a good supplement from your vet. Just a thought. I will not do raw either. Good luck to you, allergies are the worst problem IMHO as they very often do not resolve and tend to get worse over time. Pyrs are such a nice breed!

[wendy]

well, honestly? for a dog with multiple food allergies a home-prepared diet is best because you can control exactly what goes into it. If you can't do raw, not even a pre-made raw food? you have many options. Look at the Balance It website- easy home-prepared recipes that you know are balanced and complete, I prefer their "high protein beef and sweet potato" recipe http://www.balanceit.com/. Or try Grandma Lucy's "base" which is mostly potato, you just add meat, you could do ground beef for your dog .
Otherwise, if it's grains causing the problem, there are lots of grain-free kibbles available. here's a listing of most of them:


http://www.dogfoodproject.com/index.php?page=grain_free


worst case you can try one of the non-allergenic prescription diets.

[hb]

I have a dog with similar issues. He has been on Wellness Simple Lamb & Rice for about a year, and this is the first summer he didn't have skin problems and multiple ear infections.

[Petstorejunkie]

Blue Buffalo Basics Salmon
it's a LID formula. My girl with severe allergies does great on it, and it has salmon first on the ingredients! the other LID diets I looked at were grains or potato first.

[Stacie]

Innova Evo. No corn, gluten or wheat. Chicken and rice with vitamins.

Adopted a little red poodle who had no hair on his ears. Retired from stud duty by the breeder for this reason. Started him on EVO and all his hair grew back.

[nevertoolate]

I've gone through the same thing with my dog - years of skin problems and ear infections. We started her this summer on a salmon and sweet potato dry food, and really have noticed a difference. I don't remember the brand name we are using - we get it at an all natural pet food store. Have also switched to salmon and sweet potato treats...those were a bit harder to find! On the negative side, she does seem to have a lot more gas issues...she will let go with a big fart, and then turn and stare at her butt like what just happened!! Good luck.

[wendy]

most of the "limited ingredient" diets are totally awful for dogs- very low in protein, very high in carbohydrates. I don't recommend them unless you've tried everything else and have no other options. Dogs don't need carbohydrates and they need protein.

[LauraKY]

Single source protein and carb, like fish and sweet potato. No grains. No rice. There are veterinary diets but they are extremely expensive.

My cocker was allergic to all most everything, but did very well on Natural Balance Limited Ingredient dog food.

I added canned salmon to the dry kibble.

[SteppinEasy]

Thanks for the replies, so far. Yes, all this is definitely a challenge! I've heard from other Pyr owners that the breed is really prone to allergy issues because they really haven't been fed a kibble diet for as many generations as other breeds. Don't know if that's true, but it certainly adds another wrinkle...

Wendy, you mentioned the pre-made raw food? I didn't know such a thing existed and no one has ever mentioned it before. Do you have any recommendations? I'm not going to be able to afford to make my own dog food because I simply can't touch the types of cheaper "discard" meats people ususally use for their dogs.

[vacation1]

My sympathies. Allergies are no fun. I use Royal Canin HP-19, which is their prescription allergy diet. But in my case, my dog is like most dogs in that she's got environmental allergies (pollen) rather than food allergies, and the special food is just an extra link in the chain rather than a major way to keep her un-itchy. If your dog's major problem is diet, is there such a thing as a canine nutritionist who could make up a doable diet? I'm with you on raw, I couldn't do that either.

[SteppinEasy]

LauraKY (I live in Versailles, btw), we've gone the vet diet route. It cleared up the problem, but Sophie lost 25 pounds. Everyone kept saying "she'll eat when she's hungry enough," but even the vets finally had to admit that she was going to hunger strike herself to death. The vet brands apparently taste like cardboard.

I have Diva Dog.

[GraceLikeRain]

I strongly recommend a grain-free food ideally one that is fish-based. My schnauzer and wheatens have AWFUL allergies and they have done extremely well on EVO and Orijen in the fish formula. I also use a pre-made raw with my schnauzer but honestly its so icky, smelly, and $$ that I only use it as a special treat.

[DMK]

How about TOTW - it typically rates higher in quality and lower in price than comparable grain free foods. My feed store carries it as does TSC *and I think they have a fish version and just came out with a lamb version)

[Dakotawyatt]

My itchy Aussie did very well on the Natural Balance fish and sweet potato. TOTW (Taste of the Wild) has a whitefish formula that my dogs LOVE. And yes, Tractor Supply does carry that brand; it's made by Diamond.

[kcgold]

Taste of the Wild, especially the Pacific Salmon formula might work...we had a foster lab with terrible skin issues and she did very well on that. Easily available at Tractor Supply, as others have noted....

[nevertoolate]

LauraKY (I live in Versailles, btw), we've gone the vet diet route. It cleared up the problem, but Sophie lost 25 pounds. Everyone kept saying "she'll eat when she's hungry enough," but even the vets finally had to admit that she was going to hunger strike herself to death. The vet brands apparently taste like cardboard.

I have Diva Dog.

I have the opposite problem! My dog is 12 yo, and we have always been able to just leave a full bowl of food, and she had free access - never had any problems with her eating too much. Since switching to the salmon/potato kibble, she has gained almost five pounds - from 36 lbs to 41! We now have to measure her food, and set it out once a day. She doesn't gulp it, but she does finish is throughout the day.

[wendy]

yeah, there ARE premade raw diets. They come in little nuggets or things that look like burgers. You buy them from the freezer in the petstore, store them in your freezer, thaw them out, and feed, no gross factor, no work. Can be pricey esp. for a big dog. You can also buy dehydrated raw diets that you just add water to and feed. You can also buy canned foods that are practically identical to raw diets in composition- 95% EVO is a good one. Can get pricey for a big dog.
I don't know the pet stores in your area, but this online company carries all of above-mentioned stuff, you could look through it to see what is available and see if any local store in your area carries what you want, or just pay shipping. Shipping on frozen pre-made raw diets costs $$$, but it's not that bad for the dehyrated diets. Look at the Grandma Lucy and Addiction brands- Addiction has some unique protein sources that might work well for an allergy dog.

http://www.onlynaturalpet.com/produc...od/427038.aspx


although if the dog is VERY allergy prone I urge you to check out the Balance It option- you cook sweet potatoes, you add ground beef and a powdered supplement, and NOTHING else goes in there that your dog might react to. Even the simplest of commercial foods tends to have this and that put in there that can cause your dog to react. And due to the lax dog food label laws, they can CHANGE the formulas and not change the labels to reflect the change for several months.

[PJ4ME]

This food saved my dogs life! She was having frequent reactions that would cause her face to swell and her breathing to stop. We had to carry a shot of antihistamine with us everywhere. The vets felt it began with her food. She is a very large dog who is now 14 and going strong.

http://www.hillspet.com/products/pd-...-free-dry.html

[debsinsb]

I'm assuming your allergy specialist did some kind of testing for the food sensitivities. We have a French Bulldog that tested as highly allergic to duck, turkey, soy, and several outdoor allergens as well. Our Norwich terrier is allergic to eggs and all dairy products. We have two other Frenchies and another Norwich that can eat anything...no allergies at all.

The predone raw food is a great option. We used the freeze dried raw from Stella and Chewy's...comes in chicken, beef, duck, and lamb. Primal Foods also makes frozen raw....venison and others. EVO has several limited ingredient canned options.

For dry food-Orijen is terrific. We also use the Wellness CORE brand that's protein based. Our vets do not recommend Natural Balance....too many mystery ingredients. Their roll food (the dogs love it) has a lot of sugar.

They do cost more...but it is well worth it.