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I have a dog with severe food allergies. She also has another health issue that requires dietary modifications. She is flourishing on Taste of The Wild. She was not a fan of the High Prairie formula, but loves the Pacific Stream.
Over the years I have tried several foods. This one works for us.
But most education I see is folks simply parrotting misinformation from the web, for example "corn is the most common allergen" (Yes, I have a graduate degree in Chemistry and undergrad in biochem)....I took the info about corn to my vet and she said...hold on....the most common allergens are with either one meat component or eggs followed by grains and corn leads among the GRAIN allergies. I checked that out to be true. And it was certainly true in my case.
You know you have to really shop to buy a chicken free dog food! And chicken is a very common allergen. That is because they like to put a variety of different meat sources in most of the "upscale" foods. I had the same issue with my allergic dog with flaxseed and to be honest, I am not fond of it in dog foods either but it is another one hard to avoid.
I am old enough to remember when folks bought lamb for allergic dogs but then everyone started addeing lamb to dog food so now lamb does not usually help.
I agree with the rotation mentality and that is what I do...rotate between single source protein foods. One reason I am not doing raw though if I can get a big freezer I may have enough access to some cheap alternate meats know (such as venison) to make a go of it again.
Did you not see my post about how veterinarians are not trained to deal with allergens and what in food causes what, must less recommend it? You could have a degree in Underwater Basket Weaving and be more informed about foods than someone with a Chemistry background as you claim. People don't need degrees in Chemistry to know about foods - there are journal articles, studies, lots of information surprisingly in the Veterinary School libraries I have visited, yet they expect students to research it on their own. Corn is a filler regardless and has no nutritional value so regardless of allergies, people and pets are better without it. Too bad it is so difficult to avoid. Corn is in just about everything - not just foods.
Did you not see my post about how veterinarians are not trained to deal with allergens and what in food causes what, must less recommend it? You could have a degree in Underwater Basket Weaving and be more informed about foods than someone with a Chemistry background as you claim. People don't need degrees in Chemistry to know about foods - there are journal articles, studies, lots of information surprisingly in the Veterinary School libraries I have visited, yet they expect students to research it on their own. Corn is a filler regardless and has no nutritional value so regardless of allergies, people and pets are better without it. Too bad it is so difficult to avoid. Corn is in just about everything - not just foods.
Not any more salient than "thank goodness research is my job" I should have more clearly stated that your statement was not particularly relevant.
I am sorry but my point was that I do see a lot of folks just parrot back information. If you go back you will see I agree about the crap in dog food...
Did you not see my post about how veterinarians are not trained to deal with allergens and what in food causes what, must less recommend it? You could have a degree in Underwater Basket Weaving and be more informed about foods than someone with a Chemistry background as you claim. People don't need degrees in Chemistry to know about foods - there are journal articles, studies, lots of information surprisingly in the Veterinary School libraries I have visited, yet they expect students to research it on their own. Corn is a filler regardless and has no nutritional value so regardless of allergies, people and pets are better without it. Too bad it is so difficult to avoid. Corn is in just about everything - not just foods.
I love your posts, wish more people were like you! That said, I think a degree in chemistry helps to identify all those chemicals on the label!
For all those that have dogs with allergies, Wellness makes a line called Simple Solutions. While it does contain grains, there are only 5 main ingredient, one protein source and one carb source to help weed out allergens. They can't market is like the prescription diets but they have hinted time and time again that it serves the same purpose as all those crappy prescription diet. Much, much better than the stuff vets prescribe! And fyi, vets get to go on awesome trips when they sell this stuff...I know this firsthand. Their last convention was in Hawaii, at the expense of Hill's (Science Diet maker). Sounds like a cool gig, prescribe crap get an awesome trip out of the deal!
"Some dogs have allergies, sensitivity and intolerance to commonly used proteins and food additives can result in gastrointestinal upsets and chronic or recurrent ear infections, hair loss, excessive scratching, hot spots and skin infections. Simple Food Solutions is designed to aid in the nutritional management of these issues, naturally by removing additional proteins, carbohydrates, fillers and additives to create a healthy alternative diet for dogs with food sensitivities.
These special limited ingredient recipes offer the shortest ingredient listing of any food available and have been naturally formulated to isolate the number of allergens your dog is exposed to each day. Utilizing our unique 1 + 1 system, we combine one novel animal protein source (duck, lamb or salmon) plus one easily digestible carbohydrate source (ground rice) with a short, yet complete list of key ingredients – and nothing extra. This special, natural recipe limits the number of ingredients your dog is exposed to each day while nourishing simply and completely."
MAK, the chemist comment was a reaction to the implication that anyone who feeds their dog a prescription and certainly all veterianarians would do otherwise if they did some research and were better educated.
Been there with the z/d, it was a godsend for us in a time of trouble. For the OP - never got a reply back to understand why the low ash food was recommended in the first place. That is the root question for them.
If it is protein levels, there are plenty of lower protein options that are decent foods. My Natural Balance is only a three star food because of protein levels, but my older dogs are thriving on it and their blood chemistries are back in line after we ditched the Evo.
Not any more salient than "thank goodness research is my job" I should have more clearly stated that your statement was not particularly relevant.
I am sorry but my point was that I do see a lot of folks just parrot back information. If you go back you will see I agree about the crap in dog food...
What I meant by research was that it took so much effort to find all the necessary information. If I didn't have to deal with tons of boring, meaningless information in order to find the nuggets of good information, I would have given up a long time ago in educating myself about the foods I feed to my pets. I don't just go to internet sites for my information - and I will never feed my pets something that I wouldn't eat myself.
The one thing to understand is that a lot of the Prescription diets have fillers that hide the fact that your dog or cat still has a problem. Beet Pulp and Corn are the most popular ones. Sure, they get your pet to stop having diarrhea but it is only masking the problem, not correcting it. Try feeding some of those foods to a dog without any problems. What happens? Constipation in most cases because it is meant to stiffen things up. There are foods out there that will work better than the prescription diets whether it is feeding raw (which has been very successful for us in the past), a quality kibble or even home cooking. But, you will never hear that from a vet that gets kick backs from those companies.
I often feed ACANA to those animals that are sensitive to higher levels of Protein. It is a five star food, whereas its sister brand, Orijen is a six star food. My parents just took their cat off her prescription diet and she is now on ACANA and doing so much better (and the food is cheaper!)
It is all about educating yourself and pouring through tons and tons of journal articles, mundane studies and frankly trial and error. My motivation started with my six month old puppy having a blood test come back with extremely high BUN levels - it was a joy taking my dog to get neutered and being told he was in Kidney Failure. He was on Proplan from the breeder and my vet wanted to go for the prescription diet but none of the tests made any sense. A good friend highly recommended switching him to NV Raw because they actually had a Senior dog in Kidney Failure and who was doing well so we did. I consulted with vets at a few of the top Veterinary Schools and finally took him to visit one that very week. In between waiting, I visted the library and searched through their databases and learned a ton. They redid his tests, and they were normal. It turns out that our stupid vet didn't calibrate their machine right and that his levels were normal the entire time! But, the one thing I can thank them for is going down that path so that I realized that health is truly about what you eat...and I learned the definitions of those words on the bags of dog food. So, now I stick to foods where I can actually read the ingredients. Kind of like that ice cream commercial!
I think that when you have a sick dog ~ somtimes compromises have to be made. The low residue canned food really seemed to help Ringo when he had a bout of gastritis. As soon as I put him back on his regular food (BB Wilderness); he started again with the bloody stool. We went back to the prescription food for another week ~ and he was fine.
I've done my own research for Lucy with her liver issues. As to how much protein and what kind - we alternate between the Wellness Limited Ingredient and Natural Balance Vegetarian. It's a balance that seems to work for her and no Vet helped me find it. Other dog owners experienced in liver problems helped me find the right diet - trial and error.
On the other hand, many folks who have dogs with SEVERE liver issues ~ have kept them alive using a presciption dog food. (Along with many other things). But they have done their own research and somehow, despite the odds, are able to keep a variety of severely liver compromised dogs alive.
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But, the one thing I can thank them for is going down that path so that I realized that health is truly about what you eat...and I learned the definitions of those words on the bags of dog food. So, now I stick to foods where I can actually read the ingredients. Kind of like that ice cream commercial! 
