? about a dog with skin allergies. (boxer, black, rescue, symptoms)

[carlyh]

Originally Posted by Blondie621

A friend has a pitbull that has some serious skin allergy problems. I think the dog was put on Hills WD years ago for the allergies. I read up on that dog food and saw some bad reviews. I also noticed the ingredients were corn, preservatives, fillers and other not so good ingredients. Could this dog be having a problem with that food making her worse? What would be a better food for her dog. She also has her dog on prednisone and eye drops. I am thinking maybe that food is not good for her or her allergy problems. What do you think?

I work at a vet's office, and I'm confused as to why the dog was put on w/d for allergies- this is not a hypoallergenic food! It is formulated to help dogs with diabetes and weight control problems. Hills has a hypoallergenic line called z/d- is this what you're thinking of? If the dog is on w/d then it will not help with allergies. Dogs most often become allergic to the protein source in their food, so they need another form of protein they have never had before. Royal Canin makes duck, venison, and rabbit allergy foods.

[carlyh]

Originally Posted by need4Trees

Kerowyn
I agree!
It is funny, (not really), but a lot of dogs are allergic to beef, weird...??? don't know, but i guess that is not what they would eat it the wild.
i think, ... in general, poultry is the better meat source choice for our friends!
Yea, Science Diet... yuk, too bad that Vets say it is what they should eat... all for the money, isn't it... everywhere we go!

AAAAAHHHHH! If I hear one more person say that vets are just out for your money I will go crazy.....I have spent several years as a vet assistant and YES vets need to make money because they are running a business that most of their clients would prefer stay in business....but we actually DO care about your dog and are not trying to trick anyone into buying something that is unhealthy. Prescription dog foods are for dogs with issues that can be partially controlled by the food they eat. If a prescription dog food can help a dog that is miserable with allergies then we will recommend it! Vets are there to help your dog! If your child's doctor prescribed something for your child would you question his decision?

[MAK802]

Originally Posted by carlyh

I work at a vet's office, and I'm confused as to why the dog was put on w/d for allergies- this is not a hypoallergenic food! It is formulated to help dogs with diabetes and weight control problems. Hills has a hypoallergenic line called z/d- is this what you're thinking of? If the dog is on w/d then it will not help with allergies. Dogs most often become allergic to the protein source in their food, so they need another form of protein they have never had before. Royal Canin makes duck, venison, and rabbit allergy foods.

Actually, most dogs are allergic to the grains and fillers, not the protein source. That's a misconception. Any of the prescription diets will cause itching due to the extremely poor ingredients. Royal Canin is not any better. There are grains, corn, and tons of fillers, which will cause itching. I suggest your friend looks for a food that's grainless to see if the allergies disappear. Good brands to try are Taste of the Wild, Orijen, Acana and Innova/Evo. For the exception of Wellness, anything you can buy at the mass pet stores is not quality and the reason why so many dogs are suffering.

Here is a review of the Royal Canin perscription food for allergies. Look at the ingredients. It rates a 2 star and is basically really poor quality. Why would anyone feed this to their dog?? And, a 50lb dog needs 4 cups a day, which is ridiculous. If you switch to grainless, you will be feeding a 50 lb dog less than 2 cups a day because it's higher in calories and has no fillers, which makes the bulk of this terrible food.

http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_f...t=1512&cat=all

[carlyh]

Dogs can be allergic to anything, just like people. I tend to believe the doctors I work for and I don't think they are misinformed. Of course it's possible the dog is allergic to things other than the protein source, but proteins are what cause the majority of allergies.

[MAK802]

If my vet told me that I should be feeding my dog rice, corn, fillers and artificial flavors/colors, I would promptly switch vets. We use a holistic vet that promotes food with human grade ingredients. None of these foods were part of the recall because they are quality foods. Common sense should prevail when reading food labels and all you see is these things on the list. Nutrition is crucial to the development of dogs and feeding them poor quality foods is not a smart thing to do. Vets have very few nutrition courses while in school, because the majority of their training is in disease/surgery and such. And, their nutrition training is sponsored by companies like Hill's/Science Diet/Purina/Royal Canin. Those companies should be out of business for the crappy products they put out. When I walk into my vet's office, I see bags of Evo, TOTW, Wellness Core and Fromm. That's a sign of a quality vet.

[FiveHorses]

Originally Posted by carlyh

Dogs can be allergic to anything, just like people.

Of course it's possible the dog is allergic to things other than the protein source, but proteins are what cause the majority of allergies.

Er, clarification needed: are you talking about protein from real (and I mean real, not any by-product) beef, chicken, lamb - i.e. meat; or protein from corn, soy, etc.?!

[Travel'r]

Originally Posted by carlyh

If your child's doctor prescribed something for your child would you question his decision?

If there was a Pediatrician who would ever attempt to "prescribe" nonmedicinal, soy-corn-filler-laden ingredient "diets" to children, there would be people asking questions, alright.

[maggiekate]

I remember way back we always would put cod liver oil into the dog food for the skin.
I am not sure if this was good or bad, anyway the dog ate the food, and had a shiny coat.

[need4Trees]

Originally Posted by carlyh

AAAAAHHHHH! If I hear one more person say that vets are just out for your money I will go crazy.....I have spent several years as a vet assistant and YES vets need to make money because they are running a business that most of their clients would prefer stay in business....but we actually DO care about your dog and are not trying to trick anyone into buying something that is unhealthy. Prescription dog foods are for dogs with issues that can be partially controlled by the food they eat. If a prescription dog food can help a dog that is miserable with allergies then we will recommend it! Vets are there to help your dog! If your child's doctor prescribed something for your child would you question his decision?

Well, YES, of course there are some vets that are in it for the money and Yes there are human docs that are in it for the money too!

And Yes, I question a lot of things in life, period. So yes I would Definitely Absolutely question...
"If your child's doctor prescribed something for your child would you question his decision??"

yes, yes yes!!!
And I research and question and educate myself.
I do Not just trust but I need to, I Must, - learn and educate myself.

[need4Trees]

Originally Posted by maggiekate

I remember way back we always would put cod liver oil into the dog food for the skin.
I am not sure if this was good or bad, anyway the dog ate the food, and had a shiny coat.

Yup, and way back when... we gave our pets food, "our" food, what we ate was for them too.
There was No pet food Industry
The Pet food Industry is for Us, Humans, to make it easy/convenience to feed our pets this processed food.

Did dogs have all the problems that they have now back then?

Why should they be taken down to eat dry "crackers" all day, everyday? No matter how "healthy" it claims to be, if we ate these fortified dry crackers every day, we would still be missing key nutrients that you get from Fresh foods, Fresh Real foods.

Fish oil, Flax seed oil... good for doggies!