Good foods for an allergy dog

[PanzoN88]

This is buddy my six year old shih tzu who has went through sugery for tumors in his paws, a large branch that came close to falling on him when he was 3 months old, and allergies, which leads me to my question: what foods would be good for a dog that suffers from allergies?

 

[Formerphobe]

It depends on what he is allergic to. Most allergy dogs have seasonal, environmental allergies. Fewer will have true food allergies. As with people, rarely is an allergic animal reactive to only one allergen. Sometimes feeding a hypoallergenic diet may help an animal with environmental allergies as it minimizes the number of potential allergens they are exposed to.

There are novel protein/carbohydrate and grain free diets available as well as hydrolyzed protein diets.

With novel ingredient diets, you're aiming at feeding the dog proteins and carbs that it has not previously had frequent exposure to. But, there can be cross reactions. For instance, if a dog has chicken allergies, don't feed a duck diet as a trial, go with rabbit or venison or fish instead.

Grain free - dogs are not ruminants. Many are reactive to the corn and wheat fillers of the average OTC dog food.

In hydrolyzed diets, the proteins are broken down to a small molecular weight that supposedly cannot be recognized by the animal's system as an allergen.

None of the allergy diets are inexpensive. Most dermatologists are recommending a minimum of a 3 month diet trial. That means no snacks or treats of any other kind or you end up starting back at square one. The first diet you try may not be the ideal one for the individual and you end up starting over again with different ingredients.

Shih Tzus are one of the more notorious breeds for being 'allergy dogs'. If finances allow, you may want to cut to the chase with formal allergy testing, then pick a food dependent on results. Often, immunotherapy (allergy shots) is recommended. With most animals, allergies can be managed with consistency and perseverance, but can never be 'cured'.

 

[PanzoN88]

He just started eating beniful last week and it seems to be working, he has not had watery eyes or red ears

 

[Formerphobe]

If something in his previous diet was bothering him, that may account for the improvement. Or an environmental allergen such as pollens or leaf molds may be on the wane. Improvement noted after starting Beneful is more than likely coincidental. Beneful is one of the most hyperallergenic foods on the market. Nor is it a healthy diet for the long term. We equate it to eating McDonald's every day. Amongst the top six ingredients: corn, corn gluten meal, wheat flour, rice flour. The dyes and preservatives in it are not beneficial to an allergy dog, either.

 

[G. pulchra]

Most allergy problems in dogs today are from grains, as well as low quality meats. Take a look at this brand, it has worked very well for me.

http://www.naturalbalanceinc.com/pr...LID Limited Ingredient Diets Dry Dog Formulas

 

[PanzoN88]

I read about that brand a few weeks ago, it is supposed to be one of the top five brands for allergy dogs.

 

[The Snark]

One thing you could watch out for. Many commercial pet foods up the protien by adding fish or shellfish offal. Very common is shrimp shell powder as an example. Over half the true allergies suffered by mammals are shell fish related.

 

[PanzoN88]

I am almost certain the ceasars dog food he had been eating contained all of that and more unhealthy ingredients

 

[G. pulchra]

Choose the limited ingredient versions.

 

[The Snark]

What is in pet food

The following is ingredients commonly added to, or accidentally gets into, nearly all the common pet foods today.

Meat meal (offal, floor sweepings from slaughter houses), bone meal (ground up bones), fish meal (detritus from fish canning, usually cleaned off the floor at packing plants), squid meal (inedible or undesirable parts), poultry byproducts (including bones, beaks and feathers, ran through a machine called a digester), shrimp shell meal, (powdered, sometimes chemically emulsified), poultry digest (what is in the intestines and insides), whey powder (over aged milk and milk byproducts, dried), soybean fats (byproducts unmarketable), corn gluten, rice fragments and powder, corn meal, wheat chaff, rice chaff, fish oils and fats, vegetable oil (any oil from any plant. Includes palm oils too degraded, rotten, to be used as biofuel), monocalcium phosphates, shell meal (powdered shells from clams, mussels etc), limestone (from the grinding processes, grinding stone erosion), and salt.

 

[ARACHNO-SMACK48]

I would get the most natural, grain free, filler free, preservative free food you can find. No dairy, very little grain. In my experience allergies are often a result of artificial additives, and things that just don't belong in the diet. Also, some people feed their dogs straight meat turkey gizzards, leftover steak etc.

 

[PanzoN88]

I hate when people give their dogs table scraps, it is no wonder dog attacks are so common. He is also eating a dry food brand called natural product or produce (i forget what it is called but it is one of those two) is the brand good?

 

[ARACHNO-SMACK48]

Meat what they are meant to eat, not just processed food. In my experience, dogs that are fed lots of meat are happy and healthy. Having said this, I feed mine a mixture of high quality dry food and wet food so I can't really talk. All I know is artificial food= crap. This has nothing to do with dog attacks? Also I don't think your dog will be dangerous to anyone. Really cute though. Look at the back of the bag of food and read the ingredients. If it has stuff like, corn, filler of some kind, grain of some kind, I would skip it. Also maybe try some wet food. Basically, simple food that is as close to natural as you can get while still providing proper nutrition.

 

[PanzoN88]

He does eat that most of the time (95%). He acts like a rottweiler except when the vacum and ironing board comes out or when i tease him by taking his yellow squeaky toy from him and putting it on top of the refridgerator.

 

[The Snark]

Speaking practically, the Shih Tzu is close if not at the top of inbred dogs. For several hundred years they were the exclusive property of the Chinese elite and according to several sources, subject to mass culling and the most extreme of inbreeding in order to produce a limited number of perfect appearance Lion Dogs. Politics and nepotism among other things entered into their breeding, and on several occasions it was a serious criminal offense to breed or even possess them outside the closed elitists circles.

Taking that with a grain of salt, it would be wise to simply consider your animal fragile and needing the utmost pampering possible. It isn't like most other dogs and can't be viewed or treated as such.

 

[PanzoN88]

They were at once on the brink of dying out if it were not for the saving of 14 of them.

 

[Zigana]

I use 4Health grain free dog food for my chihuahuas that showed extreme allergies to regular dog food. I used to use Natural Balance Duck and potato but since the company changed ownership my dogs were throwing up so I switched to 4Health grain free Duck and potato. It is cheaper and easier to find than Natural Balance. I buy it at Tractor Supply. My dogs went right for it when I first fed it to them, no hesitation, gobbled it right up. Their stools are good and no throwing up afterwards.Natural balance was good for years and my dogs did great but after the new ownership I didn't like it as well.

Their are several grain free brands out there but for small dogs you have to be careful on protein levels in the dog food, 24% is OK but in the 30% range it can give the smaller dogs kidney and liver problems. 4Health is the only one I found with the lower protein. Be sure to check the ingredients and % of protein.

When my dogs were diagnosed at the vet they recommended duck and potato or salmon and potato to feed them. I have 5 chihuahuas that could not tolerate regular dog food. It gave them major stomach and intestinal problems with bloody stools. After changing to grain free duck and potato the problems are a thing of the past.

The brands Wellness, Taste of the Wild and Blue are too high in protein for small dogs. Hope this helps.

 

[miserykills]

Natural Balance has something to work with pretty much any dog. The venison formula is one of the most popular and it's very easy to find at a petco or something. Beneful has pretty much everything you don't want to give a dog with food allergies. Also candidae has a bison formula that is very good with most dogs.

 

[Zigana]

The majority of dog food has corn and it is usually the first ingredient mentioned or near the top so it contains a lot of it. Even small amounts can give a dog problems because corn/grains are hard for them to digest. They may not show signs at first but eventually it will effect them one way or another, this includes other brands that have grains, additives too. Look at the ingredients list and find the ones that have no grain, lower protein for small or inactive larger dogs and look for a short list of ingredients. The longer the list with more junk in it probably isn't all that good. We don't need all the added stuff and neither do our pets. If the dog food companies are using good primary ingredients they won't need to add a lot of other stuff.

The need to watch what our pets are eating is getting to be as important as watching what we eat. There are more dog food companies making grain free dog food now then years back, there's a reason for that. Our pets are getting less and less tolerant of the ingredients being added to the product. Pets can have healthier lives and less vet visits when fed properly.

I saw the other day that grain free cat food is now available too.

 

[The Snark]

I recall helping clean out a septic tank by bucket. Never seen so much corn in my life. To be more precise, oily starch pills encapsulated in an undigestable casing. I doubt if corn should be in the diet of anything more evolved than a lawn mower.