Help - again!

[Clair&Bob]

I'm here again with Bob's b****y skin.

I'm a daily reader of posts but don't often post for help but I really need it today!

I am really struggling with Bob's skin and general wellbeing and I think it's all related to his food.

A few years ago he was allergy tested and it came back that he was allergic to chicken - nightmare! He has always been fed raw and I always avoid chicken now. For the past couple of years he has been having the raw from Manifold Valley Meats (Bid - I believe you use these). I've mixed it up but avoided chicken and he's always been ok until about 4 months ago when his skin problems came back with a vengeance. He has also been 'gagging' as if his throat is sore and biting his feet - all tell tale signs of another allergy. For the past few months I've fed him only duck or pheasant depending on stock at MVM. He's back on duck at the moment and it's all come back MVM have confirmed they don't use chicken fat in the duck.

Problem is, I feel that these 'allergies' are more of a food intolerance in general if you know what I mean. He has salmon oil daily and fish skin treats only so it's not as if he's having anything he shouldn't. We don't feed him our food either.

I'm loath to take him to the vets because although they advocate raw feeding I think they'll put him on Hills which I don't want.

Any ideas?????

Clair xx

[susieQ]

That must be a nightmare for you! Would he tolerate coconut oil in his food? It's worked quite well on my grandaughter's skin (eczema) but would be a bit difficult to put all over Bob.

Has he been vaccinated recently? There's some research to say vaccinating is linked to allergies.

I wish him better.

[Doodle Dee]

can he be re allergy tested? Im not sure if that works

Do you have pet insurance, some of them have a help line - Im wondering if it is food at all or perhaps something else around the home

[dexysback]

My friends lab had bad skin problems and it was bonio dog biscuits that caused it.

[Research]

Hi Clair,

Have you tried My Itchy Dog forum by Kate Bendix. She has lots of advice regarding skin problems in dogs. She has also written a book which has lots of useful information for you and your four legged friend. Hope this helps.

Alice

[stout]

You poor thing and poor Bob.

Not quite the same problem with Stout but when he was having belly problems we had him blood and hair tested for intolerances. We used it as a starting point to know what to cut out. Chicken was one of his, it can be quite hard to avoid! We recently got him tested again to check nothing else had come up before we moved him back to a complete raw diet. He has natural instinct turkey and tripe and turkey country banquet with the odd sardine. We were doing our own mix from scratch but it was taking an age.

I can't remember where you live, we have just changed stouts vet after a recommendation he is really good and supportive of our raw choice of diet, he seems to want to get to the bottom of his problem rather than just treating the flare ups.

Good luck

[Bid]

It seems that a lot of raw diets are short on zinc which supports the immune system. It might be worth trying a zinc supplement.

I am doing a canine diet formulation course atm, which looks at building their diets in a different way - I use the 80-10-10 formula for meat-bone-offal, and base the diet on the 2-3% body weight, but this formulation approach is based initially on the calorie requirement of the individual dog and then looks as the recommended daily amounts of the main nutrients, vitamins and minerals. I can't wait to analyse Daisy's diet to see how it looks against the amounts she is supposed to have!

[Ianto!]

You have to promise to let us know how you get on with the course, Bid - please...
Anne, Ianto & Wyre x

[eileenandmolly]

Oh dear, poor Bob and you
I don't have experience of dog allergies thank goodness, although Saffie does have an intolerance to rice in complete foods.
I just thought I'd share a recent experience just in case it would help - follow it through to see my point!
I have always fed half complete kibble and half raw. I recently moved them both onto complete moist plus raw. Molly has started eating her own poo (only her morning poo, not on walks - tho maybe she's too busy on walks) I've read up on it and it seems that vit b shortage can be a cause of this. Their complete kibble included Brewers Yeast; the complete moist doesn't. So I've looked into adding Brewers yeast ….............
......the point for you is that, from what I've read it also is supposed to have great benefits for sore and itchy skin. Just a thought in case .
Good luck with finding an answer for Bob.

[iwantadog]

I feel your pain! I've had a similar thing with Murphy. He got a skin infection back in July and it's never really gone, his coat was awful and he would moulting like nothing else, to the point he was actually bald in places on his tummy and the inside of his legs.

He has had so many antibiotics I really didn't want to take him to the vets again so I avoided all poultry as someone said to me it might not be the chicken itself he is allergic to, but the grain they feed the chicken and duck, which made sense to me.

He got a bit better,mother got fleas which set it all off again. He was put on a 30 day course of antibiotics and the vet gave me a container of fish oils which I had to every meal. The infection has finally gone and his coat is growing back and after it being so dry and horrible feeling it is finally soft and silky again.

I also feed MVM minces, but have recently swapped to DAF Premium Diners, these are the 80%, 10% and 10% and there is a good selection of poultry free flavours.

Not sure if any of this helps you, but you are not alone!!!

Good luck!

[stout]

Oh dear, poor Bob and you
I don't have experience of dog allergies thank goodness, although Saffie does have an intolerance to rice in complete foods.
I just thought I'd share a recent experience just in case it would help - follow it through to see my point!
I have always fed half complete kibble and half raw. I recently moved them both onto complete moist plus raw. Molly has started eating her own poo (only her morning poo, not on walks - tho maybe she's too busy on walks) I've read up on it and it seems that vit b shortage can be a cause of this. Their complete kibble included Brewers Yeast; the complete moist doesn't. So I've looked into adding Brewers yeast ….............
......the point for you is that, from what I've read it also is supposed to have great benefits for sore and itchy skin. Just a thought in case .
Good luck with finding an answer for Bob.

Strange you should mention brewers yeast-when we took stout to see his new vet he also mentioned dogs with IBD have less ability to absorb vitamin B12 due to them having less 'fingers' on their stomach lining, but this helps with stomach problems (bit of a vicious circle), he did consider if Stouts tum didn't settle giving him vitamin injections. The latest food has B12 added.

The irony isn't lost on me that Stout might have a shortage of Brewers yeast (his dad doesn't!!)

[Liz!!]

Your mother had fleas, iwantadog? How awful!!!!!

When Lola is irritated by something, I use a spray called Peace and Kindness - it won't help with the allergy, but it is very soothing, and kills fungal, bacterial and viral infections. You can get this in this country from a health food shop, it's just colloidal silver, silver in suspension.

It won't help with allergies but it will soothe the places that are sore and stop any infections getting in.

[Ianto!]

Your mother had fleas, iwantadog?

Thank you, Liz!! My tongue was getting so sore from biting it!
Anne, Ianto & Wyre xx

[Pollydoodle]

Your mother had fleas, iwantadog?

Thank you, Liz!! My tongue was getting so sore from biting it!
Anne, Ianto & Wyre xx

Ditto! Terrible woman!

[iwantadog]

Your mother had fleas, iwantadog?

Thank you, Liz!! My tongue was getting so sore from biting it!
Anne, Ianto & Wyre xx

Well I'm glad if I wasn't any help, at least I entertained everyone - flaming predictive text!!. Why has it chosen to change 'then he' to 'mother' ?