Allergic dog

[HealingBeam]

We've just found out our dog has some allergies. We can't test him while he's having a reaction and we're now treating his wounds (he bites and scratches like crazy) with antibiotics and some kind of shampoo and his allergy with antihistamines.
The vet told us we'll have to put him on a special diet … do you know which food is ok for allergic dogs?
Our vet recommended Hill's Prescription Diet but I'm not convinced that'd be a good choice because the dog we had before had severe allergies and special Hill's diet didn't help at all (not to mention that it's the most expensive food on the market, here in Cro).

Also, we've moved all the possible causes of allergies long time ago, we clean with natural cleansers, we don't use chemicals for floors and furniture, he's on Canidae ALS (grain free version), we treat him for fleas and ticks with essential oils and lemon bath from time to time. What else can I do? Should I change his food? What food should I try? What else can I do?

[lonegirl]

The most common of allergies in dogs are outdoor spores, grasses, trees, some food protein sources. Remember just because something is "natural" it doesn't mean someone or pets can't be allergic to ingredients. Your past dog was likely put on Z/D which is currently the best allergy dog food.
Why it works: •Formulated with Hill's Hydrolyzed Protein System, highly digestible proteins that minimize the chances of allergic reactions to food
•No intact animal protein to help avoid common food allergens
•Highly digestible carbohydrates and fats to help reduce gastrointestinal workload
•Increased in omega 3 and 6 Fatty Acids to help nourish the skin
•Added antioxidants to control cell oxidation and promote a healthy immune system and skin barrier function

[babygirlie]

Take a look at the food, maybe he's allergic to potato or rice or corn or try a different meat?

Yeast would be my next guess. Add some sort of accidolphulus like forti-flora or just the pill. Zymox SAYS it helps yeast but I'm not sure.

Also hormone imbalance. Look up black skin disease, check out the book Pets At Risk off of amazon.

I have a cat that's the same. Grain free etc nothing has worked. I think she's allergic to dust.

How about Avon's Skin so Soft on the itchy spots? My elders always used that when dogs got hot spots.

[lonegirl]

Animals are more commonly allergic to protein sources rather than grain sources. This is why there are now diets such as Venison and Rice , and Duck and Potato....to switch to a less common protein source

[HealingBeam]

Cool. Thanks for your answers.

[Ola_]

Any chance he has fleas? Some dogs have allergies to those and even one or two can really bother them.

As far as food, there is lots to choose from on the market today. I'm not a fan of the Hills/Science Diet foods because of the poor ingredients. The trick is to figure out what is bothering him - it could be a carb source, a protein, or even an ingredient way down the list. Are you willing to try a raw diet? That would be my first choice because it's much easier to limit what your dog is eating down to one thing. Second choice would be home-cooked, and third choice would be dry dog food.

If you go with the dog food option I'd try something without chicken, turkey, lamb, or fish since that is what's in your current food. For example Natural Balance has foods with venisor, bison, or duck. I'm sure there are plenty more, it depends on what is available where you live though.

[Oubliette8]

I am also not a fan of the Hills diets. Since he's already on grain free, I would try switching protein sources. Chicken and Beef are fairly common allergies. I would switch to a food with a novel protein- something uncommon that he's probably not had before- fish, venison, bison, duck etc. Make sure you read the entire ingredients list- some foods will say "duck and potato" for instance, but then have chicken further down the ingredient list! Our last dog had severe allergies. I initially used a grain free food and it helped a little, but not a lot. Then it occurred to me that the food I was using was a chicken based formula. We switched to a grain free fish formula and she improved greatly, although there were still seasonal allergies on top of that. That would be my first suggestion- a grain free food with a novel protein source. If you have to used something with grains, avoid corn, wheat, soy and sorghum. Grains like rice and oatmeal are less likely to cause a reaction.

Fleas are another good idea to look at- I had a dog with a flea bite allergy once. All it took was one flea and he'd itch like crazy.

As far as Shampoos, I found Doc Ackerman's Colloidal Oatmeal Shampoo worked better than any others I tried. It has a higher concentration of oatmeal than many other formulas on the market, and as a bonus, it's natural. http://www.onlynaturalpet.com/produc...oo/153002.aspx

[HealingBeam]

I thought about fleas but the whole thing is very localized (on front legs and chest part between front legs) and the skin changed color there (it's dark pink, almost purple). We used Frontline but since I caught so many ticks as if we didn't use anything, I stopped using it and have been using essential oils (I blended few dog friendly repellant EO and use it spot-on and on his collar) and lemon baths from time to time.

Anyway, the vet looked at it and he was sure it was allergy.

We decided to try and switch food to a single meat variation. Unfortunately, we chose TOTW with salmon (now when I read your answers, it seems that the bison-venison formula would be better), the protein he already tried in Canidae ALS formula. Is it too much to switch to High Praire (bison-venison) version now?
Canidae, TOTW and Orijen (but Orijen is way too expensive for us) are the only grain-free formulas we can buy in Croatia and all three are among the most expensive dog foods here.

I thought about raw meat in the beginning but we don't have any organic or free range provider anywhere near our town and I just couldn't force myself to feed the dog the meat from the butcher (veal and lamb are expensive, rabbit is even more expensive and poultry is treated with too much antibiotics that I'd be ok with feeding it regularly to the dog). Maybe I'm wrong about it… I don't know.

We decided we will try feeding him raw (rabbit or/and lamb) if this new, TOTW food, doesn't make any difference. I just hope it will work with TOTW because raw feeding seems too complicated (nomatter how many times I read that it's not).

Thanks for the shampoo suggestion, too.

[Ola_]

Since you already got the other food, try it for a few weeks and see how it goes. Re: flea, I meant an actual allergy to flea bites, so it would still be an allergic reaction. I'm trying to think about the location and whether it gives any clues. It's not what I would expect to see with a food allergy to be honest. Do you think it could be one of the essential oils, since they go on his collar and they may be spreading to that area?

As far as raw meat not being organic and free range, what do you suppose is in the dog food? Not only is it not organic meat, but it is the leftovers of the human food processing industry blended with a bunch of other stuff. IMO getting whole/fresh meat sources still puts you way ahead of the game. Anyway if you decide to go raw I'm sure we can help. It does seem very complicated at first, as anything else when you're just learning about it. But once you've done it for a while it's a lot less scary, I promise!