Possible dog food change from hypoallergenic kibble to real or raw food

[Casha'sMommy]

We recently took our pooch to the vet and discovered she probably has environmental and/or food allergies. We switched her to a rather pricey hypoallergenic kibble and I'm willing to feed her this while we attempt to heal her skin and infected ears. After researching the top food allergens in dogs I'm wondering what's best for our pooch. I'm considering switching her to real or raw food once this new kibble is gone (in 2 or 3 weeks) but am concerned I don't know what she's actually allergic to.

fwiw, our pooch has arthritis, infected skin, infected ears, and maybe more that hasn't been discovered yet.

I'm hoping for some pointers from you ladies before I speak with our vet in a couple of weeks regarding our beloved pooch's diet change. Are there recommended sites to visit or things to read?

It's funny, this whole family has food issues and our youngest (now 14mo) is the worst. I have auto-immune disease and arthritis I feel is directly related to my food issues that weren't diagnosed until well into adulthood so of course the dog has health issues if she has similar food issues. DUH! I'm kicking myself for not seeing this sooner.

Our entire family has drastically changed the food we eat and I want to do the same for our dog if it's in her best interest. Any help is greatly appreciated.

[litanyagainstfear]

I've always been curious about raw food diets -- I've done some reading but not yet made a final decision about it. I'm not necessarily endorsing these sites as the be-all. end-all, but they are all very informative.

http://www.rawlearning.com/rawfaq.html

http://www.rawfed.com/

http://www.rawmeatybones.com/

[Casha'sMommy]

Thanks!

I'm checking those links now.

[Arduinna]

We switched our dogs to raw about 4 years ago after one of them developed really bad allergies. In our case his are environmental and not food related but I wasn't sure at first. We did have him of anti histamines and special shampoo and a skin spray while he healed. While the diet change did not cure his allergies ( he is since doing much better after we moved to a totally different area) both our dogs are in the best shape they have ever been in since we switched them to raw.

Are you feeding grain free food right now?

[CookAMH]

This doesn't really help but my parents switched their two shelties to a half raw diet. Apparently they read a good bit that all dry food is equivalent to people eating fast food for every meal all their life.