Allergy Diet

[Cincy'sMom]

Well Cincy had her check up and vaccinations yesterday. Vet said heart and lungs sound good, and of course she still needs to loose weight :) We have decided that since she scratching so much and Benedryl isn't working anymore, we are going to try a prescription allergy diet. This of course means no treats, no extras at all. Not even rawhide. We are waiting til Snoopy and Taggert go home to make the switch, but I was wondering if anyone has ever used the Hill's Z/d. How did it work?

We did have Cincy's thyroid tested back in Sept. since she has botth weight and skin problems. They told me then it was fine, but I wanted the numbers. They gave me several, most of which didn't mean much, but the one Staci told me should between 1.2-1.6 was at 1.5 So not even close to low. Guess the poor girl really does just have poor metabolism, cause believe me she runs and plays with the best of 'em!

[micki76]

Our old vet tried to get us to use it, but I refused. I personally won't use Science Diet. I feel it's the same quality as the stuff at the grocery store. She'd probably do better with an unusual protein source, like fish or even chicken. If he's having you withold treats, are you doing a food trial? If you're doing a food trial, you're in for a long haul.

Can you do allergy testing?

[Brie]

did the vet say WHAT exactly she's allergic too?

I personally would never use or recommend Science Diet. But, if it's an allergy to food, Natural Balance makes a WONDERFUL allergy formula and it's available at PetCo and a ton of independant retailers:

http://www.naturalbalanceinc.com/products/PandD.html

[wolfsoul]

Personally, I don't like Science Diet. Here are the ingredients for Z/D:


Dried potato products, hydrolyzed chicken liver, potato starch, vegetable oil (preserved with BHA, propyl gallate and citric acid), hydrolyzed chicken, powdered cellulose, glyceryl monostearate, DL-methionine, taurine, ethoxyquin (a preservative), minerals (calcium sulfate, dicalcium phosphate, salt, calcium carbonate, ferrous sulfate, zinc oxide, copper sulfate, manganous oxide, calcium iodate, sodium selenite), vitamins (choline chloride, vitamin A supplement, vitamin D3 supplement, vitamin E supplement, niacin, thiamine mononitrate, calcium pantothenate, pyridoxine hydrochloride, riboflavin, folic acid, biotin, vitamin B12 supplement).

Now, definitions from my own website:
BHA (Butylated Hydroxysanisole) & BHT (Butylated Hydroxytoluene) - Often seen together, these carcinogenic chemical preservatives have been known to cause cancer, tumors, epilepsy, kidney failure, and a number of other things. A dog who eats food containing one or both of these has a 60% chance of developing urinary stones.
Propyl gallate - Tendency to cause the blood disorder, methemoglobinemia.
Ethoxyquin - Ethoxyquin is a chemical preservative that carries specific toxins. These toxins have been known to cause itchy skin, lethargy, hair loss, thyroid problems, reproductive disorders, birth defects, epilepsy, cancer, and stillbirth. The chemical was developed by a company as a rubber hardener. It is also used as a herbicide and insecticide. In Canada it is illegal in human foods. in the US, over 100 ppm illegal in human foods.

I also prefer a food that has meat as the first ingredient, and in the second or third ingredient too. :) This formula doesn't have meat until the 5th ingredient. I've heard some good things about Wellness's allergy formula. Does Innova have an allergy formula?

[micki76]

Originally posted by wolfsoul
I've heard some good things about Wellness's allergy formula.

Wellness Fish and Potato is awesome! We have all three on it after a very slow change over. Chester's doing great on it and Millie's lost about a lb. :D Just a couple more to go for her. ;)

All three LOVE it.

What the heck is hydrolyzed? Doesn't sound very good.

[Cincy'sMom]

I wondered about trying Wellness.

We currently have had her on California Natural Reduced Calorie Lamb and Rice. Seeing the ingedients of Z/d I'm not sure I'm comfortaale with it either.

They are talking about doing a food test. The vet said it would take 6-8 weeks. Personally, I don't know how we would not give her treats or anything for that long esp. while she is doing therapy visits.

No we, do not know exactly what she is allergic to. I'm not sure I'm convinced it is food realted becuase her skin is much worse inthe cold of winter. It may be a factor, but I 'm really at a loss what to do....


Yes, they can do allergy testing, but the vet made it sound like the food was a better start. The allergy testing they do is blood samples. If we want to do skin tests we would have to go to a canine dermatologist and the closest is about an hour away.

We had Cincy on Chicken when we first got her and she did not do well onthat. I have thought about fish or venesion (sp?) .

Well, we aren't going to do anything til after the dogs leave so we do have time to think about it. Thanks for the info.

[micki76]

We skipped the food trails and just did the blood allergy test. Our vet felt comfortable with our descision. That was way too involved and not giving treats was just too much for us all to go through.

Wellness is good. Nature's Recipe Venison and Rice is good. I've fed both, but I do like the Wellness better because it's baked and not extruded then sprayed with rendered fat. My dogs go nutzo for it. They also liked the Venison and Rice.


Does Cincy lick her paws, or is it just redness or itching elsewhere on her body? Does she seem to sneeze or paw her face a lot? Any ear infections?

The usual signs of food allergy are also very similar to contact allergies, meaning they're reacting to something their paws are touching. Usually an inhaled allergy (pollen, dust) is manifested as sneezing, clear discharge from the nose and reverse sneezing. I have one with food and contact and another with inhaled. Lucky me! :p

[Brie]

you made a comment about weather changes.... this was something that I just spoke with a few other people about, on a website and in my store.

In winter we humans tend to turn up our heaters for what's comfy for us, but, we don't wear a fur coat. What's comfy for us might be too hot and too dry for our furry companions.
The add dryness and heat can dry out their fur and skin. Causing itchiness, dry and flaky skin. Often times this is mis-diagnosed as an allergy.

You can try adding a humidifer to the home, turning the heat down when you're not home or a sleep. There are a variety of skin and coat supplements to add to the dogs diet, lipiderm, missing link, etc... basically you're looking for a supplement high id omega 3 & 6 and/or fish oils.

[ParNone]

Hi Cincy's Mom!

Maddie was on Hill's Z/D prescribed by the vet too. It made
a little bit of difference vs what she was on before, but I saw
a remarkable change to Maddie's skin, when we switched to
Wellness Fish and Sweet Potato. There's Omega oils in it too,
which I think helped also. Murph and Oz's coats look shinier
now too. So I'm going to continue feeding it to them.

Wellness also makes a Fish and Sweet Potato treat, so I'd use
those for Maddie so she wouldn't feel like she was missing out on
anything when Oz and Murph would get whatever other treat
I had at the time.

Par...

[Cincy'sMom]

CIncy will chew spots of fut off, but not usally righton her paws. Usually it is higher up on her legs. She also gets a lot of pimples, mostly on her belly and around her ears. She has not had an ear infection in about a year. She also gets very congested sounding (snores, snorts a lot) She occasioannly will vomit what looks like all flem.


Brie, We were actually talking about the heat, becuase she sleeps on the floor next to our bed, right by the heating vent. We do have a humidifier inline with our heater and it is running, although I'm not sure I see a difference. She does scratch less if we can talk her into sleeping up on the bed. Also, we give her Skin Formula 3V caps that contain fish oil for Omega-3 plus vitamins A, D and E. She has been getting this once a day for over a year.


Maybe I'll go ahead and pick up someof the Wellness. Can't hurt to try it for a bit and see ifit helps.

[robinh]

Max has allergies that took forever to pin down what they were, but we were convinced it was corn. I took Micki and ParNone's advice about Wellness Fish and Sweet Potato food. Cannot tell you how much of a difference it made!! Took me about a month to switch everyone over a little at a time, but Max hardly ever chews anymore. His other allergies are dust mitesand flea saliva, so I can't get away from all the chewing.

All of them like the taste and their weight has stabilized. They don't seem to eat as much and still seem satisfied.

[Cincy'sMom]

I just picked up a 6lb bag of the whitefish and sweet potatoe and the treats to go with it. I'm going to start switching Cincy over tonight and see how it goes.

The vet did give us a different antihistamine to try and that seems to be helping a lot with the itching. We only got 10 days worth, so by the time we get her completely switched over we will be out of the meds and can see more clearly if the food is helping. If it doesn't, I think we may try the blood test and skip the Z/d. Ralph and I need to talk about it some more though.

[anna_66]

Poor Cincy girl:( I sure hope that changing the food helps her. I hate for her to miss out on all of those good treats;)

[shais_mom]

poor sweet Cincy!!!
I hope this goes well for her!! I definately would try the Wellness. I was going to try it for Keegan but the vet told me she probably doesn't have a food allergy since it isn't incessent all the time.
I have been running a vaporizor for my comfort (throat gets dry)and Keegan's due to the dryness of the house.
Keegan's last vet visit her Thyroid was at 3.8 a high normal of 1-4. I guess.
I can understand what you mean about not giving treats. With Shaianne (RB), Keegan, and Kylie if I try (tried) to give them food as treats, they would look at me like "and then???" :)
I hope you can get the sweet girl more comfortable soon.
You could also get a 2nd opinion on those thyroid levels. Might not hurt.
Good Luck!

[robinh]

If the Wellness works, they also make treats in a couple of flavors. That way you can still give treats, just not the usual ones. Mine love those too. Course, I haven't found much they wouldn't eat. "Little pigs" that they are.
:)

[Sudilar]

Good luck to you. We went through this when we first adopted Killian. We switched him to a prescription Fish and Sweet Potato diet and added Omega 3 and 6 oils. It worked. I would go with the Wellness Fish and Sweet Potato kibble. Let us know how it goes!!!

[micki76]

Originally posted by robinh
If the Wellness works, they also make treats in a couple of flavors. That way you can still give treats, just not the usual ones. Mine love those too.

Good point! Chester’s allergies will still flare up big time if I give him treats. HE gets the Wellness treats and some peanut butter ones that have just PB, flour, and some other ingreds. You’d be surprised how that most treats, even ‘sweet’ ones, have chicken or beef fats or products in them. So you may not see any results unless you go with only the Wellness and maybe some specific treats. It can also take a couple of weeks to see any results after completely switching over. It can take that long to completely get whatever they are allergic to out of their system and for the lingering itching to subside.

[Cincy'sMom]

We already ran into one snag...Cincy was on a new antihistamine starting Thrusday and then I started the Wellness food (14/ c to 3/4 c. of the old) Saturday night. Within a few hours of that her belly broke out into a rash. Not sure what caused it, but just to be sure, we took her off the antihistamine and the food. We got an antibiotic from the vet to be sure nothing she is chewing/scrtaching at gets infected and took her off the anithistime and went back completely to the old food (California Nautraul Lamb and Rice) We are going to reintroduce one thing at a time and give each longer to work to see what the allergy might have been from (if either) We also talked to the vet more about the blood testing, and maybe go ahead and have the blood drawn in the next few days.

It may takes us awhile to get there, but we will get this figured out :) Thanks for all the input!!!