Food Allergy?????

[Nobas Mom]

Noba was switched to Innova Evo a little over a month ago. This past week, I bought Innova Evo, just a different flavor (smaller bites vs the large bites he was on last time). This was done on Friday. Over the last few days, he's had a bad case of diarrhea and he hasn't had anything else to eat besides the Innova. I was just reading up on things (being a overly concerned mom... ) and was wondering if this could be an allergy reaction. He has been itching quite a bit lately, which I thought was his skin just being dry because the weather up here has been ridiculously changing day by day. Any thoughts? It's not fleas or any other mite, we've ruled that out. How can I check for allergies to food without having to torture him... thanks.

Edited: Prior to this bag of Innova, he seemed to be doing fine. There has been no diarrhea and his itching was minimal. He may just need a bath, his fur is getting kind of "needing a bath" kind of way. That's coming this weekend...

[Karen]

Yup, diarrhea can absolutely be caused by an allergic reaction. This I know from personal experience. Compare the ingredient labels between the two kinds, and you may be able to narrow down the allergy ... The itchiness also can be an indicator, of course.

[Nobas Mom]

Hi, I just looked at the ingredients for both. They are exactly the same, the only difference between the two foods is that the one now is smaller bites and the other bag was large bites... that's the only difference, now I'm confused even more. Guess I can try the bath and see if that helps his itchy skin. The weather here has been rainy, nice, rainy, nice, rainy, cloudy, cold, rainy, nice... day after day after day...

[applesmom]

It could still be the Innova evo in both sizes, as it sometimes takes awhile for an allergy to develop!

[Nobas Mom]

It could still be the Innova evo in both sizes, as it sometimes takes awhile for an allergy to develop!

I was thinking the same thing... but what do you suggest I do to test this?? I really like the Innova and how healthy he looks, but if it's the cause of it all, then I need to find something else, but it has to be comparable. Any thoughts?

[Karen]

Try him on a simpler food - less ingredients - Lamb and Rice is usually a good start for "allergic" dogs, see how he does on that.

[So-Crafty]

Keegan, my Cocker, has terrible food allergies. We've completely eliminated all food sources. We started out with Venison and Rice [a competely different protein source] and took out everything else. No treats, no canned food, nothing. We did that for 21 days. Slowly, as her body detoxed from everything else that she'd been eating, her hair started to grow back, her itching slowed down. We started adding little things, like a teaspoonful of yogurt (as a Probiotic) - her ears cleared up. She now gets vegetables (carrots, green beans), peanut butter (an all natural peanut butter) and yogurt as treats.

Since the Natural Balance recall, we had to change to a different formulation of their food. She's now eating the Duck and Potato variety and doing just as good. We'll go back to the Venison when they start producing it again.

You need to cut out all protein sources, any possible allergens like wheat, corn, soy. You should switch to a food that she hasn't been on before (like Venison, Salmon or Duck) and keep with that single source protein for a long time until the body can detox.

Your dog will tell you when you've done good. There will not be diahrea(sp), vomitting, dull coats, ear infections, itchy skin. If you make the correct choices, they can only reap the benefits.