Allergies..can anyone recomend a food or vitamins

[iamgobsmacked]

With a dog with allergies, I would be very careful with rotating. Not that I think it's bad, I do it for one of my older dogs that does best on 50% kibble (and 25% canned + 25% water), but only with foods I know my dog can handle. The trick is to see what your dog can handle and can't, and it can be more trickier with a dog with allergies as the progress can go down hill quickly.

btw, I know a lot of dogs that have had issues with Wellness since they changed (LOTS of poop problems).

And I have five dogs, have treated hundreds of others who do very well on Wellness. And in fact the excretion becomes much less than prior. However, not all foods work for all animals. Overall, however, Wellness is one of the best foods for allergy prone animals primarily because it only contains five ingredients. Which makes elimination diets more doable. It is also good to have a few choices of foods that allergenic animals can thrive on because tolerance thresholds can and do occur frequently. By periodic rotation this is less likely to occur.

I would not suggest cod liver oil if someone feeds kibble, the vitamin A + D can build up to toxic levels.

Alternating on three weeks of ground flax seed, then switching to cod liver oil will insure that plenty of the Omega 3 and 6 fatty acids to support the skin are available. It has been shown that animals with frequent skin eruptions, hot spots etcetera benefit greatly from extra supplementation from these important fatty acids. Since these are insoluble they do not metabolize out of the body as readily as other vitamins. ( a good thing for pets with allergies and skin disorders) Although toxic overloads can and do occur, the amount of oil present in a single capsule on a rotated basis will not cause toxic overload even if these supplements, are present in pet food. And of course the three week rotation will help to flush and assure that over build up does not occur. Toxic overloads frequently occur when a diet primarily containing vitamins A & D are adopted and supplementation is excessive. Distilled water also facilitates the removal of any unused vitamins and minerals that collect outside the cells. The cell absorb what they need to function, the balance circulate as waste.

I don't think I would want to offer distilled water all of the time (instead every once in awhile and rotated with filtered).

Filtered water still contains many of the inorganic minerals that are harmful to the body, since inorganic minerals cannot be absorbed they circulate outside the cells and remain in the system as free radicals. Of the total minerals in water only 1% are of any limited value to the body. The trace minerals are easily replaced with food. One single glass of orange juice for instance contains more minerals than gallons of drinking water. And in order to consume these from water you are also consuming minerals that are not useful and in fact toxic to the body. The minerals in water in fact only become bio-available to the body when they have passed over the soil and into plants that we consume.

[lwds]

And I have five dogs, have treated hundreds of others who do very well on Wellness. And in fact the excretion becomes much less than prior. However, not all foods work for all animals. Overall, however, Wellness is one of the best foods for allergy prone animals primarily because it only contains five ingredients. Which makes elimination diets more doable. It is also good to have a few choices of foods that allergenic animals can thrive on because tolerance thresholds can and do occur frequently. By periodic rotation this is less likely to occur.

That's fine - but I also would like to put it out there for people to know.

When all of my dogs were on kibble (still do for one of my dogs), I rotated for the reason you stated (didn't want to overuse ingredients and protein sources), but with allergies, it's a whole other ball game. I have seen dogs go down hill and have to recover all over again because their owner thought food blank would be OK to try. Am I against rotating? No, all I'm saying is the owners need to be careful.

Alternating on three weeks of ground flax seed, then switching to cod liver oil will insure that plenty of the Omega 3 and 6 fatty acids to support the skin are available. It has been shown that animals with frequent skin eruptions, hot spots etcetera benefit greatly from extra supplementation from these important fatty acids. Since these are insoluble they do not metabolize out of the body as readily as other vitamins. ( a good thing for pets with allergies and skin disorders) Although toxic overloads can and do occur, the amount of oil present in a single capsule on a rotated basis will not cause toxic overload even if these supplements, are present in pet food. And of course the three week rotation will help to flush and assure that over build up does not occur. Toxic overloads frequently occur when a diet primarily containing vitamins A & D are adopted and supplementation is excessive.

Working with terriers who are notorious for allergies, I know how helpful EFAs are. That said, I still do not recommend anyone who feeds a commercial diet supplement with cod liver oil, I gave my reason. Flax seed and fish oil I do recommend and use.

Filtered water still contains many of the inorganic minerals that are harmful to the body, since inorganic minerals cannot be absorbed they circulate outside the cells and remain in the system as free radicals. Of the total minerals in water only 1% are of any limited value to the body. The trace minerals are easily replaced with food. One single glass of orange juice for instance contains more minerals than gallons of drinking water. And in order to consume these from water you are also consuming minerals that are not useful and in fact toxic to the body. The minerals in water in fact only become bio-available to the body when they have passed over the soil and into plants that we consume.

I don't buy into the whole filtered water is bad or is of lesser quality than distilled except in some cases (I think where you live and how cheap you go on a filter needs to be taken into consideration).