Thanks, Dixie! Your answer was so thorough and logical, and it confirmed what I was thinking: that food allergies wouldn't show up as coughing like what Kobie has, but instead as skin/coat problems mostly. I'm pretty sure we're not going to switch foods on the basis of her coughing alone, although if the Cal Nat has such a simple list of ingredients we might give it a try sometime in the future.

We just got back from Kobie's latest vet visit. Her chest x-rays showed dark constricted bronchials, which we're told is a sign of irritation in the tubes--as if she's allergic to something she inhaled or encountered some other way. Now she's on a brochodilator called theophylline; I swear now every time she sees a pill bottle she looks so depressed, like "Not ANOTHER drug, Mom!"

What most freaked us out, though, was a light spot on her right lung. The vet said it's hard to tell what it could be, maybe a fatty mass, but that it most likely has nothing to do with her breathing and coughing problems. I almost fainted seeing that--Kobie's only 2 1/2 years old! (I'm even afraid to mention the C-word. My last dog had terminal cancer and died in 1996 at barely 6 years old. Like your experience with Jazz, it was horrifying.) We're hoping like crazy that this is just a bad allergy....

Thanks again
-Amber