gezzzzz, I just remembered, the tech also said stick with bison or venison.

If Callie was still having issues my vet was wanting to try that with Callie but for now we are doing ok.

Go to Dog Food Reviews and Ratings | Dog Food Advisor and look at their site. Very helpful on choosing foods including limited ingredients

Thank you for the link, this is all very confusing to me lol. Limited ingredients, I don't have a clue what that means, well, I know what it means, but what ingredients should be limited? Or just by the foods with the wording Limited ingredients? and all natural? I have to look that it will say all natural on the can or the dry food? with all the dogs I have ever had, I would just buy top brand names, science diet, Hills, this is all new to me, The tech said the food should be labeled as something like for allergy's. I would recognize her wording if I saw it on a bag of food. I just look at another link for bison & venison, I'm getting a migraine.

It will be hard to find a commercial food listed specifically for allergies. When I think limited ingredient formulas, I think of a single main animal protein source and a single major carbohydrate without excessive ingredients/fillers.

Natural Balance has both limited ingredient formulas for both bison and venison. If you can find it near you, Pure Vita offers a bison LID food as well. You might also look at Nutrisca (they have chicken, lamb, and salmon kinds), Nature's Variety and California Natural (they have a venison as well have quite a few other options with various proteins) ...these brands have several limited ingredient formulas with relatively few ingredients. We've fed the Natural Balance and Nutrisca but I haven't fed the CN personally. You'll have to find an independent store to find most of those brands (and they'll usually have lots of free samples) although Petco carries the NV and NB. Just some options thrown out there to consider. Hope you find something that works!

There are a lot of different brands of food that are limited ingredient. Natural Balance makes several different varieties of LI food which I have used in the past.

LID Limited Ingredient Diets Dry Dog Formulas - Natural Balance Pet Foods

Pebbles did really well for a long time on the NB Sweet Potato and Venison until the changed their recipe and started using a different form of SP. I switched to the Venison formula and she still was scratching. So I asked my vet if we could try the Royal Canin Hydrolized Protien RX food.

Hypoallergenic HP Small Breed Dog Food | Veterinary Exclusive

She has been on this food for several years and I recently switched all three because Bogey was having anal gland issues that the vet thought might be allergy related. Everyone seems to be doing well on the RC food.

I googled bison and venison got a link that had Natural Balance and Nature's Variety, you can by on line. I've never heard of 99% of these dogs food, so it's good that you have mentioned them. Both these foods were limited ingredients, but had sweet potato in it. I have a PetCo I'll see if they have the NB & NV in the bison or venison. I would rather by local then on line. I have a local feed store, they carry a lot of diff. brands, but do not stock allergy type dog food, they have to special order them. Thank you very much for all your in put it helps a lot.

Thank you so much.....my head is swimming from so much excellent suggestions. I have to sort out all of this and do a lot of reading. I just want to get Cody on his new dog food, and the proper one,

Just go to Petco or Petsmart. They guarantee the food and if Cody doesn't like it return it for a refund. It's all trial and error.

really!!!! that's very good to know, I have a Petsmart & Pet Supply 20 min. from me, the nearest Petco is an hour away. When I adopted Cody the tech gave me so much food,dry & canned food, then I put him on beef & rice, chic & rice, cottage cheese & rice. What dry food was open I fed to the crows. What cans & dry food were not open I donated to my no kill shelter. It's good to know, I won't feed the crows now that the weather is getting warmer, don't want no crows near my house, the birds have laid thier eggs, and the crows steal the baby birds and eat them. Good to know I can bring back to the store. Cody is a good eater, he eats almost anything I have given him. I just don't want to be changing foods on him, and possibly upsetting his digestive system, even with the gradual transition.. thank you very much for this heads up.

Also you can donate dry food that is open to the shelter too. . .

How did he do on the Z/D? Did you see a difference with his allergies? I know you said it was for colitis. If he did well, I don't understand why the vet said it would be for a limited time. I have two pups on it and they are doing well.

I agree with Taylor, environmental allergies are usually the culprit. Injection won't have anything to do with diagnostics. A blood test can be done to determine environmental allergies.

Z/D he was still scratching, After the injection the scratching was not as severe, he was only scratching under his nose, but the Z/D was not given for the scratching, it was given I believe for sensitive systems. if this new diet does not work, my vet will take the next step. I have to first find the proper food,transition it over, I ASSUME it would take 30 days to see results, I have to call the vet to see how much time I should give for the new diet. Environmental allergies, at the beginning of this thread I wrote, I adopted Cody on Nov. 12, they had shaved him down, when I went to see him I noticed he was scratching, I blew it off to hair being shaved, some may have fallen on to his skin & reason for the scratching. A few days after taking him home I saw he had fleas, so he got 1 comfortis tablet, fleas were gone, I treated my house by vacuuming several times a day for weeks, washed all his bedding to ensure no fleas or eggs . Still scratching. Then he got the injection that worked for a week or 2, scratching began again, just not as much as before the injection. Environmental allergies, in Nov. what environmental allergies could he have, there was no grass, no pollen, no dusty house. If this new diet fails I will see what the vets next steps will be, if she does not mention blood work I will suggest it. Bad thing is, now were are coming into the warm weather and the pollen will start. My back yard has no grass. But thinking of Nov. and the cold months, again what environmental allergies would he have had? Thank you for taking the time to respond to my question, I know you are very busy with all these babies you are caring for.

I agree it's likely environmental allergies. I would keep him on the z/d or ask your vet to try a hydrolyzed food like Purina HA. I would also see if you can try something -- meaning medication - for the environmental allergies.

thanks I didn't know that