allergies and food

[amandawash]

Have you gotten her tested? Your vet can send a blood sample to biomedical services in TX to find out what the allergens are. Usually, its beef, wheat, corn, soy etc. Not always though. We sent our labs blood in and found he's allergic to rice, fish, tomatoes, spinach, and NUMEROUS other "good ingredients". We put him on Natural Balance venison and sweet potato which are pretty much the only ingredients. He's done fantastic. Just a thought...

[sadiesamie]

Originally Posted by amandawash

Have you gotten her tested? Your vet can send a blood sample to biomedical services in TX to find out what the allergens are. Usually, its beef, wheat, corn, soy etc. Not always though. We sent our labs blood in and found he's allergic to rice, fish, tomatoes, spinach, and NUMEROUS other "good ingredients". We put him on Natural Balance venison and sweet potato which are pretty much the only ingredients. He's done fantastic. Just a thought...

I have 2 yorkies and the other yorkie we have (Samie) we just put her on a liver supplement. Her counts were not super high -the vet said she was just being over cautious. so if we find out she can be on that food too (the Nat Bal-ven& swt potato) we may try that next if no luck with the wellness. so far the wellness has helped only after 3 wks so maybe this will work. Sadie- the one with the skin allergies- is currently losing protein in her urine and we just got good news yesterday that her protein/creatine ratio finally has come down. (orig was 7.2 and is now 1.9) biggggg improvement with that. we will recheck in 3 mos. she is on benazeperil for protein loss.
Samie (with the liver issues) will get rechecked in 3 wks to see what her blood work shows. i have heard that venison is not good for a liver compromised dogs so we shall see. However the vet did say venison for Sadie would be good. But feeding 2 different foods would be hard to do. I wouldn't mind trying it for Sadie though. I think allergy testing is in her future it's just that we are finally getting a break from vet bills. we have spent amounts i never dreamed possible. just a weekly thing for about 5 mos straight. nearly 6000.00 so far. but- we cannot change that and still we will continue to do whatever it takes to get things under control.

[amandawash]

It is so hard when you just can't figure it out! That is really too bad about your pups issues, and vet bills are never fun! That allergy test we did on our lab was awesome, it came back with TONS of different ingredients and shows the level of allergy the dog has to those ingredients. The price was reasonable as well, but completely worth it as we never would have thought he was allergic to rice, potato, and fish! All the good stuff!

I hope you get your pups figured out and healthy! And feeding different foods isn't too hard if you have a feeding schedule. We have fed three diff. foods to three diff. dogs! Good luck!

[sadiesamie]

Originally Posted by amandawash

It is so hard when you just can't figure it out! That is really too bad about your pups issues, and vet bills are never fun! That allergy test we did on our lab was awesome, it came back with TONS of different ingredients and shows the level of allergy the dog has to those ingredients. The price was reasonable as well, but completely worth it as we never would have thought he was allergic to rice, potato, and fish! All the good stuff!

I hope you get your pups figured out and healthy! And feeding different foods isn't too hard if you have a feeding schedule. We have fed three diff. foods to three diff. dogs! Good luck!

Was the allergy test costly? We literally are buried at this point with the vet issues so that is the only reason we are waiting on the allergy testing. 6000.00 for the year last year! hopefully 2008 will be better. :-)

[amandawash]

That allergy test was less than $200, but since my hubby's the vet, I don't know how much it would cost for your vet to do it. Def. something to check into though. I hope your 2008 is better as well! GOOD LUCK!!!!!