Whoa-Nina has major food allergies!
 

We received the results of Nina’s allergy test conducted by Bio-medical Services a couple of weeks ago.

In January of ’08, Nina was 10 months old and we noticed her scratching her muzzle something fierce. Her hair around her mouth fell out, and sometimes she would scratch until she was raw and bleeding. Nina is now 16 months old and weighs 6#. She is not a food motivated dog.
She doesn't live to eat...she eats to live as our vet put it.

We saw 2 vets, and we tried benedryl, which wasn’t much relief for her,
Then we did a round of steroids. That helped, but of course, one little yorkie cannot take them forever.

So we bit the bullet and paid for this expensive test…

The results are that she is allergic to;

Beef,

Lamb,

Venison,

Chicken,

Turkey,

Duck

and

Pork!

As well as;

Corn,

Wheat,

Oats,

Rice,

and

Soy Beans!


Whew! That cancels out a lot of commercial dog food products.

The report says” multiple meat allergies likely reflect underlying allergy to ALBUMIN, which is highly conserved across mammalian and avian species.”

What Nina CAN HAVE is;

Fish Mix

Potato
Sweet Potato

Carrots

Cow’s Milk

Egg

Peanut

And

Barley.

We have switched her to Natural Balance Salmon & Sweet Potato dog food. We will start cooking a little fresh salmon to add to it occasionally.

Although she can have fish, and fish oil capsules, Nina likes tuna fish, we have given her a teaspoon or so albacore tuna in with the kibble, but I am worried about the high mercury content considered risky for us humans to eat often???

So far, the only dog treat without the grains she is allergic to that I can find is the Sojo’s Cherry-Almond grain-free treats made with arrowroot flour, which she is not allergic to.
Most everything else we are coming across is oat or wheat based.

The dog food wasn’t as hard to find as the treats…

Does anyone have a treat recipe I can use/modify?

Or know of a good holistic cookbook, or website for pets?

Or know of a treat we can order?

We have to give up turkey hot dogs for obedience training and try giving bits of cheese.

Nina's daddy is having a hard time restricting her diet as he thinks she must think she is being punished...he sees giving her food as love. He used to cook a steak, lamb chop or piece of chicken for her, then cut it up in tiny pieces and a spoonful to her kibble.

I would love to hear from anyone who had experience dealing with all these food allergies.

Thank you!

Wow! So glad you got to the root of her problems though. Hoping Nina feels better real soon now that Mommy knows. Bumping so that someone can help with her diet. Hugs to Nina!:hug:

YIKES - that is a super long list!!! If I'm not mistaken, Natural Balance also has a white fish & potato bone treat..........

Hope Nina is feeling better soon!! Hugs....

I am sorry to hear that.:(

Honestly though, allergy testing for foods is highly questionable.
You could've gotten false positives.

The only way to really know is to do an elimination diet.

If you want to go by that list, you could either feed a fish based food or talk to a nutritionist and homecook with possibly egg or cottage cheese.

Prescription diets aren't usually great but if you wanted to go that way, you could try an allergy formula.:)

wheat free biscuits
 

Have you looked at Organic Dog Treats - Wagatha's Extraordinary Biscuits for Dogs My baby loves the wheat free cranberry cheddar biscuits. They are mainly made out of spelt. I do have to break the biscuits up, cause they are not made for little mouths...