Need Help to ID Food Allergy
 

I was going to add to Rachael's thread on Winter or Food Allergies but thought my questions were a little different.

Emee is 4 months(19 weeks) and started having ear problems about 15 weeks....shortly after she came home. No change in diets she was on Royal Canin Puppy. The vet first treated her for ear mites but after an application of Revolution, daily drops of gooey Zymox for 10 days and then after that, daily rinsing of a vet ear cleansing rinse, Emee still has some redness and of course the brown wax. The vet now is thinking she might have a food allery. She gave me IAMS Veternariy Formula Response KO to feed her with strict instructions of no other food source.....none. The protein source is kangeroo so I can see how this would be a completely new protein for her but the very first ingredient is Oat Flour. Would this mean that she will be receiving a grain too?

But,the big thing is...she will not eat it. Since she is still a puppy and only up to 2 lbs 14 ounces, I am worried about her going too long without eating. After not eating the food for 24 hours, I added a very small spoon of Merrick - Thanksgiving Day dinner to the kanderoo food and she ate good. What can I do to make sure she is eating but still identify if she has a food allery. Any help will be appreciated by this worried mom.

By the way, I now have been putting an antibiotice in her ears after the daily rinsing and her ears are now cleared up finally. Now to ID the root cause.

I am zero help with the ears.

However, with the food. Many times when switching ANY dog to a rare protein source- they don't eat it because well.. it isn't very flavourful.

If it were ME (keep in mind, i tend to do the opposite of what my vet says as she doens't know a whole lot on dog nutrition- i'm teaching her a bit :) ). I would be putting her on something like:

Dick Van Patten's Natural Balance® Allergy Formulas for Dogs

either the venison or fish formula. The carb is not a grain (sweet potato) so you can ensure it isn't a grain thing and the protein is a rare source- usually can't go wrong with a fish.

I would be telling my vet that a) IAMS is not a great food at all- you want her on a higher quality food. b) she is not eating the IAMS- she is too tiny to be not eating and not liking her food. You have found a rare protein and a grain free food. You have to give it at least a month to see a difference- so hang in there. If you are going to give her treats- stick with fruits and veggies.

Thanks,

I too am not crazy about IAMS. Her ears are fine now since I have put the antibiotic drops in. What I would like to do is find a food that she likes that I can use for the next week, take her off the drops next Saturday and continue with the food and see what happens. I just need to find the right food that a small puppy will like.

With Cali I use California Natural lamb and brown rice and they have a herring one or some type of fish. The vet told me to put her on a novel protein and one carb and Kangaroo would definitely be a novel protein! Hope she gets better soon.

Thanks Patti...yes kangeroo meat sure is a novel protein...and one the Emee is not at all interested in. :tongue030

Thanks for the California Natural suggestion. I am going to look into it. Do you use kibble or can? Emee is a little piggy so seeing her not eating is very noticable and worrisome.

California Natural is great for allergy-suffering dogs because it has limited ingredients and protein sources. I think one is soley duck, one is lamb, and one is chicken.

Any special concerns with diet since Emee is only 4 months? I noticed that California Natural has a puppy formula.

you can do a home cooked diet but being she is a puppy it has limited ingredients - how old is she as allergies start at ages 6 mos to 3 years. If she was mine i would feed natural balance venison and sweet potato or fish and sweet potato or duck and potato those are all allergy formulas and do not have oats in them as yes allergy dogs can be allergic to grains - my allergy dog cannot be bathed in oatmeal shampoos. you have to be strict though with food 12 weeks nothing else and remember 10% of the time it is food 90% environmental BUT an allergy dog should ALWAYS be on a limited ingredient diet

yep so true most vets are clueless about nutrition :(

usually ear problems is a food allergy to grains as they get yeasty ears

Thank you all for the responses. Very interesting. Of course now I have more questions. Here are 3 more.

Emee is 4 1/2 months old...is this too early for a food allergy?
All the foods I am looking at have a grain in them, won't this be a problem if she has an allergy to grain?
Since she is still a pup, any concerns with taking her off puppy food?

My Daisy has an allergy to chicken (we think). When I was looking at switching her food from Innova Puppy I looked at EVERYTHING!! I am not a fan of grain-free, though. I think the protein content is too high for small yorkies. I am feeding Evanger's Pheasant and Brown Rice now and both of mine LOVE it. Very reasonable price, as well.

Also, most high quality foods are All Life Stages foods which means you can feed from puppy to adult. That is what Evanger's Pheasant is. It will tell you on the bag if it is an ALS formula - usually somewhere near the ingredients.

A good resource site is dogfoodanalysis.com. I used it a LOT in my search. Try to shoot for a 4 or 5 star - the 6 star are all high protein.

Good luck!

the natural balance is for all stage of dogs

but brown rice is a grain so i think sweet potato is a better choice with a dog with allergies

Mine was only allergic to chicken - not any grain so Evanger's Pheasant and Brown Rice work for us.

Evanger's also makes several varieties of 100% canned meat - they have beef, rabbit, buffalo, duck. If you can't find a kibble that works, you might be able to use these instead of home cooking your proteins. They are NOT complete though so you would have so supplement with vitamins and veggies and what not. It is really hard to get a balanced home cooked diet IMO.