5 month old yorkie with food allergies refuses dry kibble My 5 month old, Benji, has some still to be discovered food allergies that make him a very itchy, flaky boy. Our previous vet suggest boiling rice and turkey (along with supplements) to see if that would clear the problem. We parted ways with this vet due to our moving house and our new vet suggested definitely going back to dry kibble (hypoallergenic Blue Buffalo Limited Ingredients). The problem is, Benji refuses to touch it! He sniffs at it, runs away, etc. i have tried the picking up the bowl, waiting 30 minutes, and setting it back down to no avail. Eventually we cave in and feed him the human food, which he gobbles up in a second. I don't know what else to do, I don't want him to become accustomed to human food forever and have thought of switching over to a new brand of food, however I'm wary of spending more money on food he will just turn his nose up at. Please help! :( |
Have you tried sprinkling some grated Parmesan cheese on top of his dry food. Most dogs LOVE the smell of the cheese and will gobble up their food. Also many dogs do not like hard kibble, you can try adding a little bit of warm water to the kibble, this will soften the dry food. |
The big issues with the non prescription hypoallergenic foods is they are still made in factory's with all the other foods and come in contact with all the other ingredients there fore not really making it hypoallergenic also blue buffalo is known to mislabel there products so who really knows if it's hypoallergenic or not. If you want a true hypoallergenic diet you need to go with a prescription food like Royal Canin but it's really rare that a puppy would have food allergies. I would look into a second opinion and maybe even a dermatologist. |
I would be suspect of "food allergies" (or, any allergies) in a pup this young bc of the immaturity of their immune system. Why were food allergies diagnosed, what was the evidence...? That would be helpful to know. What are the symptoms too, most importantly? If you're not against making food, I'd go that way - there are super easy ways to do it. If you insist on kibble only, then I'd first want to know the answers from the paragraph above... |
Five months old is extremely young for food allergies. Blue Buffalo now makes a hydrolyzed diet for food allergies called HF, is that the one he is on? The only one I know that is formulated for such young dogs is Royal Canin HP that is balanced. It needs to be 8 weeks of strict and only approved treats. I would get some Malaseb shampoo because it helps reduce the yeast and bacteria count that some yorkies are so prone to get. Make sure your vet gets cytology to treat any bacteria or yeast infections. Being such a young dog I would make sure they have done mite scrapings and give a dose of oral flea/tick/mite prevention to rule any out Nexgard, Simparica, or Bravecto. Five months is too young for Apoquel, but you could try getting one of the new Cytopoint injections to help with itchiness. That is a good place to start because some yorkies are so refractory to allergy treatments. |
All times are GMT -8. The time now is 02:33 PM. |
Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.9
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
Copyright ©2003 - 2018 YorkieTalk.com
Privacy Policy - Terms of Use