Food question
Submitted by MissKLUV on April 7, 2011 - 1:51pmHi Everyone! I am a new member and this is my first post. I have a 15month old male EBD named Porkchop and we are having some food issues..I think. I have him eating California Natural Lamb & Rice Large Bites. He has been eating this for 2 1/2 weeks. We put him on this because he was gassy and had red spots on his belly from eating Orijen Regional Red before this. Now he still have the red spots on his belly, it looks like the chicken pox we get but not scabby. He is scratching himself, his ears are cruddy with ear wax when before they stayed clean in between baths. He did go through a bout of diarrhea which was cleared up with a bland diet of hamburger/peas/rice. We are now starting to integrate him back on to the California Natural. He is still kind of gassy though not really that bad. So the question is should I keep feeding him this for a couple of months and see if it clears up or switch him now? I have heard that it can take 4-6 weeks to see a difference in a food change. If I do switch, what do you all commonly feed your dogs? I see the food listing but are there any in particular that are really good for picky/itchy skin eaters! :)
Thanks,
Kim (Porkchop's Mom)
It can take 4-6 weeks
but if he is displaying issues that he did not have on the old food I would take him off right away. The raised bumps you mentioned are probably hives from an allergic reaction to something in the new food. He may need to take some benadryl to help the hives and itchies go away. The dosage is one mg per lb of their body weight. The pills are 25 mgs so if he is near 25 lbs then one pill. If he is closer to 50 then 2 pills.
A lot of dogs have problems with lamb, mine included. I personally have had very good luck with grain free food (mine is on taste of the wild but there are many grain free choices) - we had many of the same issues you are having on a lamb food containing grains.
I hope the little guy feels better and that you can find a food that works for him. He's a cutie. Welcome to bdw =)
I forgot to add
In my original post, I forgot to add that he is losing hair too. He is shedding like crazy. You can see his skin on his back in the right light. What TOTW do you feed him? I was thinking getting him on some kind of fish formula. He used to eat Lamb and Rice as a puppy and he did well on that. That was the reasoning for putting him back on it but on adult formula. I guess he might have outgrown his tolerance to lamb. :)
Hmm
Do you have him on a fish oil supplement? Personally I think they all should be on some sort of fish oil. It's great for their coat, heart etc.,
I had onslow on the pacific stream for awhile and now he is on bison and venicin. Simply because he got tired of the fish. Used to gobble up the fish oil pills then he started even snubbing them. LOL
If your guy is very young, you might want to have him scraped to rule out demodex if he is having extreme hair loss Best wishes!
cont..
I have him on Solid Gold Seameal. I used to have him on Dynovite but the Seameal is all he is on now. I will get him on some fish oil. He has had mange before so I will have that checked out. Though it doesn't look like it did back then. Thanks for your help.
ps. I love Onslow's expression in the flower patch. Almost a "get me out of here" look! Precious!
haha
Yes his face tells the story. I make him go in the flower patch every year for pics. LOL Have a great day.