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 Need help with Jakes food!
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| Author | Topic: Need help with Jakes food! |
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honeybear Member  Posts: 926 |
posted 01-08-2004 08:54 AM
 
First a little background, Jake is my 6 1/2 year old lab. For most of his life he has been lethargic, a little overweight. We change his food over the years, but he was the same. Several months ago I switched him to Innova. WOW, I got a differnet dog, He had so much energy and was slimming down I joked he was now on an Atkins diet since the first 3 ingred in INnova is chicken, lots of protein. Well it didnt sit well with his skin, he started chewing his skin and got a skin fungus. I think it was the chicken. I put him on another high quality chicken food with no change I have been experimenting with food for the last few months, for the last few weeks he has been on Natures recipe Lamb and rice (a middle of the road food), I have still been looking for better quality where I can buy here. I found California Natural lamb and rice at a feed store this week end. It is a "Allergy food" The only ingred are rice, lambmeal, rice, sunflower oil. So over the last few days I was mixing this with his other food. Yesterday he got mostly the Ca natural. Well last night poor Jake was scratching so bad, and HARD I thought he was going to break his skin and start bleeding he has nver done it like this Honeybear IP: Logged |
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dukesdad Member Posts: 117 |
posted 01-08-2004 09:06 AM
Though food allergies are the most common I would start to sleuth out other possible causes. What about insect bites, fleas, mosquitoes etc. Not that time of year I know but my old Lab's skin would flare up with one insect bite. Think also about any other changes in his environment. There are dermatologist specialist for dogs who can do the allergy test for dogs just like they do for humans to track down the offending source. Ask you Vet for a referral. Keep us posted. Dukesdad IP: Logged |
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Maisey Member Posts: 1387 |
posted 01-08-2004 09:09 AM
It could be this isn't a food allergy at all honeybear. You have been struggling with this for a long time, I would try to record all the changes you have made in the past in a journal and the reactions he had to them..then seek the help of a holistic vet. It may be something in his environment you haven't thought of. A holistic vet will aproach the issue with new and different eyes, sometimes that makes a huge difference. They tend to think differently about the patient and the approach. IP: Logged |
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Jamiya Member Posts: 1392 |
posted 01-08-2004 10:09 AM
Could it be the sunflower oil? I don't see that in the Nature's Recipe. Or it could be an inhalant or some other allergy, as others have suggested. Have you had him actually tested before? Perhaps that would help. My vet said there is a blood test or skin tests, and the better way to go is the skin tests (where they put little patches of stuff on the dog to see what he reacts to - just like they do in humans).
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honeybear Member Posts: 926 |
posted 01-08-2004 10:38 AM
I think I will have him tested. I also have a holistic vet here, but have to take off work because of his hours, but it is worth it. His itching problems started with the Innova, he never scratched before that, he had other health issues but not that. It just seems too much of a coincidence that he started the Ca Nat and then went into this horrible scratch attack last night. It was at night and I just heard him, I was trying to see where he was scratching but it was too dark. I had a bag of Natural balance Duck and potato I was going to try again so I gave him that this morning. I also started the missing link a few weeks ago. My other dog Wylie is as healthy as an ox It is almost like the Innova triggered some kind of allergic reaction that is ongoing Jake kept me up last night because I was thinkingg poor thing he cant sleep, he finally came up on the bed this morning about 3:00 and finally slept like a log. IP: Logged |
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Jamiya Member Posts: 1392 |
posted 01-08-2004 11:06 AM
Hey, can you give me some of that "lethargic food" you were feeding him previously? (Just kidding!)  Nala kept me up the whole first night we were back in town. I think she was unused to the smallness of her crate and she was shifting position all night long.
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honeybear Member Posts: 926 |
posted 01-08-2004 11:17 AM
We would joke were were going to put him back on his old food because we couldnt keep up with him! Here it would be bed time for me and he has his ball and he wants me to play hide and seek and chase him. Most of it was diet food where there were a lot of fillers like corn and carbs, to keep the calorie content down. I have thought of that too with Wylie, she only has only 2 speeds on and off. She will play 16 hours if you let her then, then she just drops and is out like a light until the next day. It is funny to see her go to bed on her own. Honeybear IP: Logged |
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Jamiya Member Posts: 1392 |
posted 01-08-2004 02:19 PM
Hehe, yeah we know when Nala flops over on her side (we call it the "dead dog pose") that she is out for a while.
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dougiesmom Member Posts: 18 |
posted 01-08-2004 09:02 PM
My father's 7y/o dog has skin allergies. He's tried different foods and saw better results w/ nutro. This did not clear up the problem entirely but helped. Alex goes to the vet every 2wks for an allergy shot. i recently switched my 3 dogs to nutro this past week after years of feeding them iams. Good-luck. IP: Logged |
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dougiesmom Member Posts: 18 |
posted 01-08-2004 09:05 PM
honeybear, forgot-- have you tried giving him benadryl? to help w/ the scratching? IP: Logged |
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dukesdad Member Posts: 117 |
posted 01-09-2004 06:12 AM
Honeybear, See if your Vet will give you a supply of Prednisone. It was my experience with my old Jake that when he had a flair up one tablet would releieve his itching very quickly. My Jake started having alergy problems at six months and lived for almost 15 years. At one time I was bathing him frequently with that oatmeal shampoo that was suppose to help but later I found that not bathing at all worked best. Labs don't need to be bathed unless they roll in something really nasty. Check on the Prednisone. Funny story. Liz once developed a bad case of poison ivy and her doctor prescribed Prednisone. When she picked up her prescription they had given her the generic brand. I told her that Jake would share his "real" Prednisone if she wanted. IP: Logged |
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honeybear Member Posts: 926 |
posted 01-09-2004 08:04 AM
Dukesdad, I want to try to stay away from pred since Jake is already overweight, and I am afraid of the weight gain, the vet has wnated to put him on this in the past. Dougie - not a bad idea on the benedryl. I gave Jake the potato and duck last night for dinner and he did nto scratch once. Honeybear IP: Logged |
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Jamiya Member Posts: 1392 |
posted 01-09-2004 09:12 AM
To be more definitive, you can try the one you thought made him scratch and see if it happens again. Have some benadryl on hand (and find out the correct dose beforehand) so if it does happen you can give the poor guy some relief. That would help to rule out coincidences, though.
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honeybear Member Posts: 926 |
posted 01-09-2004 10:02 AM
that is a good idea Jimiya, since the allergy has so few ingred it shoudl be easy to pinpoint the ingred which could be the sunflower oil Honeybear IP: Logged |
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