Another Dog Food Allergy Question

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wannabe
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Another Dog Food Allergy Question

Post by wannabe » Wed Apr 28, 2010 7:20 pm

A few weeks after I switched from Exceed Chicken and Rice to Pro Pac High Performance, I started to notice dry/scaley skin on one of my dogs ears and muzzle. My vet commented on it when I took him in for his Lyme vaccine, but she said it could also be an allergy to something environmental. He has been on this diet for 2-3 months, and it seems to be getting worse. Should I take him back to the vet, or switch his diet to something without chicken and corn and see what happens?

This is what he is eating now: http://www.propacpetfood.com/dogs/index ... 0102154622

This is what I will switch him to: http://www.propacpetfood.com/dogs/index ... 0102160023
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ezzy333
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Re: Another Dog Food Allergy Question

Post by ezzy333 » Wed Apr 28, 2010 8:26 pm

Doesn't sound like a food allergy to me but if it is the chances are 100 to 1 it is the chicken. If you really need to find out for sure have the vet run a test against the two ingredients. I do think it would be a waste of money though since you were feeding chicken based food before the switch and dogs are almost never allergic to a grain as food allergies are normally to the protein source and not the carbs.

Think your vet is right when she said environmental and it may not be an allergy at all. There are other things to consider.

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Re: Another Dog Food Allergy Question

Post by BigShooter » Wed Apr 28, 2010 8:35 pm

So did the vet say without doing a scraping that he/she could rule out mites for certain?
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MikeB
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Re: Another Dog Food Allergy Question

Post by MikeB » Wed Apr 28, 2010 9:32 pm

I agree with BigShooter, Go back to the vet and have a skin scraping done to rule out any kind of Mange mites. It sounds more like Mange that than any food allergy.

Is your dog itching at all? Scratching more than normal? Scratching it's ears?

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mcbosco
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Re: Another Dog Food Allergy Question

Post by mcbosco » Thu Apr 29, 2010 6:06 am

given that its spring and the grass is very wet in the morning it sounds like that dog is just having a mild reaction to the grass & weeds and the skin being wet...if its just flaking i would clean it and perhaps put some pure aloe gel on it or a bees wax product of some kind..skin on the muzzle is delicate...my dog's face is always soaked in the morning and covered with stuff from the grass, weeds and flowering trees.

still a good idea to have its scraped

wannabe
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Re: Another Dog Food Allergy Question

Post by wannabe » Mon May 03, 2010 7:19 pm

The skin scaping was negative, so the vet took blood for a thyroid panel. She suggested that I put him on a special diet for a few months to see if his skin improves to rule out a food allergy. I suppose I will wait for the thyroid results before I make any changes.
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big steve46
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Re: Another Dog Food Allergy Question

Post by big steve46 » Mon May 03, 2010 10:12 pm

wannabe wrote:The skin scaping was negative, so the vet took blood for a thyroid panel. She suggested that I put him on a special diet for a few months to see if his skin improves to rule out a food allergy. I suppose I will wait for the thyroid results before I make any changes.
Just curious. What kind of special diet?
big steve

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mcbosco
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Re: Another Dog Food Allergy Question

Post by mcbosco » Tue May 04, 2010 6:08 am

big steve46 wrote:
wannabe wrote:The skin scaping was negative, so the vet took blood for a thyroid panel. She suggested that I put him on a special diet for a few months to see if his skin improves to rule out a food allergy. I suppose I will wait for the thyroid results before I make any changes.
Just curious. What kind of special diet?

The expensive kind the vet sells behind the counter!!!!

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Re: Another Dog Food Allergy Question

Post by wannabe » Tue May 04, 2010 6:49 am

big steve46 wrote:Just curious. What kind of special diet?
The protiens are broken down so the dogs immune system can't recognize them.
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mcbosco
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Re: Another Dog Food Allergy Question

Post by mcbosco » Tue May 04, 2010 7:49 am

My advise is not to spend any money at the Vet on food. If you want to see if the dog is allergic to the common proteins or grains you can find vastly superior products in the store. Doing this poses no risk to the dog because these are all quality diets that any dog even without allergies can live a lifetime on. My experience from friends is that all the expensive allergy testing that is going on yields very little information that is not commonly known (ie common protein allergies) or how to deal with it.

I would try a diet with a novel protein first and a topical aid like Derma Dream and see if it helps. My vet has been using a catfish & vension based food that costs about $1lb from a well known east coast company, far better and cheaper than what some vets charge for Hills stuff. A company called Blackwood has a similar formula if you live down south. Catfish is a logical protein because there is very little chance your dog has been exposed to it.

If it gets worse or doesn't improve or the dog is not doing well for some other reason, then the Vet is the best option.

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Re: Another Dog Food Allergy Question

Post by wannabe » Tue May 18, 2010 1:20 pm

The thyroid test results were not normal, but they were not consistent with a hypothyroid. The vet thinks that there is something else going on. I had remembered an old vet telling about treating hair loss on a shorthairs ears with 3 mg of melatonin/day, so I started that two weeks ago. I haven't changed his diet, and he isn't getting any worse, so as long as he is happy and winning on the weekends the vet and I decided to give the melatonin another month.
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Re: Another Dog Food Allergy Question

Post by BigShooter » Tue May 18, 2010 2:13 pm

How old is the GSP?
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Re: Another Dog Food Allergy Question

Post by big steve46 » Tue May 18, 2010 2:32 pm

wannabe wrote:The thyroid test results were not normal, but they were not consistent with a hypothyroid. The vet thinks that there is something else going on. I had remembered an old vet telling about treating hair loss on a shorthairs ears with 3 mg of melatonin/day, so I started that two weeks ago. I haven't changed his diet, and he isn't getting any worse, so as long as he is happy and winning on the weekends the vet and I decided to give the melatonin another month.
If the thyroid (T4) test is low normal, the dog should be treated. Been there, done that with similar problems.
big steve

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Re: Another Dog Food Allergy Question

Post by wannabe » Thu Jun 03, 2010 1:28 pm

It has been a month since I started the 3mg/day of melatonin. He seems healthy and happy, and the hair and skin on his ears is back to normal. I will call the vet in another two weeks to see what she thinks about taking him off of the melatonin for now. His skin may have healed itself without any treatment, but I am going to be curious to see if it happens again next Spring in case it is an environmental allergy.
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Re: Another Dog Food Allergy Question

Post by ezzy333 » Thu Jun 03, 2010 3:03 pm

Don't know what it is but you pretty well proved it wasn't a food allergy. That's the case 99% of the time food is claimed to be the problem. I'm betting it won't come back but will be interesting to follow.

Hope it all goes well from here.

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Re: Another Dog Food Allergy Question

Post by big steve46 » Thu Jun 03, 2010 5:45 pm

The thyroid perhaps was slightly overactive. Melatonin has a suppressing effect on the thyroid function. Perhaps that's the connection. Thyroid imbalance can certainly cause hair loss, and it doesn't have to be low thyroid. Melatonin has a variety of effects on the body, and I'm glad it's working for you.
big steve

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