# Elimination Diet/Food Allergy



## vrmueller (Jun 14, 2008)

Ruby is just a mess right now. I took her to the vet this morning because she had scabs in her ears and **** in her eyes. Come to find out she also has an infected vulva and the webbing between her front and back feet are also infected. The vet wants her on an eye ointment, an antibiotic, a steroid and an elimination diet. She is currently on Taste of the Wild dry and Innova canned beef. She is not fed human food except for a couple bites of sweet potato now and then. She has always had loose stools and bad gas. The vet wants her on Hills Prescription Diet d/d Potato and Salmon. I am to mix this in with her regular food and wean for 9 days. By the 10th day she is to solely be on the new food. Has anyone had any experince with this brand? I have had her previously on Solid Gold, California Natural, Innova Large Bites and now Taste of the Wild. I don't like her being on all of these drugs and she has to go back for another mite shot in one week. Any advice? Thanks.


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## vixen (Jul 26, 2008)

I tryed Max with the Z/D ultra and he was so depressed and poos where horrible like tar, I asumed it was there was nothing in it just the bare essenals, not shore about the D/D. I still trying to figour out what to feed Max at the moment, food for dogs with allergies is so confussing (well it is for me) I going to try a hypo allerginic food like james welbeloved I'm even looking into BARF.

It he shore it a food allergy as Max has a dust mite allergy as well.


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## Bender (Dec 30, 2008)

I would suggest a raw diet, using a single protein source for at least a month or two to see if that makes a difference. The hills stuff is mainly potato and I'm guessing expensive too, and contains soybean oil which can be an allergen. 

I would suggest something like elk, llama or rabbit, if you can find them, as they're not likely to have been on her menu before - or do a select list of 4-5 meats, no grains, and see how she does on that diet for a few months. Often just the switch to raw will make a huge improvement in things and reduce the vet visits. Even if she's had an issue with a kibble she may be fine with the same thing raw (Bender had an issue with chicken based kibble when she was younger, but eats raw chicken without any problems). 

Just my thoughts anyway. The hills food isn't the greatest out there, if you have to do kibble I'd be tempted to do the orijen or wellness fish to see if it makes a difference...

Good luck and hope she's feeling better soon though,

Lana


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## paula bedard (Feb 5, 2008)

My Sam was on a prescription Hill's food for a digestive problem and he did well on it. I don't like Hill's as a regular kibble but to help solve an issue, it can help.

Ike had repeat ear infections and a food allergy was suspected. I put him on a food that has none of the ingredients that were in the kibble he had been eating and his infections/ears cleared right up. I now feed him Merrick's Wilderness Blend and The Honest Kitchen Preference Formula, a raw dehydrated food that I add my own meat to, usually salmon. Ike loves both, his stools are fine, and he looks and smells great.

I have narrowed down Ike's culprits to Corn, Chicken, & Soy


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## Noey (Feb 26, 2009)

Well Noah has had Science Diet z/d since he was a pup. Loves it. He has allergies. We tried to switch him to new food recently and he developed a double ear infection. He has been back on z/d and his ears are clear. 

Noah had huge loose stool before he was on z/d and the vet asked us to try it - within a week his stools were normal.


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## Toffifay (Dec 29, 2009)

One of my dogs has allergies, too. She has food and environmental allergies. One thing to remember is that allergies are accumulative. Once I got my dog off of the food that was causing some (about half) of her allergic response, she got a whole lot better, not 100% better, but a great improvement. She has been on Hill's Z/D Ultra for 7 weeks and started having some relief as early on a week into the Rx food. Do I know exactly what foods/protein sources she is allergic too? No, I suspect Beef, but don't have any other sure guesses. When she is done with her 10 week trial on the hypoallergenic food, I am going to try a simple, limited ingredient formula and see how she does.

I do not really want to keep her on the Z/D Ultra forever, it has only 14% protein. I do not think that a food that is over 60% carbohydrates is good to feed a 2 year old dog, it's entire life.


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## vrmueller (Jun 14, 2008)

I appreciate all of your responses, thanks so much! I am going to go through with the elimination process and finish the Hills. After this is done I am going to start with the raw diet. Hopefully, this will bring Ruby some relief. I know it is both food and environmental. Things are blooming like crazy around here and the first sight of spring she comes down with her gooey eyes. I guess I better start doing my homework on the raw and get busy. Thanks again.


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## CarolinaCasey (Jun 1, 2007)

paula bedard said:


> My Sam was on a prescription Hill's food for a digestive problem and he did well on it.* I don't like Hill's as a regular kibble but to help solve an issue, it can help.*


I think that the d/d is worth trying! It is used for skin conditions and I've seen it work. Granted, I agree with Paula, that I'd prefer not to use Hill's, but it is formulated for special conditions/cases. This seems to be one of them! Give it a try, see if you can get her straightened out. Once things are under control with the ears, skin, and other conditions, then you could branch out and try raw or another commercial dry kibble. Poor girl, hope she's in tip-top shape soon!


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## bwoz (Jul 12, 2007)

Aww poor Ruby. My pup had the rawness between his toes and yucky ears and that alone was enough. I hope things get under control quick, I know this situation is hard. Good luck!


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## Ranger (Nov 11, 2009)

Aw, your poor dog. Hope she's feeling better soon! I thought Ranger had allergies when I got him (lots of nose rubbing and scratching) and switched his food to Orijen 6 fish as it's one of the better foods for allergies. Grain-free and a different source of protein than most foods. Most of the rubbing/scratching stopped in a few weeks but it later turned out he didn't have allergies - he just wasn't doing well on what he was being fed at the time. 

My brother's dog doesn't do well on potato (even sweet potato) formulas. It's not allergies but he gets severe runs when he's fed anything - even a dog cookie - with potato in the ingredients list. I thought potato was one of the things most dogs did well with, but he sure didn't. Once bro switched him over to Orijen 6 fish, dog did way better.


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## vrmueller (Jun 14, 2008)

I am going to finish the d/d and see how she does. It is so frustrating to me because her diet now is so limited. She doesn't do well on anything. It is almost as if she has Celiac Disease. One piece of something with wheat and severe runs. So not only does she have all of the itching and scratching, the girl has had the runs at least 80 percent of her llife. 

Even with a shot of prednisone yesterday she is still biting and chewing at herself.


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## Hali's Mom (Oct 5, 2006)

Hali had no issues until she was about 4, she was eating IAMs Large Breed and had been since she out grew puppy food, that was Eukanuba from the breeder but I didn't like the way her coat looked on Eukanuba. She developed allergies, hot spots, gunky eyes and ears, even her breath smelled bad. I didn't really want to have to do the elimination diet as it is intended to be carried out so I switched to a completely different protein and a grain free food. Solid Gold "Barking at the Moon", it is salmon and rice. That helped alot but it wasn't until she started on Soloxine for the thyroid condition we discovered that she really came around, ears and eyes are clear now, she lost 14lbs, coat is filling out nicely and breath is just "doggie" breath now. I highly recommend getting away from grains, they are most often the culprit as is chicken and most raw diets consist largely on chicken. Also, beware of your treats, alot of grain there as well. I use veggie chips for treats as they are mostly potato and no grain. If we "cheat" one little bit, the hot spots reappear almost immediately. Just my 2 cents.


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