What do you feed your food allergy pug?

I feed Natural Balance fish most of the time. I rotate in the venison and bison every few bags.

Theresa,I would feed what you feel comfortable feeding Reggie. I'm going to tell you what my vet told me about Rx food. He was at a convention and there was quite a few dermatologist/allergist vets there. They were/are up in arms about the petfood industry because the food that is purchased at the store can have it's ingredients changed and not have to list it for up until three months. Some of the vets will recommend certain brands(non Rx) for their allergy patients. The cat/dog will be doing great on them and all of a sudden their allergies will flare up. Where as the Rx food, because it is a prescription will always be accurate.

I would go ahead and feed the script Royal Canin,since you do get it at a discount,just to see how your little man does on it.

Trish

Trish - that is interesting, I had never heard that.. but, not totally surprised.

A good resource is www.dogfoodadvisor.com

The reviews are completely unbiased and thorough. He has a list of allergy foods too.

Miss Pit wrote:Theresa,I would feed what you feel comfortable feeding Reggie. I'm going to tell you what my vet told me about Rx food. He was at a convention and there was quite a few dermatologist/allergist vets there. They were/are up in arms about the petfood industry because the food that is purchased at the store can have it's ingredients changed and not have to list it for up until three months. Some of the vets will recommend certain brands(non Rx) for their allergy patients. The cat/dog will be doing great on them and all of a sudden their allergies will flare up. Where as the Rx food, because it is a prescription will always be accurate.

I would go ahead and feed the script Royal Canin,since you do get it at a discount,just to see how your little man does on it.

Trish

Yes, I agree that there is a real lag when pet foods change their ingredients. And not all of them go out of their way to be very explicit about the ingredients.

And yes, feed what works for Reggie. While I'm not a fan of the Rx diets, I do know that they have their place and work for some dogs.

However, I remain skeptical about vets perceptions on diets--even the dermatology vets. I know several who continue to argue with me that there is no evidence that grains are an allergy issue with dogs.

thminis wrote:

northernwitch wrote:Well, to be honest, I'm less concerned about the arthritis issue and more about the yeast one since that significantly impacts on Tank's quality of life. Joint stuff I can manage other ways, but the yeast really requires nothing that converts to sugar or we end up in a world of hurt.

The other issue I have is that many of my dogs have had seasonal allergies and so react to many of the otherwise healthy botanicals in most good quality kibbles. So raw is what works for us.

Have you thought about doing an elimination diet with him? There are some good canned options out there that make doing the elimination diet easier if you aren't doing home cooked or raw.

Riddle me this, is an elimination diet different than a food trial? Do you have links or info on hand about the canned options?

An elimination diet is where you feed ONE thing and ONLY one thing to see if the dog reacts. Then you move to another thing (protein for example) if there is a reaction. When you find a protein they don't react to then you can add other ingredients, one by one over time, until you have an idea of what foods are tolerated and which aren't. Hilary has a long post on elimination diets somewhere--I thought it was on here, but would have to look.

Miss Pit wrote:Theresa,I would feed what you feel comfortable feeding Reggie. I'm going to tell you what my vet told me about Rx food. He was at a convention and there was quite a few dermatologist/allergist vets there. They were/are up in arms about the petfood industry because the food that is purchased at the store can have it's ingredients changed and not have to list it for up until three months. Some of the vets will recommend certain brands(non Rx) for their allergy patients. The cat/dog will be doing great on them and all of a sudden their allergies will flare up. Where as the Rx food, because it is a prescription will always be accurate.

I would go ahead and feed the script Royal Canin,since you do get it at a discount,just to see how your little man does on it.

Trish

That's my vet's take on it, also. He realizes the Rx foods are not ideal but he says those are the only manufacturers who have agreed to fully disclose accurate lists showing ingredients and exact of amount of each ingredient in the food. When we reached an impasse about me not wanting to put Bruno on Hill's (for struvite crystals), we compromised on finding high quality senior food (usually have less ingredients and fewer additives) or single grain, single protein, simple recipe type foods that have the fewest number of ingredients in the food.

So far, the RC rabbit food (with potatoes) hasn't given Jasmine yeast but it's only been six months. It's really hard to get here, always on back order at the vet's or not available, etc.etc. This time, I'm getting two bags, just in case. The dog who easily gets yeast is Willow Pug. She is on a diet of Solid Gold Beef and Barley and thru those silly AK tests, this was found to be the best for her. I spent a small fortune on Jasmine and Willow's AK tests, doing them every month as they would change, and for J., it made NO improvement at all, just made things worse. It has kept Willow from having diarrhea during the night which is a huge blessing. Gosh, I've had dogs all my life and until recently, no problems with reactions from their dog food. My ancient old Buffy has a tummy of iron, can eat anything but she's now on RC GD for her heart & another organ.

Here's the link on Elimination Diets: http://pugalug.com/forums/index.php/topic,9278.0.html

Grain-free should not increase weight. It should, all things being equal, help with weight control. My experience, though, is that simple protein raw trials are best. Tina is on turkey only (with ground turkey bones at night) and we will try to increase the variety of protein sources again shortly. My new foster boy, Murdoch, is highly allergic and he is currently having some success with chicken only (and Breakfast Slop in the morning). He was no good on turkey.

Chyna eats Addiction Summer Brushtail dehydrated raw. I order it through www.k9cuisine.com or another website of which I can't remember at the moment. I alternate since one usually has a sale going on. Chyna also did well on the Addiction Kangaroo dry kibble.