Dog Allergies

[MadisonM]

Hello,

My Goldendoodle F1b was having skin itches, an ear infection, and a smell for 9 months. I was feeding him small batch raw beef patties, i changed him to one ingredient rabbit(cooked), and everything went away within two weeks. After two months i tried to swtich back to small batch raw patties in rabbit and within two days he started with the itching.

What do you take away from this? He is allergic to the extras in the small batch formula? The rabbit is hard to get and crazy expensive, so i'm trying to figure out what to do.

Thank you.

 

[NancyK]

Viva Raw makes a pure line of products where they are single proteins without all the extras. In my opinion, the extras are definitely potential triggers. You might also consider ground whole prey from My Pet Carnivore or Hare Today. These contain only single proteins but have the meat, bone and organs. This is a way to determine if a particular protein or extra is the problem.

Nancy

 

[GinnyW]

As a lay person, I would be inclined to say he needs more variety, not less. He has become overly sensitive to this food, and by itself it is not meeting his needs. Dogs won't starve themselves when you offer alternatives, so don't worry about any notion of "complete" nutrition in in or another product. Just, without fussing, offer something completely different, perhaps just for now, not worrying and with great joy and excitement.

Do read everything on this site about not just diet, but about the Happiness Protocol and about meeting dietary needs over the long haul. Doodles are a crap shoot, genetically speaking, so be adventurous and find out what makes THIS guy happy. "Happy" is much more valuable than some notion of great nutrition, but both can be achieved over time - and you have his whole life in which to make him happy.