Food Allergies?

[dana]

Hi, the vet thinks my dachsie might have an allergy to the protein in his food (chicken). He has been having some slimey stools and didn't respond totally to some medicine he was on. So, the vet had us switch his food to one made with duck and potatos. Does anyone else seem to have this problem with their dog?
thanks, dana

[Mark]

No . . . no experience with the same thing, but we are curious and may have some knowledge.

So with the switch to duck/potatoes dog food . . . are things better? What brand is the food? What brand food was Dexter eating before switching?

[dana]

Thank you so much for being interested. Dexter's very first baby food was a puppy chow ground up that the breeder gave us. Then we fed him Iams, then shortly after, we switched him to Eukanuba (sp?). The brand of duck/potato food we feed him is Natural Balance - Dick Van Patten had the company (he was the guy on Eight is Enough! :)
He seems to be doing better with it. The vet also told us we could put him on a food made with Venecian (sp?) or rabbit.
I recently got him some treats with no animal products in them, i though he was doing ok, then recently he has been throwing up and i noticed some yucky stuff in his stool.
Poor little Dexter, he can't eat rawhide because that messed him all up too.
The vet said if the food change doesn't work, then we will have to put him on different medication and then if that doesn't work then we do a biopsy.
Dexter is a healthy little guy, outwardly, he has TONS of energy, but his stools are just yucky. And, he poops in the house all the time!!
Anyway, sorry to go on and on, it has definetly been an ordeal. We love him so much and just want to get to the bottom of all of this.
Thanks, dana

[Meemoo]

Have you thought about perhaps putting your dog on a digestive enzyme like Prozyme? It may help. Here's their site www.prozyme.net You can purchase it on-line at many sites and pet supply stores carry it too. I think you can also get a free sample from them to test it out.

Good luck!

[Mark]

Loren . . . that looks like a very interesting site. Thanks for posting it.

Dana . . . hang in there and keep researching. Many *store* brands contain corn products and a significant number of puppers can not digest corn properly and/or are allergic to it. Make sure it is not in the foods you give. The food also should list whatever meat as the first content item. The listing order is the highest content of the food, the first listed the highest and so on.

There are some members here who are BARFers (raw, natural foods they choose and mix themselves) they seem to do very well. We feed our 6 Nutro Natural Choice. In the Natural Choice we like the ingredients and it has Glucosomine and Chondroitin in the food for their joints and backs . . . and their stools are always fine. We too do not give the puppers rawhides. We only give them chews which can not be devoured like the Nylabone Galileo.

Let us know how things go . . . it may very well be a physical disorder and not the food, which is the avenue your Vet says he'll pursue next. It never hurts, though, to make sure our furkids get the food that's best for them. :)

[dana]

Thanks so much Loren and Mark for the advice. Loren, I will check out that site.
Mark, the natural balance's first ingrediant is potato. i am BIG on the ingrediants in dog food. i know what you mean about feeding our pups well!! the second ingrediant is duck. but i don't think it contains Glucosomine and Chondroitin that you referenced. i will have to look into that. thanks again for all of your help. we did have a nylabone for him, but he didn't like it. the nylabone was very hard. i was reading richard's questions about bones and that was helpful info. thanks again, dana
:)

[Mandy]

Another way to feed prozymes to your dog is to give live culture yogurt. The acidophilus (the good bacteria found in yogurt) helps.

You don't need to add a lot. A spoonful or two at most with the meal. We added yogurt when we first switched the boys to BARF.

You need to buy yogurt with live cultures (just check the labels at the grocery store). Plain is best, but occassionally vanilla is good, too. They just don't need all of the sugar found in most of the flavored yogurts.

[Mom of Freddie and FG]

I'm a little late here, but I thought I'd add that I feed Innova which has prebiotics & probiotics. I think probiotics act in a similar way that yogurt does. Anyway, if you would like to read about Innova, here's the website... www.naturapet.com Other foods are listed as well. These are human-grade foods. I like Innova because it contains 5 food groups, including dairy (no yogurt though for some reason). I've been feeding it for a long time now and my dogs do well on it. It can be a little too rich for some dogs. Sometimes I add yogurt to their food.

Susan

[dana]

Thank you so much, i will check it out!