I would like to hear from people that, for whatever reason, chose to feed dry dog food. What brands are they using and how well are their dogs doing on the dry food.
I am looking at Acana which seems to have excellent ingredients.
I do believe in the raw diet but for the last few months my guy has been itching something awful. Since chicken and beef are top allergy causing foods, I thought I would do the all fish dry food and just see what happens before I proceed to allergy testing. I appreciate any imput as I consider their diet and health a top concern of mine. Thanks

Most allergies in dogs are NOT caused my food. In fact it is not common at all to have that happen.

If it just started....since over the last month or so, depending on where you live, everything everywhere is blooming & pollen counts are high....I would think that it is more likely a pollen allergy then food.

If you are concerned about foods...I would be very careful about feeding any foods with grains, as they are more often then not the 'offender' when it comes to food allergies. Most especialy corn, soy & a few other items. Most kibbles contain some kind of grain. Oats & barley are much better then any corn or wheat. But it's still grains.

If you are feeding raw you can eliminate the beef & chicken & go to a novel food(one that the dog has never had) & feed that for a few weeks & see if there is any change in the itching. (I have 2 that I have never fed for that purposs & so I can still have a little variety if a novel diet is needed.)If you have a couple of meats not fed..start with one for a 2 weeks & if no problem introduce the other & feed for another couple of weeks. Should be about 6 weeks altogether. Then see if there is any change. If not you can reintroduce the food that you suspect is a problem & see what happens.

The advantage of a raw diet, especially in a dog where allergy may be suspected...is that you can control EVERY item that you dog eats. Not so in kibbles. They are what they are & you are stuck with ALL the ingreedients like it or not good or bad. Even in the best of foods there may often be an ingreedient that you may not really want to feed.

You might also hose off the dog before bringing into the house or wiping off with a damp towell or use natural babywipes to remove as much pollen as possible. Wash all bedding etc. See if that all helps.

Good luck.

Also, often allergies don't start until the dog is 3 or so years old. Not sure how old your dog is.

My lot often have the itch around the time the crops come up this time of the year, especially when the long grass is blowing seeds.

My big boy had terrible problems with yeast a few months back, and I changed his dry food because while all the others are fine on it, I didn't think it would hurt to try another which does have brown rice, but not the other ingredients in the cheaper kibble.

He has been on it for about 3 months and his ears are no longer cacky or hot and he hasn't scratched for ages, it is expensive for what it is, and I would by choice be putting the 2 Boerboels back on raw, it isn't an option at the moment for several reasons, but they were fantastic on it and I would like to go back to raw soon as possible.

 Quote: Geri Gill

I would like to hear from people that, for whatever reason, chose to feed dry dog food. What brands are they using and how well are their dogs doing on the dry food.
I am looking at Acana which seems to have excellent ingredients.
I do believe in the raw diet but for the last few months my guy has been itching something awful. Since chicken and beef are top allergy causing foods, I thought I would do the all fish dry food and just see what happens before I proceed to allergy testing. I appreciate any imput as I consider their diet and health a top concern of mine. Thanks

Geri, as Anne says, this is so much more likely to be one of the top two dog allergies (flea saliva and environmental/inhalant) that a focus on food at this stage is counter-productive, IMO.

BY FAR the top dog allergen is flea saliva (flea bite dermatitis, flea saliva allergy, many names), and then the close second is environmental/inhalant.

True food allergies account for about 10% of dog allergies.

This is the precise season (in many, or even most, U.S. locations, certainly including Florida) when either of the top two allergies will first affect an allergic dog.

If I were you, I'd read a lot of threads here, because this has been addressed so extensively on the board. There are several things you can do, including reporting to us the exact body geography and severity of the pruritis, and whether you have looked into the ears with a flashlight and checked for inflammation and debris (ear infections often being secondary to allergy).

The very first thing I would do would be to make several searches here (see upper right there, "advanced search"?) using first itching, then itchy, then allergies, then atopy, then derm. Expand the date range .... this is vital. You want to look at four years or so. Not doing these searches will mean that you will miss dozens of exact steps you can take to narrow down the probabilities, to do the external parasite searches, to fend off any full-blown ear infection (now; you want to look in the ears now, today), to help keep allergens from outside off the dog's coat, paws, and indoor environment and avoid having him breathe them 24-7, to up his fish oil, start probiotics (maybe plain unsweetened live-culture yogurt), trial the two best-experience antihistamines, start a log of time of day and weather when the scratching is worse, and much more.

Chicken and beef are in the "top four" allergy foods for dogs, because of their wide prevalence in dog foods (food allergies develop on repeated exposure), but again, food is so far down the list of possibilities that to switch to kibble from raw based on probable allergies is not even in my top-25 list of response steps (and I say this despite the opinions you will get from many GP vets, who are not derm vets and who often rely on allergy info from the Hills/Science Diet reps).

You'll find links to authoritative derm med sites, vet med handbooks, and unanimous canine allergy specialists on (1) the bottom-of-the-list status of true food allergies, and (2) the uselessness of the RAST or ELISA tests to identify food allergens even in a dog who does have food allergies. That is, please be careful not to get sucked into blood testing for food allergies. *

All of this is kind of re-typing the wheel, since it's covered in such great detail here, but I wanted to kind of help Anne steer your focus away from the least likely and toward the most likely.

Have you checked for flea dirt (easy first step)? One exposure can drive an allergic dog wild.



* QUOTE: Blood Testing: There is no evidence that blood tests are accurate for the diagnosis of food allergies. Veterinary dermatologists insist that there is no merit in these tests whatsoever in the diagnosis of food allergies. The only way to accurately diagnose food allergies is with a food trial as detailed above. While the intradermal skin testing is excellent for diagnosing atopy (inhalant allergies) it is ineffective for food allergies. While specialized blood tests can be used to help in the diagnosis of atopy, they have no benefit in diagnosing food allergies. In our review of all the current books and articles on veterinary dermatology and allergies, we could not find a single dermatologist that endorsed anything other than the food trial as an effective diagnostic aid. If you want to diagnose and treat food allergies you must do a food trial. Doctors Foster & Smith, link in next post (and every other authoritative source I have ever read)

 Quote: Geri Gill

I thought I would do the all fish dry food and just see what happens

If you do this, remember that you will have then removed fish from the possible protein sources for a true elimination diet. (You want to reserve never-fed protein sources for a true elimination diet, in case it's needed.) Also, you would need to eliminate all treats (and some meds) with beef and chicken for flavoring. You'd want to keep a journal, too.

But please see this first, from Doctors Foster & Smith:

http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?c=1+1402&aid=142

Small partial quote:
Food allergies account for about 10% of all the allergies seen in cats and dogs. .... The diagnosis for food allergies is very straightforward. But due to the fact that many other problems can cause similar symptoms and that many times animals are suffering from more problems than just food allergies, it is very important that all other problems are properly identified and treated prior to undergoing diagnosis for food allergies. Atopy, flea bite allergies, intestinal parasite hypersensitivities, notoedric mange, yeast or bacterial infections, or seborrhea can all cause similar symptoms as food allergies. Once all other causes have been ruled out or treated, then it is time to perform a food trial.

I would want to have been in the hands of a derm vet long before I embarked on the food trial (elimination diet followed by challenges).

i did food allergy testing before I found out I was chasing my tail. NO pun. Tanka eats a lot of the foods now that he showed "allergic" to, with no problem. Just FYI.

 Quote: Julie Sloan

i did food allergy testing before I found out I was chasing my tail. NO pun. Tanka eats a lot of the foods now that he showed "allergic" to, with no problem. Just FYI.

"Food allergy testing" ..... blood tests, right?

They are so loaded with false positives (and, to a lesser degree, false negatives) that they are a waste of time and money.

bump to "current"

Connie,

My boy has been itching since he was a pup. He is 3 now. I started him on a raw diet over a year ago and the itching seemed to let up till this winter.
He gets 1500 mg cod liver oil, his ears are good and myself and the vet have checked him for fleas. (no sign of them) No sign of yeast infection.
He licks his paws, sometimes the base of his tail, and sometimes the rear of his back.
What are some suggestions on other raw foods beside chicken and
hamburger that is easy to find. I live in central Florida and there is not much choice here for shopping.
He sleeps on tile flooring or throw rugs that we wash all the time.
I have him on a herbal allery liquid everyday but I do not think it is helping.
Also a herbal allery pill that has nettels and other good things for allergies. Which I have read can take a while to work.
I know this allergy season is really bad in Florida right now and hopefully he will get some relief soon.
I will do more reading and also add Yogurt. Also wipe him off after being outside.
Thanks for all your help.
Geri