I need some advive. I have a 3 yr. old male GSd that has been battling and ear infection for over a year. I t started as a bacterial ear infectionwhich was treated with a shot of corizone and ear drops.I also then switched his food to Canidae grain free dry chicken and some months fish.he then got another ear infection really bad and a yeast infection in his body.the new Vet started him on 5 days steroids and 3 weeks to wean him off.He has ear drops also.One month off steriods and on a fish and 5 ingredient dry dog food( VeRus). It returned. So I fasted him 36 hrs and started him on raw.He is doing great with the raw and is showing improvment with his ears and the paw licking and scratching is less.The vet thought chicken alleries because that was what I was feeding at the time, but I am not really convinced yet.My questions are is raw chicken the same as kibble chicken,as far as, alleries are concerned and can you still feed eggs and chicken livers,giblets and hearts? It's been just a week and he is doing well on beef and turkey what else should I be giving him?

No, kibble chicken is not the same as whole chicken, however, there are a few things you still need to be aware of - sodium content in commercial farmed meats and/or free range/organic: corn fed vs. grass fed. If you are mostly buying commercial meat, you probably will need to supplement with Omega 3 oil.

If he is doing well on turkey and you have not introduced chicken, I would stick to the turkey; however, if turkey is expensive or chicken is on sale you could try it and see how he does. My lab has dirty ears, showed no signs of allergies and he's on chicken daily. Not my favorite meat but turkey bones are just too tough, I don't want him to break a tooth. There is a group on Facebook called Raw Feeding - they are strictly whole prey model but there is a lot of good information if you're just starting out.

Patricia, regular vets almost always blame food for allergy problems. I have to get to an appointment, but I will dig up a post that explains dog allergies. But for now, less than 10% of allergies in dogs is food related. Fleas is number one, and environmental allergies is number 2. I'll get back to you later.

I'm with Lori. Food allergy would be last on the list of suspects, not the first.

But if you're feeding raw, you can do some limited ingredient testing and see how it goes. If you feed a diet of raw chicken and things start improving, you'll have your answer about that food source. Introduce new proteins one at a time and note how the dog reacts.

My suspicion would be something environmental--pollen, mold, dust mites--something inhaled, rather than eaten. Often these things can be managed with an improved diet (like raw), fish oil supplements, and controlling exposure to the suspected allergen. (frequently washing bedding, rinsing the dog or washing paws after walking in weeds, etc.) Antihistamines can also be used to get a dog over the hump of a flare-up, especially if they are seasonal. (you didn't say...but do you notice any seasonal difference in your dog's allergic reaction?)

Good luck with this. You've got lots of experienced owners of allergy dogs here and can get lots of real-world advice.

 Quote: Patricia Angove

I need some advive. I have a 3 yr. old male GSd that has been battling and ear infection for over a year. I t started as a bacterial ear infectionwhich was treated with a shot of corizone and ear drops.I also then switched his food to Canidae grain free dry chicken and some months fish.he then got another ear infection really bad and a yeast infection in his body.the new Vet started him on 5 days steroids and 3 weeks to wean him off.He has ear drops also.One month off steriods and on a fish and 5 ingredient dry dog food( VeRus). It returned. So I fasted him 36 hrs and started him on raw.He is doing great with the raw and is showing improvment with his ears and the paw licking and scratching is less.The vet thought chicken alleries because that was what I was feeding at the time, but I am not really convinced yet.My questions are is raw chicken the same as kibble chicken,as far as, alleries are concerned and can you still feed eggs and chicken livers,giblets and hearts? It's been just a week and he is doing well on beef and turkey what else should I be giving him?

I will post more later, like Lori, but please know that looking at food first is a pretty sure sign of not knowing much about dog allergies. Food is by far the least likely of the common allergies. BY FAR. True, chicken is one of the top allergy foods for dogs (the foods fed most are, of course, the top foods; allergies develop over repeated exposure), but food allergies, period, are low on the likelihood list.

We have so much info from so many extremely knowledgeable experienced folks on this board .... and I'll help pull some up for you (like Lori), but if I were to get hit by a bus this afternoon and had time to tell you only one thing, it would be "derm vet."

I can't begin to tell you how many owners have posted long and anguished threads about their allergic dogs and how much money and time they went through, doing steroids and food changes.

Pred is indeed a magic bullet that can get a dog past a terrible cycle of itching that is causing broken skin, fostering staph and other bacterial infections, allowing yeast overgrowth, making for very painful and damaging ear infections, and more. But it is not a fix. And it's a careful weighing decision when and for how long to use it because of the serious long- and short-term side effects. And food ..... again, food accounts for a tiny fraction of dog allergies. I mean 10% (maybe 15%, depending on whose stats you're reading).

You are seeing ear improvement with raw food .... this is pretty common. I think that kibble's cereal grains and high carb level in general are a stressor to an allergic dog, whether there is a true food allergy or not.

Derm is a specialty for a reason. GP vets are not derm vets, and IMO should not be expected to be. The one thing that bothers me time and time again is the frequent failure to refer to a specialist right away.

Back later!

QUOTE from Tracy:

My suspicion would be something environmental--pollen, mold, dust mites--something inhaled, rather than eaten. Often these things can be managed with an improved diet (like raw), fish oil supplements, and controlling exposure to the suspected allergen. (frequently washing bedding, rinsing the dog or washing paws after walking in weeds, etc.) Antihistamines can also be used to get a dog over the hump of a flare-up, especially if they are seasonal. (you didn't say...but do you notice any seasonal difference in your dog's allergic reaction?)

What he said.

Can you tell us the precise body geography of the itching, besides the paws (which actually overlap among different allergies)?

Also, besides time of year (and in fact, time of day), is there noticeable backbone and/or base-of-the-tail itching?

Thank you everyone, axel started last year around Feb.still snowing then. I suspected he got water in his ears at the groomers and it was a full blown baterial infection by March.It cleared up then I noticed it happening again in July . We started treating it again but by the time it got bad it was a yeast infection just his ears and then his body got a bad odor.the yeast. Vet thought chicken allergies.I clean with natural cleaners. No carpets except where he. Sleeps in our room.I have a bed for him with removal cover, but was using tide and downey.stop since I read those Are both bad.no smokers, no chemical air fresheners,vaccunm floors daily. So I'm not sure. His ears are now showing.g Improvment. I love the changes I see in him with only about 5 full days on raw diet. At 120 lbs. I am sort of at a lose on the best meat to feed him if not chicken.without going broke that is.

Also no sores just licking his paws and scratching his ears and cheeks. Mosting in the morning after he gets up, sometimes in the afternoons then in the evenings before bed. He doesn't scratch all day and stops when I tell him to. I guess morning is the worst. He isn't scratching at night now. His bed is stuffed with a down feather bed.

Could be the feathers (or more likely the dust mites that colonize there).

Since you've tried so many other things, try eliminating the feather bed and see what happens. Stuff his bed with old towels, rags, t-shirts--all stuffings that are machine washable.

As for the food: I see no reason to abandon the chicken just yet. (he's improving and you are feeding chicken?). Another super-cheap alternative is turkey. A dog that size can eat all the bones in a whole turkey. Just buy whole turkeys and cut them up into meal-sized hunks.

What Tracy said, and also:

".... no sores just licking his paws and scratching his ears and cheeks."

So besides paw-licking, the head and face are the main itch areas? Does he rub his face/muzzle on carpets or furniture?

He was two, then, when this started? (The majority of atopic dogs have onset of inhalant allergy between ages one and three or so, although this isn't at all a hard-and-fast rule .... just a clue; food allergies are more likely to start older. I've read that the mode age is five and a half, again not at all a hard-and-fast rule. )

What does the ear debris look like when he starts an infection? Was there an ear swab cytology?

Were scrapings done of the itchy muzzle?

How was "yeast infection in his body" diagnosed? Do you mean internal, not skin?

Was he non-itchy when on cortisone?

He has no belly itching? How about the anal area?

What about armpits?