limited ingredient diet from early age?

[Willow and J]

This may have go to the food group or to the AD group, but I'm not really seeking an answer, so I decided to put this on the general discussion.

Willow has Atopic Dermatitis, and she has been on limited ingredient diet for almost 2 months now. She eats kibbles made of kangaroo and lentils, and we asked a friend of mine to use only things that are in the kibbles and make dog treats for Willow (so lucky to have a friend who can do that for us!).

We see quite a bit of difference! She's scratching less, even though this is the time of the year that we'd see her getting worse, and we have decreased dosage for claritin. Willow will also be in for allergy test and possibly immunotherapy in three weeks, and we're hoping that combining these two will tackle food, seasonal and indoor allergy that we suspect she has.

We've fed her grainfree kibbles from very early on, around 6 months, and before that, she was on "good" food (Wellness, Artemis). We also switched kibbles to different formula every 6 months or so, so that she got different kinds of meat in her diet. One of the difficulties that we faced as we started suspecting AD and started thinking of limited ingredient diet about a year ago, she already has been exposed so many different things and we were left with very little choice (only two, either rabbit or kangaroo). Also, some of the kibbles that we like the best such as Orijen (Willow's coat became so shiny and beautiful, and her digestive system was very happy when she was on Orijen) includes so many different ingredients (including fish that Willow didn't do well on from early on - her ears, nose, and feet flare up and gets very itchy) that we sadly had to stop it. 

Thinking of all these and given how she's much better on limited-ingredient diet, and also thinking ahead for a possibility that Willow might develop an allergy to kangaroo (then we'd do rabbit, but then, what after that?), it feels like that we would have had more options if we put her on one meat at a time from very early on. But, having said this, I feel that there's some fault of logic here, or maybe I am not understanding food allergy very well? Puppy formula is made of various protein no matter which brand it is (and of course it makes sense because puppy needs various nutrients), so by the time a dog is diagnosed with AD, usually around 1.5-2 years, the dog has already been exposed to various different kinds of protein/meat.

So, what if we fed Willow much simpler diet from very early on, one protein at a time? Has anyone tried something similar? 

And for your viewing pleasure, here's our baby:

[Judy, Meg & Polly Wolly Doodle]

Viewing pleasure indeed...she is lovely.

[Willow and J]

Thank you! She looks a lot smaller than she is (65lb.) in that picture, and it's one of the rare that she "smiles" on camera. She is usually camera shy and about to run out of frame. :)

[Bonnie and Kona]

My Kona is camera shy, too. First dog we can rarely photograph. Willow is so pretty. 

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

Karen is our food allergy expert, and I'm sure she'll have some input.  I do see your point...if you had know that Willow was predisposed to AD from the beginning you could have limited the proteins she was exposed to leaving you with more choices down the road....unfortunately with puppies there's just no practical way to know.

[Willow and J]

Yes, that's exactly how I feel, Jane. Se entertain the idea of adding a second one from time to time, and I wonder if I'd go with limited ingredients from the puppyhood with that one. (Although, we have been saying we want a rescue for the second one.)

[Amy, Cubbie & Ollie]

Poor willow.  Ollie was recently diagnosed with AD.  Did you say that Willow hasn't had the skin test yet?  How was your vet able to determine she has AD without that test?  How do you know that Willow is allergic to fish?  All this is new to me and I'm still learning how it all works. 

[Willow and J]

The continuing journey... the only dermatologist in town diagnosed AD without the skin test. (I know! But I didn't dare to say how?!? at his face!) We came back with Atopica. Then I did more research and decided we don't want Atopica (after $$$ has disappeared from my wallet), and the only allergy test this dermatologist does is blood test. So, we found one dermatologist in the entire state who does skin test, and will bring Willow in for a second diagnosis / treatment.
As to how I know she's allergic to fish, I'll reply under Karen's reply.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Atopic Dermatitis has nothing to do with food, food allergies are a separate issue. 

Current wisdom on food allergies is that feeding them the same protein source continuously over a long period of time is what causes the food allergy; it's advised that you rotate proteins in order to avoid that. 

That said, in certain kinds of GI disease or when dogs are suspected of having food allergies, you do have to try to find a novel protein, which as you've said is tough when you've been feeding a rotation diet and exposing them to all kinds of different protein sources. It's kind of a Catch 22. If I had it to do over again, I would reserve a couple of protein sources and not give anything containing those. It's really not that hard to do. For example, none of the Orijen formulas contain duck or venison. So you could feed all three Orijen formulas in rotation and still not expose your dog to those two proteins...IF you didn't do what I did and give your dog treats containing duck and venison, lol.

Even with the multiple protein grain-free foods, there are still some proteins not included. 

I'm also curious how you know that Willow is allergic to fish. And she probably isn't allergic to all fish, there are dogs in my IBD group whose novel protein is Tilapia, lol. 

[Willow and J]

Hello, Karen. I knew you'd reply. :)

Haven't tried different kinds of fish, and I remember one of the first questions I posted on DB is if Willow could be allergic to fish. It might not be "allergy", but it's something. She had fish formula that came with strong recommendation from our local pet food place (Holistic... forgot the brand name), and Willow was on that, and while on it, Willow was found to have yeast infection. We had to stop it.
Sometime later, we tried Orijen 6 fish, and she was a mess - red nose, lots of muzzle scratching. She ground her face on concrete driveway and got bloody nose so many times. Urgh. We still have 1/2 left in that 30lb. bag from more than a year ago. We stopped experimenting at that point, whether it's allergy or not, whether it was just two isolated incidents without any real relation to fish. She didn't get to that level of itchiness since we stopped kibbles with any fish, and so we think, no fish for her. I go by science and not go by my mommy hunch most of the time, but not on this one, and so we fed TOTW for a while, and that's how Willow got venison too. And yes, duck breasts for treat too...
Food allergy sucks! I don't want to experiment to see what she's allergic to: that means I have to deliberately feed her something that may make her miserable.
For now, we're good but like I said in the post, I worry after kangaroo and rabbit. Maybe I should become a hunter?!?

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Well, if worst comes to worst, there's always Addiction, lol. They have a brushtail formula. I had to look that one up, apparently it's a type of Australian possum.

Let's hope it doesn't come to that for Willow. :)

[Willow and J]

Possum. Awesome. (Sorry! :) )
Yes, let's hope we won't have to go there.

I heard this on NPR not too long ago of an interview of Ira Glass and his dog with crazy food allergy, and he has to ride on a train for 2 hours one way to get kangaroo meat from a butcher.
At least Willow can be on kibbles, and she has no behavioral problems - well, too irresistible with her cute behaviors is hurting our work productivity.
Thanks, as always!

[Bonnie and Kona]

All I can comment on is how beautiful Willow is. Thank you for posting her photo. Good luck with her health care. You are a loving, brave and strong DM.