limited ingredient foods?

[Kimberly and Mikey]

long story short we have had some allergies with Mikey. Unfortunately, i don't know which protien has caused it. He had been on mainly chicken based foods and was having a lot of loose stools and some vomiting when he was younger. He has not been on any meds in months but he has been checked by a vet and he has no health problems. He was on acana pacifica for 2 months and stool never would firm. I tried pumpkin, yogurt etc.. and nothing. So my vet said it could be too rich. We then switched to Fromm wild prairie and he stool immediately firmed up and I thought we had a winner. Then the itching, biting paws, licking like crazy started, after a week it continuously got worse and then would start to vomit. Called the vet and they said it definitely sounds like an allergy but the problem was the food has beef and pork in it so it was hard to tell which protein may be causing it. They suggested to try the fish based taste of the wild just to see if the allergy relieves itself. Within days he was fine again. His stool is also firm. No issues except for the fact on Taste of the wild he seems like he is constantly starving and now has resorted to eating socks. We have now baby proofed that. Anyway my vet suggested a limited ingredient diet so that way we could go through the main proteins for a few months and see which ones are actually a problem. He didn't do well on Acana Pacifica but fine on TOTW Pacific stream so I believe he is ok with fish. They said I needed to stick with the same brand through out the switch that way we know its only the protein they are reacting to. They mentioned Natural Balance LID. I know this is not on the list so I was curious if anyone else had any suggestions on LID foods. I know acana has single but they are only pork, lamb and duck.

Any suggestions will help

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Well, it wouldn't be Blue Buffalo in any case, lol. That's a brand name. It would be some ingredient in the formulas you tried. Or it could have been the macronutrient percentages: too high or low in protein, too high in fat, etc. Or it could have been grains. There are a lot of variables. You have to look at the nutritional profile as well. It's not just a question of which animal protein a food does or doesn't contain. 

There are also four different formulas in the Simple line, so you will have a choice of variety down the line.
However, that's up to you. If this were my dog, I'd go with the Simple Salmon. Plenty of time to experiment later after he's doing better. 

[Kimberly and Mikey]

Is it ok for him to go with the Wellness even though it is an adult food and he isn't quite 10 months yet?

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Yes it's fine, and at any rate,  just about every other food you've mentioned is also an adult food. 

[Kimberly and Mikey]

Ok great. I will try it out

[Kimberly and Mikey]

yes, i'm in the food group. sorry apparently I haven't quite figured all this out yet

[Kimberly and Mikey]

Thanks. I have him on acana singles right now. I was originally going to try wellness but when I called them they said that their vitamins come from China also now so I went with acana

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

90% of all vitamins, including the human vitamins that we take and that are in our food, come from China. :)

[Kimberly and Mikey]

Ahhhhhh! Now I wish I would have known that. This our second try at acana and he loves it don't get me wrong. His stool isn't firm and I am mixing the pumpkin. He is pooping soooo much. You would think I have a horse!! Wow. I think there is just something in acana he can't tolerate. He's been on the singles a few weeks. I really wanted it to work because I know it's such a good food. On TOTW his stool was small and always firm

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

There can't be something in the brand itself that he can't tolerate. It's either a specific ingredient in the formulas you have tried, or it's the macronutrient percentages in the formulas you have tried. I mentioned all that above regarding fat contents of different formulas, etc. Kind of feel like I've been wasting my breath, lol. 

Also as I mentioned above, I really prefer to discuss these issues in the Food Group, where we have all this information available, and where most members know that I wouldn't recommend, let alone feed my own precious dog, anything that wasn't safe.