Allergy

[Wendy Adams]

My husband and I adopted Charlotte, a rescued labradoodle, about 2 years old.  She was found in Missouri by the side of the road and had recently weaned puppies.  The shelter suspected that she had been a breeder in a local puppy mill.  Here is a photo of her when they found her.

The shelter would not let us have her until they found the solution for her scratching - they didn't want to send us a dog that was not well. After scratching constantly for a couple of months a new vet told them that he believed it was allergies and and put her on Hills z/d.  The scratching stopped and after a month they felt confident to send her to us - we live in New Hampshire.

We have now had Charlotte for 4 1/2 months and love her dearly.   She rarely scratches now but likes to rub her face in the morning,  licks her stomach, bites her feet and I am seeing tiny black dots on her stomach - no fleas.   I thought I was giving her a treat by giving her chicken with her food but perhaps that was a huge error.  I'd like to take her off the Z/D and am wondering which foods are the best to try. I know that the Orijen is highly recommended but would Blue Buffalo do?  Would duck be the same as chicken and bison the same as beef?  Would I mix the new with the old for a while?  

I realize that many of these questions have probably been answered before but I couldn't figure out how to search on the Food Group page.

Charlotte now has a thick, full coat and the vet sees nothing wrong with her health but I haven't spoken to him about allergies because I really don't think he knows.  That's where we buy her Z/D.

Thanks for your help,

Wendy

[Michelle & Ruepunzel]

She is so lucky to have you! She looks amazing. Congrats and bless you for rescuing her! Sorry, I have no advice on the food or the allergies, but She sure is a cutie and she looks very smart! :)

[Wendy Adams]

Thank you, Michelle.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

First, let me say thank you for adopting this beautiful girl and giving her a loving home. 

Next, to do a search here in the Food Group, you go to the main page of the group, click "View All" under the Discussion section, and then you will get a search box to enter your search term. Or you can search all of DK by simply entering your search terms in the box at the upper right hand corner of any page. 

Now to your questions. :)

There is probably no issue more misunderstood than allergies, especially in dogs. For some unfathomable reason, people immediately think and talk about food when a dog has any symptoms that might indicate an allergy, even though in 9 out of 10 cases, food has little if anything to do with it. Despite what you read and hear, food allergies are relatively rare in dogs. 

It is much more likely that Charlotte has an allergy to dust mites or any number of other inhaled allergens than it is that she is allergic to any particular food. 

Here is some basic information about food allergies in dogs: http://www.doodlekisses.com/group/thefoodgroup/forum/topics/facts-a...

The subject of Hill's z/d is a whole other discussion, and also one that has been much discussed here. You are right to want to switch. Here is some info on Rx foods: 

Hill's is owned by Colgate-Palmolive, a huge multinational corporation which outsources not just the manufacturing of the food but the ingredients and even the purchasing of the ingredients. There is no quality control whatsoever, and this kind of third party brokering is what led to the deaths and permanent illnesses of thousands of dogs and cats throughout the USA in 2007. It was because of this that many dog food websites and groups like this one started, and many new privately manufactured dog food companies came to be. You do not want to feed your dog a brand that is owned by a huge corporation. You want a company that only makes dog food, orders the ingredients themselves and not through brokers, knows what is in there and where it came from, and does not keep the information secret from the consumers.

There is no nutritional curriculum required in veterinary school; whatever education vets receive in vet school is sponsored by Hill's Science Diet and Purina. These companies also sell their foods through vets. Not only is this a cinlfict of interest, but your vet's information about the food comes from the very people who sell it. This has been researched and publicly documented by Marion Nestle, PhD, professor of nutrition and widely regarding as one of the leading authorities on both human and canine nutrition.

Yes, your vet receives kickbacks from Hill's.

I strongly urge you to ignore any advice your vet gives you about dog food. Medical issues, yes, dog food, no. My vets and i have agreed to disagree on this issue.

The ingredients are cheap, and the quality control is non-existent, even in the Rx foods.

You are also right that your vet doesn't really know about allergies. Neither does your primary care physician, and if you had allergy symptoms, your doctor would send you to a dermatology specialist. That's what my vet did when my dog showed allergy symptoms, and I will be forever grateful. 

The first thing I would do is get Charlotte covered with pet insurance. You will find lots of info here on DK about that , so we won't go into it here. 

Regarding her food, there are certain things that an help with allergy symptoms even when they are not caused by food. The first is to feed a formula with a very low Omega 6:3 ratio, and a high content of the Omega 3 fatty acids DHA and EPA, which are only found in fish. On this, there is no food better than Orijen. My dog's dermatologist recommended it not because he had food allergies, but because of the Omega 3 fatty acid content and ratio. Also because it is grain free and low in particulate matter, which can be a cause of allergy symptoms as you will see in the link I provided. 

If you want to feed Blue Buffalo, you can try using one of the grain-free formulas and supplementing with either human fish oil softgels, or human evening primrose oil softgels, both of which may help. The supplements should probably be given regardless of what food you choose.

In terms of an allergic response, duck is not the same as chicken, and bison is not the same as beef. Each protein has a different structure and is easily identified and differentiated  by the immune system. The antibodies that cause an allergic response to anything, pollen, dust mites, chicken, or whatever are specific to that particular protein and will not be triggered by a different one. (There is a phenomena called cross-reactivity in which protein molecules that share a similar structure are misidentified, but let's not worry about that right now, it's rare.) 

So if you suspect that Charlotte is allergic to some food, try giving her a grain-free formula that contains some fish or fish oil (All Orijen formulas do) and that has an Omega 6:3 ratio lower than 5:1. Try to choose one that uses protein sources that she has not been eating regularly, it doesn't matter which ones. Duck, turkey, salmon, lamb, bison, venison, whatever. Don't forget that treats must also not contain the ingredients you are avoiding. 

Some other non-food things you can try include giving Zyrtec, Claritin or another second generation antihistamine (NOT benadryl), using OTC anti-itch sprays on areas where she seems itchy, change your furnace filter every month, wash her bedding weekly, keep the areas where she spends the most time as dust free as possible, keep all dry foods in air-tight storage containers and don't buy more kibble than she can eat in a month unless you can freeze it, wash her food & water bowls with hot water and soap regularly, use a good allergy shampoo (I recommend Douxo Calm), do not use any "leave in" conditions or other grooming products and no hot dryers, brush her frequently.  More info on allergies in dogs: http://www.doodlekisses.com/group/healthandmedicalissues/forum/topi...

Hope this helps.

[Wendy Adams]

Thank you, Michelle.

And thank you, Karen.  Wow!  It's a bit mind boggling!  I suspect the reason that they thought food allergies was because they had been treating with allergy meds and nothing helped.  Nothing.  As soon as the food was changed her scratching ended.  I will try the Orijen - should I mix it with z/d or not?  Also, do you have any idea about the small black dots on the stomach?

Thanks,

Wendy

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Don't mix the z/d with Orijen, throw the z/d away. :)

The thing is, there is really no such thing as "allergy medicine", because real allergies are an incurable disease of the immune system. There are treatments that involve drugs that suppress the immune system like prednisone (steroids) or cyclosporine, and there is immunotherapy (desensitization), which requires testing by a veterinary dermatologist, and that's pretty much it as far as actual treatments go. Otherwise, you have antihistamines to treat the symptoms. 

Do you happen to know what meds she was given? That may help point us in the right direction.

Do you know what food she was eating before it was changed? That would also help a lot. 

Did your vet see the black dots? Did he or she have an opinion as to what they might be? I'm guessing he/she didn't do a skin scraping? Could they be old flea bites? There can be residual marks, scabs and even scars from those if they were scratched or infected. Flea allergy dermatitis is the most common form of allergy in dogs, so if he previously had a flea infestation, that could be the reason for all of this. 

[Wendy Adams]

I have heard good reports about a vet about 35 miles away who is more holistic and has some understanding of these issues so I am going to try him. Thank you for taking the time to help me understand some of this, Karen. 

[Shari Becker]

Hi Wendy,

Your photos of Charlotte's transformation are incredible. She is so lucky to have you, indeed. I don't know nearly as much as Karen about allergies, but we have a doodle with allergies, so I can share with you what I know.

First, we have found what Karen said about environmental allergies to be true. Our dog, Lexi's, wost itching went away when we threw out the old carpet she spent most of her time playing on. She was clearly allergic to the dust mites.

Our vet swears that Acana and Orijen are the best foods for allergy-prone dogs. We have been experimenting with one, but it has oatmeal in it, and we will probably switch to a completely grain-free one when we finish the bag. It hasn't been great for her stomach. Our vet also says that doodles tend to have higher rates of allergy, and it's just a whole body syndrome that you do your best to control, but may never fully master. Lexi also has a super sensitive stomach, which is common, too. The vet said as long as the dog isn't scratching herself raw or drawing blood, we should just let her be.

We were advised to stay away from chicken because it is a high allergy food. When we brought her home from the breeder she was on a chicken based food, and she was biting her feet and tail non-stop. It was also hay-fever season. We took her off the food, and the biting seemed to stop, but the itching continued. We have since fed her chicken, and she's been fine, but we avoid it as a base food because it is such a high allergy food.

It's not for everyone - I know (and there is lots of debate about the science behind it) - but we have had great success feeding Lexi a mostly raw, grain-free diet. She gets bathed once every week or so, and we try to wash all her blankets and bedding regularly. Since adding Omega 3s to her diet, her itching has improved, too. When she's particularly scratchy, I rub her down with coconut oil and put a shirt on her so that she can't lick it off.

Good luck! We have definitely been able to manage the symptoms drug-free...Shari

[Wendy Adams]

Thank you, Shari.  

[Gail and Bailey]

No advice here....just a big thank you for adopting Charlotte and caring for her!  She turned out to be a lovely girl and she looks super cute in glasses! :>)

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

Just want to say thank you for adopting Charlotte and giving her a loving home.  She is gorgeous.