[catalogerpat]

I recently adopted a 7 year old dachshund who has had a history of allergies. When he was surrendered to an animal shelter he had no hair on his hind quarters because he'd chewed it off. His hair had grown back in by the time we adopted him. He scratches and licks constantly. I'm trying now to find a dog food that he can tolerate. Wellness was recommended so I tried that. He has diarrhea often it seems to be caused by the food, but I'm not sure. I don't know if I feed him too much or what. About 1/3 cup twice a day is what I'm feeding...perhaps a little more.

Does anyone have any advice for a good food for a dog with allergies? This is my first time to post...hopefully I did it correctly.

Thanks.

 

[Unosmom]

have you tried wellness core or regular? try core ocean formula.
Other good allergy formulas would be california natural and natural balance

 

[catalogerpat]

We've tried Wellness Small breed (Super 5 mix adult health) but not Core. Both our dogs seemed to get diahrrea regularly on this Wellness product. Is Wellness Core different? I've seen it in our PetCo but nothing called Wellness Core Ocean Formula that I recall.

I'll look for the other two you mentioned.

Thanks so much. I've tried to get our vet to recommend something but she won't. Her waiting room is full of Science Diet though.

 

[Unosmom]

Its possible that petco doesent carry the core formula, basically its grain free unlike the regular one, a lot of dogs have grain intolerance, so grain free seems to work better for them and with allergies, the fish formula seems to work pretty well.
I get core from a store called Pet Supermarket, but I dont know if its located in every state. You can enter the zip on their website at the top to find store locations:
Pet Supermarket

You can also try a food called Pinnacle, they make a hypollergenic formulas with duck/potato and trout/potato. My dog likes this better then California Natural.
I'd personally would try the grain free fish based( or other unique protein source) first, then if that doesent work, try the other ones mentioned. Some other grain free foods to try would be:

-Orijen 6 fresh fish
- Acana Provincial Pacifica
- Caniade grain free salmon meal
-Natures Variety Instinct Rabbit formula

 

[azul99]

We have a terrier mix who has some dachshund in her

we think, based on her longish body. We have had a terrible time finding a food that would work for her. Two weeks ago I came here in search of advice and I described the history here:

http://dogfoodchat.com/forum/dry-ca...int-digestion-issue-my-terrier-mix-rosie.html

Since then she has stabilized beautifully on California Natural. Her poops are firm and her fur (which was spotty when we adopted her) has grown in nicely and is very shiny and healthy-looking.

There is some good food advice in that thread. If you try California Natural, you might want to consider lamb, which is said to be less potentially allergenic than chicken is. We have Rosie on chicken because she seems fine with it, but if I were in your shoes I would probably try the lamb.

Another food option for allergic dogs is Natural Balance. I have not tried it w/Rosie but it is grain-free and gets rave reviews.

During the transition, I recommend putting a teaspoon of pumpkin (that's the amount we've used for our 14 lb dog) in her food at each meal. It has really helped Rosie with the loose stools. Two weeks later, she is now down to a quarter-teaspoon of pumpkin once a day, so I'm pretty sure that it is a transition thing for her (not needed long-term) and so we can eliminate it altogether this week.

I have also been adding Animal Essentials Probiotics to Rosie's food once a day. This seems to be helping as well.

Good luck.

 

[wags]

Natural Balance has venison and fish formula.

Taste of the Wild offers a Pacific Stream formula.

California natural has the herring and sweet potatoes they are a great brand also! They have good products for dogs with allergies.

Try products that have meat as the first ingredient, then listed second and third . Make sure their is no artificial colors or preservatives, and
no corn, wheat , soy or sugars.

Also a little fat free or low fat yogurt helps too!:wink:

 

[rannmiller]

Natural Balance "grain free" formulas are mostly potatoes though, even when you look at the name of it "Sweet Potato and Fish" "Sweet Potato and Venison" and then look at the ingredients, that's the order they're listed in too. So NB really isn't that amazing unless you're adding extra meat to make up for their excessive use of carbs. /rant

Anyway, the other advice you've been getting here is good too. I like the idea of trying a grain-free, novelty protein source (fish, venison, duck, lamb, etc) like the Orijen 6 Fish or Wellness Core Oceanfish formulas. Pet Supermarket is a great place to get the Wellness Core unless you don't have one in your area. You can also try the smaller doggie specialty/boutique stores to see if they have any product like these. If all else fails, there is always ordering over the internet!

 

[wags]

NB is really not that bad though! The dog food anaylisis says for the fish one~ adding meat is a good thing also!

Overall, this is a reasonable quality product though it appears to have a lower meat content than a prior version. It is a food aimed at dogs suffering allergies and with limited ingredients not commonly used in dog food products is one of the better allergy foods around. For those using the product for non-allergic dogs, supplementing the diet with meat would be beneficial.

 

[chowder]

I have had two dogs with severe allergies and you will eventually have to pinpoint what it is they are allergic to in the food. My old lhasa is only allergic to salmon so she does well on Innova Senior and Califonia Natural. The California Natural doesn't have as much meat in it as the others so she only gets the canned version and I alternate it with the Innova. I would follow what the others say and get a grain free or minimum grain food with limited ingredients to start with. Once he is doing well on the grain free long term, you can start trying different meats and see how he does with each one until you figure out what it was he was allergic too. It might be that he was just allergic to one specific thing like wheat or soy (or salmon like my dog) in the food he was eating and he never has to be exposed to it again. Then it makes life a lot easier and you can branch out into all kinds of meats and treats for him.