[rodwilma]

Hi all,
My westie who is a year old, has been on raw since January. His diet consists of green tripe, chicken necks, turkey necks, pig tails, ground chicken w/organs, marrow bone (2-3 weeks), steak, beef bones, pumpkin seeds, occasional egg, cheese. All his food is bought through a farmer who specializes in animal raw food. We also give him vitamin e, cod liver oil, dream coat, enzymes and probiotics (he occasionally gets a lot of gas, but that has stopped with the enzymes and probs).

My problem now is that on occasion he tends to scratch himself, but lately it is more and more as well as biting his back paws. I've done elimination of various foods for a few weeks to see if this was causing it, but he continues to scratch. There is no swelling. I did see a few small bumps (looked like goose bumps on your arm), but I'm not sure why this is happening. I do put some eucalyptus oil and it calms it down a bit.

I did check for fleas and he has none. I'm sure that is from the raw feeding. We walk every day 2-3 miles and he spends a few hours a day in our back yard chasing after squirrels. We did have a lot of mosquitoes this year as well. I'm wondering if it is our yard with various trees and grass causing the problem.

I'm not sure what to do, or if I should have certain tests done. I'm posting here to get suggestions / observations. I'm sure I'm missing something, but can't figure it out.

Thanks,
rodwilma

 

[RawFedDogs]

Hi all,
My westie who is a year old, has been on raw since January. His diet consists of green tripe, chicken necks, turkey necks, pig tails, ground chicken w/organs, marrow bone (2-3 weeks), steak, beef bones, pumpkin seeds, occasional egg, cheese. All his food is bought through a farmer who specializes in animal raw food. We also give him vitamin e, cod liver oil, dream coat, enzymes and probiotics (he occasionally gets a lot of gas, but that has stopped with the enzymes and probs).

If it were my dog, I would drop the pumpkin seeds, cheese, cod liver oil, dream coat, enzymes and probiotics for a couple of months. It usually takes a couple of months for an allergen to work its way out of the body. I would also eliminate beef bones and marrow bones just because they can be tooth breakers.

You could also do a serious food elimination diet. To do that, feed one thing to your dog for 2 months. Let's use chicken as an example. Feed your dog nothing but chicken for 2 months. Nothing goes in the dogs mouth that didn't come from a chicken's body.

If the problem disappears, your dogs probably has some food allergy but it's not chicken. Slowly start adding stuff back to the diet ... like a new food every other week. When the symptoms reappear, the last thing added is the allergen.

If the problem does not disappear, feed your dog anything except chicken for 2 months. Nothing from a chickens body goes in your dogs mouth. If the problem goes away, he is allergic to chicken. If it doesn't, he doesn't have a food allergy.

My problem now is that on occasion he tends to scratch himself, but lately it is more and more as well as biting his back paws.

Have you added anything to his diet recently? Have you changed shampoos? Added any other skin products?

I'm sure that is from the raw feeding.

It's possible, but don't be real sure.

We walk every day 2-3 miles and he spends a few hours a day in our back yard chasing after squirrels.

Have you recently put fertilizer on your lawn?

We did have a lot of mosquitoes this year as well. I'm wondering if it is our yard with various trees and grass causing the problem.

It's possible.

I'm not sure what to do, or if I should have certain tests done. I'm posting here to get suggestions / observations. I'm sure I'm missing something, but can't figure it out.

Allergy tests are expensive so I would try other things first. Besides, if its a food allergy, there is no test to tell you what food your dog is allergic to.

 

[rodwilma]

Raw Fed Dogs - thanks for the advice. I understand it well.

We did change his shampoo to a oatmeal based to help with the scratching and recently had fertilizer put down on our yard a few weeks ago.

Come to think of it - the scratching increased shortly after the fertilizer was put down. I didn't think about that.

rodwilma

 

[rannmiller]

RFD you're a genius!