allergies

[maria49]

Hi,
 Im new to the forum, but have used this site to find out information. Its been a godsend, my beautiful chocolate lab has now had a second bout of allergic reaction.    Vets are not sure of the cause. But personally, im beginning to think its food related . As shes been on food that has lots of cereals in and had eaten some bird food with maize in.! SO after lots of research weve  now put her onto Akela. Its early days for her at the moment as were starting transition over from today. But fingers crossed, were hoping that a hypoallergic more natural food will help. Just wondering if any others on here have had similar problems and what helped for you guys. She came out in hive type spots on her face and tummy, is now coming off off steriods and seems to have settled down so far.    Any advice would be appreciated thanks

[KatrinH]

Not having a dog with allergies but food intolerances. If you are trying a new food, it may be worth it trying one with a novel protein, novel carbs, and ideally all novel ingredients, meaning things he has NEVER had before (ostrich, duck, etc. are usually good ones) and of course the less ingredients the better as a reaction is less likely then. Its called a novel diet and will possibly be the solution as dogs do not often react to ingredients they don't know, at least that's what I've heard.

[Tinyplanets]

Hello and welcome to the forum  Maria49,
That is good advice from katrinH. Always good to have a food with fewer ingredients. It is also best to avoid feeding treats while you are trying to establish what may be causing a problem.

My dog also has bouts of itchy flare ups but for the most part it follows a pattern of being in the summer months so I strongly suspect an environmental cause. It would be a good idea to make a note of when these reactions happen to see if you notice a pattern.

[maria49]

Yes i had heard about novel diets, at present im hoping eliminating the grains will help as before we had her on a dry food with rice in, and suspect it was the rice that caused the flare up. she eats cooked meat ok, we give her chicken, beef, turkey at christmas  and lamb and pork, no problem. Have you tried a novel diet for your dog, and did it work katrinh ? I'll bare it in mind if this transition isnt successful,thanks 

[maria49]

Hi yes thanks tinyplanets, I'll certainly bare it in mind. my Girl has only had 2 flare ups but this one seemed worse than before, but 1st one was in november about 2 years ago. we thought it probably wasnt seasonal due to the time of year, this one is winter again so maybe you have a point. definitely worth thinking about, thanks 

[KatrinH]

I did a bioresonance energy testing to find out his intolerances and based my food choices on that, which seemed pretty accurate in my case. He is getting duck now, which we did not feed before, so I guess at least the protein was novel, although sweet potatos weren't.

[maria49]

Guess its a case of wait and see for now, thanks for all your help, I'll have to look into some of your ideas if it happens again