Allergy

[Auddymay]

With allergies, it is a long process of elimination to find the culprit, unless you go straight to testing, it can be frustrating. You can go about it one of two ways.

The first, and the one I would try, is eliminate everything. Buy a basic lamb and rice, or venison and rice that she will eat. Avoid chicken. It is inflammatory, and already under suspicion in her diet. No more breakfast foods, no more treats, just her food. It will be hard. Mostly on you, because sweet Coco is used to certain things and will let you know she is not happy! If you think you will cheat on this plan, add ONE treat to the stripped down diet. Nothing fancy, and of course, avoid the poultry. After a week or two, things should start to really improve. Once she seems markedly better, you can add one new item. Then it's another week or two to see if she reacts to the new food source. Eventually, you will see symptoms return, and know what food is causing the problem. You may also find, that a stripped down diet is best for Coco, and even though she wants those extras, it will need to be given in moderation, not daily.

The other way, and a much harder way, is eliminate one thing at a time and work backwards. My initial suspicion is it's the chicken, and that would be my first elimination. You have to eliminate all chicken products, so read all the packages to be sure you eliminated all of it. Wait several weeks. If she improves, voila! If not, on to the next thing. Include supplements as a food item- anything that goes into her lovely mouth.

Good luck. My 2 have a very basic diet, and both have only had one hotspot incident. Neither was food related. Pip's was from flea allergy, and Lily had trapped moisture. Good luck, and keep us posted.

[Coco Chow]

I hope a shelter will still be happy to be given the two 5kg unopenned Platinum bags I still have at home.

Thanks Auddy! Cooked duck meal, raw duck treat, she has nothing else now (oh, yes, potatoes...).

[CoraP.]

I hope you see some improvement in Coco. When I told my vet I wanted to try a more natural diet with Dusty, She was rather negative, but he has improved a lot. I hope you see the same with Coco.

[Salandra]

If I was asking if any of the chow here had been diagnosed with an allergy other than food, it's because I don't remember any.... I am of course affraid the tests will come back negatives meaning it's food, like many chows...

Just so you know, blood tests don't always show what the allergy might be. Jasmine and Peanut (my son's Chow mix) both have allergies; Jasmine's manifest as yeast infections in her ears. She gets black almost bloody looking discharge and a yucky smell about her ears. The vet said she is more than likely allergic to pollens and pollutants, but also to some foods, but blood tests were not conclusive. Peanut gets urinary infections and incontinence if she even gets around anything with wheat.

My son and I feed the two girls Blue Buffalo sweet potato and salmon dry food, with cranberries and other fruits and veggies. There is no wheat in this food. Something I have to really watch is the dog chews and snacks. If I forget and give Peanut a treat (even Greenies have wheat) she will have problems. She even has problems with flavored rawhide chews so be very careful if you are suspecting food allergies. And people food is a definite no-no!

I hope you can find the problem and Coco gets better.

[sengeoz]

Elodie,

I am often away from the forum for weeks or months, so this is a belated catch up.

It is possible that Coco has a food allergy & I would follow AudyMay's advice and do what is known as a food elimination diet.

Start by finding a protein source Coco has never had before or only has occasionally. Then combine that with a carbohydrate she hasn't had or had only occasionally. An example is say tinned mackerel and mashed potatoes.

This is ALL you feed her for six weeks - no supplements at all. It takes that long to get allergens and other toxins out of the body. Then you add one thing at a time back into the diet and trial each one for two weeks - no reaction, then fine to add. Reaction, put on the NEVER FEED AGAIN list. Once you figure out the foods that are ok, then trial supplements. Sam & I will never agree about supplements and while I am firm believer that some are beneficial, I also think that not all Chows need them. However, I would want to go for the best quality and not overdo it (which is a tendancy some humans have in their dog care regimen - some times a little is MUCH better that more).

If after all that, Coco is still itchy & chewy go for the skin test. Also consider at that time having a full thyroid panel run.

Also, do consider that she may also be coming in season and she may be about to start shedding...

Cheers,
Judith-Ann

[Coco Chow]

Thanks J-A.
I wish I could do the opposite: the blood test first, then the elimination diet.
If I go through the hassel of the elimination diet and find out 2 months later she's allergic to pollen, I'll feel quite stupid, you understand?
I know you raw feed lots of chow everyday, and you find it simple, so you must think I'm ridiculous with my one chow that I don't know what to feed...
I try not to think too much about her food these days because we're on holidays and we will be out of town again soon, but I know I won't have much choice than to avoid dry food at the end of the summer if she'll continue to scratch and scratch without being able to do any blood test...
She's fine now but she cannot take antihistaminc pills all her life!

[Layla]

I've started using http://www.ziwipeak.com/About-Us/ when I'm away from home (or when I'm out of town and other people have to feed M&A) It's a great food and I know it can be bought in Germany Elodie..... Even Miss Millie the picky goes crazy for this stuff! Even better, they don't need any supplements added to it so it's even easier to transport.... Also, that helps get over the cost of it Very very good food though.

[Coco Chow]

Thanks Layla, I will look into that.

[sengeoz]

I know you raw feed lots of chow everyday, and you find it simple, so you must think I'm ridiculous with my one chow that I don't know what to feed...

Elodie,

I don't think you or anyone else is ridiculous. I switched over to raw from home made cooked whole foods because I had a girl who eventually tested allergic to 52 of the then known 80 allergens. She not only had food allergies (beef, wheat, soy, corn, oats), but was allergic to things like dust, moths, flys, oak, grass - hell, she was even allergic to the sodium solution they use to get a baseline reaction.

She was under a specialist's care and it was the specialist who had us do the elimination diet first - and we used the tinned sardines and mashed potatoe diet with her - because we have had multiple Chows for so long, it was an all or nothing affair - everyone went on the sardine & mashed potatoes diet. As we got to the end of the six weeks, we then decided to take the opportunity of switching to raw. The hyper-allergic girl was overjoyed with raw meaty bones and pureed veggies. She did really well on it, as did everyone else, so we've stayed with raw. And the allergy specialist encouraged us in doing so.

Probably three months after the diet changes, Poppy (the allergic girl) then underwent the allergy skin test and eventually went on desensitisation shots. As she got older, we all (the vets & Brian & I) became convinced that this little girl had practically no functional immune system. When she came down with sudden onset acute necrotising pancreatitis, there was very little in her to fight it and we lost her in less than 48 hours. However, the concensus of the vets was that she wouldn't have lived as long as she did had she not been on a raw diet.

In the years and years since, from advising people who are thinking about or who want to switch to raw, I know it's a big decision for lots of people and I am finding that more and more people don't know their way around a kitchen, around food or around nutrition - it's a big learning curve for them. So I encourage anyone to take their time and learn all they can and to take it one step at a time.

It's been over 12 years now that we've been feeding raw and I have five generations of Chows raised on it. I'm a believer - but that's my personal perspective and based on my personal experience. It now takes me all of about 15 minutes to prepare dinner (pureed veggies/fruit with meat), feed and clean up for seven adult Chows - that includes cleaning their bowls and the food processor... So while it may seem daunting at first, once you get into the habit, it's much easier. Those with few Chows can prepare a week or month's worth of food at one time and freeze the servings in advance. Then the only work would be to thaw and feed. With the raw meaty bones, certainly I buy in bulk and freezer. Take the next day's RMBs out to thaw the night before and then feed in the morning - that takes all of about 2 minutes.

So, if you ever get to the point that you want to switch to raw, I am happy to help; and if not, then I will support you in your decision to feed whatever you think is best for Coco.

Cheers,
Judith-Ann

[Coco Chow]

That's very sweet of you J-A, thank you very much.

[rufnedge-2]

I thought I would ask my question under this discussion.... My girl who is now 15 months is going through a don't want to eat phase again. Seems to be a pattern. She had her first menses at 8 months her appetite was fine, then for two months after she didn't want her regular food except for the extra special food I was giving her to keep her weight on. Her second menses came along at 13 months of age where she ate VERY well gobbled up everything, when she's eating her food really well we restrain from table food except for eggs on the weekends. Then a month later she doesn't want her food but will eat the extra special foods like eggs, chicken, pupperoni's. She's putting her nose up at her regular food, it starts out with not finishing her dry/can mix, then i cut back the dry and increased the can, then she'd finish her food, it dwindled down to eating only half of that then i tried only can, then she didn't want any of it, this took about a week. ***So it seems like a pattern to me, period (eats well before and during), when period is completely done appetite tapers off.*** Doesn't this sound like some sort of postpartum depression??? Then I inspect her mouth and her teeth are okay, some yellow, no cuts. She doesn't want to really eat hard kibble, or hard snacks, maybe a couple then stops. The vet said her teeth look fine. When she goes to eat a hard morsel she'll try to put it in her mouth, she'll wriggle her tongue like OUCH that hurts or maybe she's saying YUK, not sure, then will spit it out. -- MY other chow eats without a problem. She's got a very sensitive tummy, if i switch to new food, she has lots of mucous in her stool and will get diarrhea. I've still got her on puppy food large breed pro plan, i'm afraid to switch to adult. Maybe this is all just completely normal.