ALLERGIES/ FISH DIET

FlowerGarden

One of my bichons has atopic dermatitis for the last three years or so. I changed her on to a raw diet and started giving fish oils. She was really in a bad way and very uncomfortable and she was put on Atopica by the vet. That has been working fairly well and she's been on it since.

About six weeks ago I ran out of her medication and by coincidence I had loads of fish I got from the fishmonger that day. For the next few days she had no medication and was on a fish only diet. I kept meaning to get her tablets but she had stopped scratching and I haven't bought them since! I won't say she is 100% cured but she's about the same as when she was taking medication. Last week I gave her chicken to see how she was and she started scratching again. I'll try her on other meat one at a time to see how she gets on as I worry that her diet is not varied enough. I feed her cooked fish, rice and veggies at the moment. If she can only eat fish would anyone here know if she will be okay long term on that.....

Thanks.

toadfly

Would she eat raw fish? Might be better to give her full fish to include bones and organs rather than cooked fillets of fish.

aonb

I often put my dog on a fish diet when he's showing signs of his old gastric issues or allergies flaring up - its such a gentle diet, it really helps, and he also loves fish.
Fish is protein, so I imagine not a problem if your dog only eats fish & no meat if its making such a huge difference to his allergies, but no doubt someone more knowlegeable will clarify that. If you can get fish heads from your fishmonger, they would be great too - salmon is oily, so a good option - you can also supplement with tinned fish, which might be handy for when you dont have fresh or your frozen stock runs out. There are bags of frozen white fish fillets in Tesco for E2.49 that I buy my little guy (not much bigger than your bichon) - one fillet, mixed with brown rice & a bit of veg will do him for 2 dinners - very economical. It would be great to think that a fish diet is enough to 'fix' your dogs allergies/scratching. A common reason for skin allergies are grains in dog food - would be worth looking at the grain free foods - all discussed on here previously/frequently

FlowerGarden

aonb wrote: »

I often put my dog on a fish diet when he's showing signs of his old gastric issues or allergies flaring up - its such a gentle diet, it really helps, and he also loves fish.
Fish is protein, so I imagine not a problem if your dog only eats fish & no meat if its making such a huge difference to his allergies, but no doubt someone more knowlegeable will clarify that. If you can get fish heads from your fishmonger, they would be great too - salmon is oily, so a good option - you can also supplement with tinned fish, which might be handy for when you dont have fresh or your frozen stock runs out. There are bags of frozen white fish fillets in Tesco for E2.49 that I buy my little guy (not much bigger than your bichon) - one fillet, mixed with brown rice & a bit of veg will do him for 2 dinners - very economical. It would be great to think that a fish diet is enough to 'fix' your dogs allergies/scratching. A common reason for skin allergies are grains in dog food - would be worth looking at the grain free foods - all discussed on here previously/frequently

I tried her on the Nutriment Salmon Mix but she didn't really like it unfortunately..... She hasn't had any grains in her diet for a few years... I get fillets from Lidl and their great value but might get a few heads from the fishmonger....

toadfly

I get free Salmon heads from the fish place down the docks in Galway. They weight approximately 500g each and do her for one day each.

juniord

if you are going to be feeding raw fish , make sure to freeze it for a few days first to kill any parasites

DBB

Argh, I'd replied to this earlier, then managed to delete it!
Chances are that if an atopic dog is going to react to meat protein, it'll be chicken or beef. So, to vary the diet away from just fish, you need to look at novel protein sources that your dog is unlikely to have been exposed to via dry food earlier in life. That usually means turkey, rabbit, venison, duck, goose, game birds. Whilst you can easily get turkey in the supermarket, the others would be more striaightforwardly supplied via commercial high-quality, high-meat tinned foods like Rocco, Lukullus, or Naturediet. Between them they have an impressive range of flavours, and contain no gluten, though there may be rice in some of them. With an atopic dog, I'd even cut rice out in favour of potato.

boomerang

Raw fish is not a good idea as it can result in riboflavin (vitamin B2) deficiency.

OP if you are not going to give the dog raw bones then you will need to supplement with calcium.