Skin allergy in dog

tamara25

My Jack Russell is 3 now, love him to bits! He has been suffering though from a skin allergy now for a good while : ie would lick his paws alot & the skin on his belly is a reddish colour. I’m certain it’s connected with his diet. His diet mainly consists of dry food that I have bought in aldi or in the past. Like a human being I know there is a strong connection between the gut and the skin. A naturopath vet also recommended supplements to me. But it’s his diet I need to change first. So is there anyone out there who can give me an idea on what to feed him instead. Silly question but if I started giving him the same food as we have ourselves for dinner? Vegetables meat etc. any advice would be very welcome Thks

Nody

Well for starters try to move over to a better quality food; Aldi is not exactly the place I'd recommend anyone to buy pet food. Try him on Rocco wet food and see if that helps instead of dry food for starters; could simply be an issue with mites in the dry food. Look as well at the protein and try to be mono protein for 6 weeks at least as that's another common cause of skin issues (and yes you can do both at the same time with the Rocco sensitive line for example).

Ezeoul

Did the naturopath vet only recommended supplements instead of changing the dry dog food to something better?

I have a cat with a poultry allergy. If she eats anything with poultry in it, (even chicken fat as an ingredient of "fish" flavour food) she will tear the coat and skin off herself. I manage it by feeding her 100% poultry free food (not easy to find and not cheap) but there are no drugs and no supplements involved in managing it. My vet never even suggested supplements.

I'd talk to another vet for advice on what is making your dog allergic.

It's not easy when you have a distressed pet, and you have my sympathy.

tk123

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122124820#Comment_122124820

Aldi’s Langham wet food trays are actually rebranded Naturo which scores the same as Rocco on allaboutdogfood. I agree on their dry food though - I saw videos of mite infested presses after people stored Aldi dry food in them😷

HazeDoll

I have a cat who lives on chicken and sweet potato. I roast them together and mush them up. I keep it in little containers in the freezer and defrost them as I need them. It's a pain in the arse but much less so than dealing with the consequences of his allergy. He's doing very well on it and it's not all that extravagant when you consider the money I had been spending on hypoallergenic food that he often refused to eat.

I used to have a dog who lived for the last years of his life on something similar, but he had rice with his dinners too. Sometimes I could sneak in some carrots or peas in too, or he might have minced beef instead of chicken.

With this cat I can sometimes substitute turkey for the chicken but if I get any more inventive he's just not having it.

daheff

I have a similar issue with a 4 year old Jack Russell. We've changed her diet to various brands/proteins with no change to the condition. Also condition does not seem to be seasonal (so unlikely pollen related etc).

Vet recommended (expensive) medicated shampoos and to wash her regularly until the condition got under control. Well we've gone through the bottle and very little difference.

I suspect its a general allergy to life. Shes not too upset by it, but as it gets worse i'm sure it'll cause more distress to her.

pauly58

I would put her on a raw diet, there's a good few available now or make your own up. I would suggest you read Dr. Conor Brady's books, it will surprise you. All the complete feeds are over processed rubbish & dangerous with it.

tamara25

thanks very much, appreciate all the replies! Is wet food better than dry food? Curious too about the raw food…

janmaree

I've had awful problems with this in my 2 year old bulldog, they're very prone to allergies and it's hard to deal with it. He's been on steroids for a while and they definitely help but it's not a great longterm option. It seems that dust mites often cause the problem but most houses have them and short of dumping carpets, furniture and bedding, there's no easy way of eliminating them. He's now permanently on hypoallergenic nuts which is expensive but it's so heartbreaking to see him scratching with red paws and bleeding ears that I'm glad to pay it. He also gets an apple a day which he loves, after I read an article about them being high in quertecin which helps with allergies. I've also been advised to look into Cytopoint injections, which I will do if the current tablets don't cut it. I sympathise with you, I'll come back later if I have an update but if your dog likes apples it might be worth a try for a while. Just make sure you core them first, the core isn't good for them and then cut into smallish pieces so there's no choking hazard.

janmaree

P.S. I always feed him dry food, it's better for his teeth and I don't fancy trying to help a bulldog use a toothbrush! I don't give him wet or raw food other than his fruit, the vets I know don't seem to recommend it.