# Food for a dog with allergies and sensitive stomach?



## Maggies_Mom (Oct 25, 2016)

Hello all!
One year ago I adopted my 7 year old, 14 pound toy poodle mix- and since I have been struggling to find a food that works well for her. 
She gets skin infections very easily from different foods resulting in needing antibiotics- that is how I know that a food is not working for her. So far I have tried chicken(freshpet refridgerated), beef(fromm), lamb(taste of the wild), and salmon foods(both wellness simple and taste of the wild). 
The only foods that I have tried that have not given her bumps and scabs on her skin has been the salmon foods. She was on strictly taste of the wild salmon for about 6 months with her skin being clearer than ever before and healthy solid stools- but then she got a bad infection in her GI tract that was so bad she needed to stay overnight at the vet and was sick for about a month with many vet visits. Ever since that cleared up the salmon food was upsetting her stomach and she was vomiting daily- took her to the vet and they told me that the salmon was probably too rich for her stomach. So then I switched to taste of the wild lamb formula to see if that would help with her stomach- and it did. She has been on the lamb formula for about a month and only puked once the entire time- which is such a stark contrast to the daily puking on the salmon. However- her skin has gotten tons of bumps and scabs just like it had on the chicken and beef foods. 
Today I picked up Natural Balance Limited Ingredient Diet Sweet Potato and Salmon in small bites for her. I saw it had a lower fat content than the taste of the wild, and the first ingredient was sweet potato rather than salmon so I thought it may be less rich. 
Has anyone on here had a similar experience or do you have any food you would suggest for my situation?
I have both big petstores local to me and a small one that carries all of the more holistic brands like orijen, fromm, zignature etc. 
Thank you for reading, hopefully someone can shine some light on this situation :angel:


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## naturalfeddogs (Jan 6, 2011)

It may not necessarily be just a protein Intolerance. There may be some other ingredient causing the problems. Which one can be hard to figure out. Lots of process of elimination. If lamb seems to be the best protein, look for a food with lamb AND as limited ingredients as possible.


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## EmmaRoo (Apr 3, 2016)

Hi Maggie's Mom!
I have had similar problems with my little rescue mutt. If she eats stuff that is too greasy or fatty, she gets sick (if she can't eat grass, she shreds the carpet - such fun!). If she eats chicken or beef, she gets itchy. I have ended up with 2 solutions. First, of course, is to not feed her chicken or beef. She does well with venison and with pheasant, but sadly, not everyone we know has that kind of food left over in their freezer. She does well with pork if I cook it well & mix it with oatmeal when I chop it up. I also supplement with VeRUS dog food. I started with their Advanced Opticoat formula because of her itchiness but now am able to feed her VeRUS Life Advantage. I mix it so she gets 1/3 pork w/2/3 dog food. The VeRUS food isn't greasy or stinky and I haven't had any problems with her tummy getting upset.
The second solution has to do with the itchies. Much of her itchy problem turned out to be due to mites. We live in a steamy/humid part of the country and apparently, it's a mite's paradise. To solve that problem, I use a mixture of Neem powder & food grade DE powder. I combine the 2 powders in a sock, and wipe it on her. 
She now doesn't scratch & doesn't get sick. Mites are FREQUENTLY over-looked as the cause for scratching & many times are the actual cause for what is diagnosed as allergies. I have a country vet to thank for this spot-on diagnosis.
If you live near the East Coast, you may find VeRUS in boutique stores, but your best bet is to go to their website & use their vendor map to locate a store near you. If you want to try it first, fill out their contact form and ask for samples. They'll hook you up.
Let us know how it goes!


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## Herzo (Feb 5, 2011)

Maggies Mom I hope your still around so you can tell us how she's doing. Another thing that popped at me is if she has been on antibiotics allot she will need probiotics. I have a basset hound with terrible allergies. I had her ears cleared up once several years ago, then she got a bad tooth and I put her on antibiotics with out a probiotic and holy cow did her ears blow. I have never again gotten them to clear up, I just try and manage them now. If she has to be on antibiotics now I use 2 different ones. I make milk keifir and I also have a powder called PAW-BIOTICS. I however can't remember where I got them from. It was from a Chinese herb place. I also tried some other stuff with out any luck. I even called the guy but her ears are still bad. I'm not sure I can help much with the food as I even put her and my other dog with allergies on raw. But my Bullmastiff could eat Natures Logic and her belly would look much better. I think they say they are good for dogs with allergies.


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## ksbsnowowl (Apr 30, 2010)

I've recently begun a similar process. My two older mutts (had them for 6.5 years and 7 years) both erupted with signs of allergies, to the point that one of them developed hives over his entire torso, and required a vet visit for drugs to get his inflammation under control.

I had known that protein intolerance was a thing, and as such did rotate flavors of foods, going back and forth between TotW Highland Prairie, TotW Wetlands Fowl, and Diamond Naturals Beef, and DN Chicken. Unfortunately, I didn't read the ingredient lists close enough... The DN Chicken and the TotW Wetlands both have Chicken as a primary ingredient (first or second protein source). But what I didn't notice was that both Highland Prairie and DN Beef have chicken fat as the 5th ingredient. So even though I was rotating, they were still constantly getting chicken in their diet.

After the vet visit I bought a bag of Taste of the Wild Pacific Stream (salmon), and started the badly-reacting dog on that the same day. It took a week or two, but his skin issues got under control. During that time I noticed the GSD/Beagle mix was having skin inflammation issues too, so also put her on the salmon food. Her skin has always had issues, and she scratches a lot; she has German Shepherd Dog skin, but it had gotten worse in the last month or two. Switched her to the salmon kibble, and her skin is looking MUCH better. She still scratches more than the other two dogs, but it is much better than it was.

So, we now have two dogs with food allergies. Straight Taste of the Wild is a bit too expensive for our budget (thus the previous inclusion of Diamond Naturals in the rotation), as it usually averages $1.50 per pound (my goal is to get close to $1 per pound, while staying with decent quality grain-free food). In researching things that might fit our dogs' new needs, while being a bit cheaper than Taste of the Wild, I found Kirkland Salmon Meal and Sweet Potato.

It's only available at Costco (Kirkland is their in-house brand), but it is $37 for a 35 lbs. bag. We are not Costco members, but a friend who is just got a bag of this Kirkland food for us. We only received the bag yesterday, so will not actually try it for a few weeks (we're in the middle of a TotW bag now). If our two older dogs do well on this food, we will be canceling our Sam's membership to join Costco so we can get this food on a regular basis.

Just wanted to offer this brand up as a possible option for you, since your situation seems similar to our own. I'll try to remember to come back and provide an update once our dogs have been on this food for a few weeks.


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## ksbsnowowl (Apr 30, 2010)

ksbsnowowl said:


> In researching things that might fit our dogs' new needs, while being a bit cheaper than Taste of the Wild, I found Kirkland Salmon Meal and Sweet Potato.
> 
> It's only available at Costco (Kirkland is their in-house brand), but it is $37 for a 35 lbs. bag. We are not Costco members, but a friend who is just got a bag of this Kirkland food for us. We only received the bag yesterday, so will not actually try it for a few weeks (we're in the middle of a TotW bag now). If our two older dogs do well on this food, we will be canceling our Sam's membership to join Costco so we can get this food on a regular basis.
> 
> Just wanted to offer this brand up as a possible option for you, since your situation seems similar to our own. I'll try to remember to come back and provide an update once our dogs have been on this food for a few weeks.


Just wanted to come and update this. The Costco Kirkland Salmon Meal and Sweet Potato food really has worked great for my guy that broke out in hives. His stools have been better (smaller, more firm), and we've seen no sign of the allergic reactions resurfacing since changing him to this food, and removing chicken-containing treats from his diet.

The Kirkland food did not do the trick for my Beagle/GSD. After the Taste of the Wild Pacific Stream was running low, and we transitioned to the Kirkland food, we started to notice her itching a lot more, and having more skin irritation (pink, swollen areas that get "lymphy" and damp). We have a friend who runs a pit bull rescue, and she had a vast overflow of high-quality dog food bags right around the time this was all happening. Anyway, from her we got a bag of Annamaet Aqualuk fish-based dog food the same month that its 'best by' date came due. We've had the Beagle/GSD on that for over a month now, and she is doing okay on it, but honestly, the best food for her allergies so far has been the Taste of the Wild Pacific Stream (which is half the price of the Aqualuk).


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