possibly another MCT / allergic load

[roccolya]

What I cook for my allergic lab:

One days worth of food for a 56 pound lab:

6 cups of potatoes
2 cups of boiled venison
5 600 mg of calcium carbonate or Tums...I use calcium carbonate with no colors and no flavors
1 multivitamin tablet
pinch of salt
1 teaspoon olive, safflower, or other oil which has not been in her food. Like I do not use corn oil

(this diet was formulated by a vet at Michigan State University Veterinary School for my itchy little friend)

When the dermatologist put her on this he gave me the choice of duck (probably bad for your dog) rabbit, ostrich, or venison. I chose venison as I live in Michigan and ostriches do not run around here so much.

Waysong dog foods sells pure rabbit in cans. You could mix that with the potatoes and minerals, and oils to make a balanced food if you did not want to hunt down Venison or any other meat source. WARNING...do not use Waysong tinned venison as an option as it does contain some beef. The company told me that only their rabbit is pure.

You might try this for a bit and if your dog does well, then maybe try going to a commercial food with the same limited ingredients. Natural Balance has started making a Fish and Potato formula as well.

Please know that I have not been able to switch my dog back to a commercial food yet. She just starts itching too much.

Tell us how it goes and good luck,

Morgan with Lya the Itchy

[FieldLabLover]

When the dermatologist put her on this he gave me the choice of duck (probably bad for your dog)

Why would duck be bad? I read somewhere, and I can't come up with the reference, that duck is closest to the most perfect food for dogs in digestible proteins. Think what would a dog catch in nature-a cow? Probably a duck, rabbit.

[ThatsMyGirl]

When the dermatologist put her on this he gave me the choice of duck (probably bad for your dog)

Why would duck be bad? I read somewhere, and I can't come up with the reference, that duck is closest to the most perfect food for dogs in digestible proteins. Think what would a dog catch in nature-a cow? Probably a duck, rabbit.

I don't think Roccolya was saying DUCK is bad ... probably just referring to lab13's second post where it was stated:

She was worse on the duck and potato.* Itched like mad on it.

[roccolya]

Oh, I thought I had read that you had tried her on a food that contained duck and she itched like crazy. I guess in my mind that I would start with a different protien first given her reaction to the duck food. Mind you, it could have been something else in that food but the first things to look at are the protiens and the starches. And potatoes tend to be rather OK with most dogs.

By the way, my Rhodesian Ridgeback hates that Natural Balance Duck and Potato food...just spits it out.

Morgan with Lya the Itchy

and Friend Rocco the Ridgeback

[lab13]

You are correct in that I meant that I thought to avoid the duck as it made her itchy. Acutally, when I look at the list, the Natural Balance and the Medi-cal Hypo were both duck foods and she was bad on both. So, I think I would avoid the duck.

Also, a lot of these allergy foods are high in carbs which aren't good for cancer diets. The only ones that I have researched that are lower that the average maintenance diet are

Pro Plan turkey 38%
Pro Plan SSC 36% ( if my memory is correct at the moment sitting here)

So, when I checked out the Natural balance diets, their diets were up to 51% carbs and that was a no no for my dog.

So, other than the Pro Plan diets, I don't know of any other that are low carb.

[roccolya]

Now about those carbs. A vet at MSU formulated this diet for Lya based on her allergies. I could have also gone to www.petdiets.com and they would have done one as well. At www.petdiets.com if you tell them that she is battling both allergies and cancer, they may indeed formulate something different for her.

The vet at www.petdiets.com is meant to be the cream of small animal nutritionists.

Really the best of luck to you,

Morgan with Lya the Itchy

[lab13]

When I took my lab to the dog dermatologist they wanted me to feed her Hills Rx food that is hydrolyzed chicken ? would it be zd?

It looked like it had too many addivitves to me to try but maybe it would be the one too?? Has anyone ever tried it?

We are not changing her food till she recovers from her surgery tomorrow and has a few weeks to get back into regular rountine.

[Mygirls2]

Sarah was on Hills Z/D. I didn't care for the ingredients, but having her vomit and have rashes with everything else I tried, we went with it. She had an endoscopy done to make sure she didn't have any other problems going on other than her allergies. She was prescribed an antacid with the Z/D to let her digestive tract heal. After a while we stopped the antacid but kept her on the Z/D for almost a year. She did suprisingly well on it.

We were able to gradually change over to the Eagle Pack. She has done better on that than the Z/D, but I am thankful to have had something that she could eat during that time.

Sarah never had loose stools or itching with her allergies. She vomited frequently, lost hair in spots, had bad breath, yeast infections, etc. We dealt with this for a couple of years. Always going to the vet and getting in under control for a little while.

She never gets any treats on a regular basis. She will get a small marrow bone, or frozen organic yogurt once in a while.

Just to be safe, all her bedding and towels are washed with a free and clear detergent and no softener.
She swims a lot and we make sure to dry her well.

[roccolya]

That ZD was one of the commercial foods we tried Lya on so that we would not have to home cook for her. Within two meals she started shaking her head and scratching her ears, so poof no more ZD.

This does not mean that your dog would not do well on it however.

Morgan with Lya the Itchy