So Jacks vet said we should look into a hypoallergenic dog food to see if that helps with his eye and ear infection, he is also pawing at his mouth and im worried he may reinfect it.
i went to dogfoodadvisor.com and this is a list they had to look at

Suggested Hypoallergenic Dog Foods

Acana Dog Food (Dry)
Addiction Dog Food (Dehydrated)
Addiction Dog Food (Dry)
Blue Buffalo Basics (Canned)
Bravo Balance Dog Food (Raw Frozen)
Brothers Complete Advanced Allergy Care (Dry)
California Natural (Canned)
California Natural (Dry)
EVO 95 Percent (Canned)
EVO Dog Food (Canned)
EVO Dog Food (Dry)
Natural Balance Limited Ingredient Diets (Canned)
Wellness Simple (Canned)

Has any one feed any of these for skin, or allergies and seen an improvement? i care more about the dry options and price is also an issue, it cant be a $60+ bag of food.
we feed the nature domain salmon from costo and have for a while switching around with the turkey and beef as well. this whole eye and ear thing started when he was on the turkey so we cut out all turkey things but it just is not totally clearing up.
thanks for any suggestions or input!

our Diamond has extreme food allergies and we've had a huge turn around and long term health improvements on Taste Of The Wild.  I know it's not on the list but it's literally been the only food that she's thrived on- Vet assessment determined poultry allergy, grains, dyes, and most of the preservatives found in low quality foods...she was likely on some generic grocery brand.

You can see the dark spot around her eye and inflammation down her muzzle, this was her entire body looked like when she first came to us.  She was very itchy, and oily.  Poor coat quality in general.


This was taken today-

I've not tried this, have not had any problems with Ami BUT...

Our neighbor has a german shepherd that had all sorts of skin problems. Their vet suggested the bison and venison TOTW formula (I think its the High Prairie one). They are thrilled with the results - has been on the food for a year or more now and no more skin problems.

thanks for that info, nature domain is just about TOTW, its costco's knock off of it.
http://www.great-pet-supplies.com/natures-domain-brand
diamond pet foods makes it, same factory as TOTW, we fed that till costo started selling ND.

jbealer wrote:

thanks for that info, nature domain is just about TOTW, its costco's knock off of it.
http://www.great-pet-supplies.com/natures-domain-brand
diamond pet foods makes it, same factory as TOTW, we fed that till costo started selling ND.

Not really, TOTW is a bit more different than just a Costco knock off. While I'm not a Diamond fan and they're both Diamond manufactured foods, I consider TOTW to be better than Nature's Domain.

Val, im sure it is better, and im willing to try it again but I was wondering about the other brands listed, I know totw is running close to $60 now and some of the brands I listed are running less then that.
I also know trying foods is way cheaper then going to a specialist and running a bunch of test. I just find it odd that this just started in nov. of last yr. after I switched proteins. I just want my boy better.

Wow- glad I'm not buying where you are! I pay $46/bag for the high protein. Check on Chewy.com for better pricing.

I'd be cautious of the Natura brands. They've been bought out by P&G and I'm sure it's only a matter of time before quality starts to slip.3

I've had lots of allergy and tummy issues with Diz, so here is my advice. I think the best thing to do, in terms of allergies, is to get a grain free food with only one protein source at a time so you can figure out what is triggering the reactions. After feeding Diz raw, I can tell within 24 hours if he is reacting to something. His eyes will start to get small 'sleepies' around them and get teary.

So, I'd start with 1-2 weeks of a bland diet of egg and green beans (no treats, literally nothing else). Egg is very neutral and usually not included in many dog foods. Normally I'd say 4-5 days of the bland egg diet, but since he's been having issues for a while now, I'd recommend longer. It will take more than a few days to see improvement, and if you can 'reset' him before you start testing new foods, it will make it much easier for you to identify what proteins bother him, and it will make identifying a reaction a lot easier as well.

Then, start with a small bag of maybe one of the Acana Limited Ingredient ones (I also really like nutrisca and canidae) with a protein that is NOT currently included in his food, maybe the duck and bartlett pear. Or, if his current food does not have lamb, start with lamb and apple. You can start with anything, but again, just make sure there is only one animal protein and it is one that is NOT in his current food. If a food, for example, has lamb, and lamb meal that's fine, but only one animal for the meat source. I've noticed a lot of high protein foods include fish meal in addition to the main protein source. I think this allows them to increase the total percentage of protein, but with something cheaper.

So, get a 5 lb bag and if (after the egg reset) he does not react, or shows improvement (even slightly), you know that protein is okay. If he reacts at all (even a minor increase in tears), you will know its not okay. Then try a 5 lb bag of the lamb, then the pork and by doing small bags of a single protein source you can find out exactly what his triggers are. When doing the trigger investigation you need to completely cut out all treats and anything other than his dog food, because if you see a reaction, you won't know if it's from the treats or the food. Once you know what gets him inflamed, you can probably find a lower priced brand, that doesn't have any of his triggers in them like TOTW. The problem I have found with many of the good quality, but slightly cheaper brands (like TOTW) is that they have multiple protein sources in each formula, so it is very difficult to identify which one is causing the problem if you don't already know his triggers.

Feeding Diz raw has really helped me identify what triggers his allergies. I don't completely avoid the trigger foods, but I do rotate and never feed one more than 2-3 days in a row. Pork really seems to inflame his skin (he gets very pink), beef makes his eyes goopy, lamb is a big no no (and he doesn't like it anyway), and chicken makes him bite his feet, but only if I feed them for more than a few days. Turkey is one of the few protein sources I've found that he has zero reaction to. So, I constant rotate his proteins; pork for 2-3 days, turkey for a few days, beef for 2-3 days, turkey for a few days. Turkey is sort of a reset for him. Salmon is okay, but whitefish is bad news him.

It takes patience, but once you figure out what gets him going, it will make buying food in the future much easier. Good luck!

I forgot to mention, between bags, I would do the egg diet, instead of mixing the foods. So, once you finish one bag, do 48 hours of the bland diet and then start the next food.

Also, it would probably help if you take photos of him every couple days and keep a little diary where you note if you think you see improvement or reactions every day. I'm very good at convincing myself he's looking worse, but if I actually take pix, I can look back and see what's really happening.

Jen, thanks for that info, how many eggs in a day? i dont want to under feed him since i know there is about 70cal in one egg. he gets about 336 kcals/cup with his food now X2. so about 4 eggs each meal?

Val, i just pulled up the ingredients in the ND food vs. the TOTW salmon and they are just about the same when it comes to the top listed foods. ND contains peas and pea protein where TOTW does not.

was on the chewys site and the California Natural Herring & Sweet Potato Formula Adult Dry Dog Food looks like a good start and the price is not that bad.
Kelsey, thank you for the heads up on the sale of natural, its just hard cause TOTW does not seem to have a single protein food to go with.

all the other brands are way super high in price Dogswell Nutrisca Grain-Free Chicken & Chickpea Recipe Dry Dog Food, would be an option.

I would do 8-12 eggs a day, and start with 1 cup of green beans, if that's not enough, you can always add more green beans. I always hard boil, so I can do a bunch in one go. I really liked the nutrisca when I tried it with Diz, back when he was on dry food.

California Natural Herring & Sweet Potato has grain in it.
But like Kelsey said, they are Natura brand and were bought out by P&G.

So with Jen's help on the eggs and beans and then Claudia was helping me in chat this is our plan once i finish up the ND (in the next week or so)
i will do this for both dogs as i noticed Sierra is scratching her mouth as well.

1 week of eggs and green beans
then switching to natural balance LID venison, and see how they both do on it.
then maybe switching to TOTW sierra mt. lamb so they have a food with more protein in it then the LID.

I thought you were going to TOTW Sierra Mtn Lamb since that had more protein with it still being one protein source, and not do Natural Balance? You'd be making less of food switches, and I think TOTW is cheaper than NB, right?

Oh, and with 21 eggs a day for a week, perhaps you should get the eggs at Costco by the flat bundle... I just hard boiled the eggs for about 3 days worth when I had Ginger on a bland diet. Makes it easier at feeding time...

jbealer wrote:

Val, i just pulled up the ingredients in the ND food vs. the TOTW salmon and they are just about the same when it comes to the top listed foods. ND contains peas and pea protein where TOTW does not.

I know you've moved past this already but wanted to address it nonetheless for future readers. Better late than never...since I don't have all that much forum time these days.

My previous comment regarding the Nature's Domain not being a generic for TOTW still stands. That was a blanket statement you made previously and cannot be applied for all formulas across ND and TOTW. Sure the ND salmon formula may be very similar to the TOTW Pacific Stream formula but not all the formulas cannot be generalized the way they were in previous posts.   

I see you've made your decision and a plan, so good luck with it. Natural Balance's LID formulas have always been my "go to" foods when dealing with food related issues where elimination diets have been required. The LID Sweet potato & Venison used to be my preferred food. I have since started using the LID Legume & Duck formula because it has more meat (duck meal being it's first ingredient versus the LID Venison formula that has sweet potato as the first ingredient). Of course this is all irrelevant if you decide to skip the NB LID formulas altogether and just use TOTW...just throwing it out there though. NB and TOTW are both made my Diamond last time I checked.

Thanks Val!
I must've missed the NB duck and legume formula, but good to know that has more protein in it.
I suggested TOTW Sierra Mtn Lamb because it had more protein, and it was a single source protein.  I think TOTW is still less than NB, so perhaps that TOTW will still be what Jenn decides to go with.  I was trying to find an option to fit more protein, grain free, single source protein, and cost, eliminating salmon, turkey and chicken.

Meeka had really bad allegies, so we switched her food to acana pacifica. It worked wonders for her