Bernese Mountain Dog In Need Of Hypoallergenic Diet - Help!

[zaraz]

Hi folks,

I'm new to this forum & would really, really appreciate it if anyone could give me any advice or suggestions on my dogs diet.

I have a 15 month old Bernese who after a few initial feeding issues as a very young pup seemed to have settled down quite happily on Wainwrights large breed dry food which he has been fed exclusively for the past year. However, over the last few months he has been developing dry, itchy skin. It is now getting very distressing for my poor dog who is currently on antibiotics & anti-histamines. It started as what looked like small hives on various parts of his body but has now spread to larger patches of inflammed, dry skin. He is also losing patches of fur & looking rather 'moth-eaten'. The vet has ruled out mites/parasites through skin scrapes & tests. They aren't sure exactly what is the culprit although suggest it could be an allergy. I want to avoid the route of steriods.

Now, I've been thinking back to when the symptoms started & realised that Wainwrights changed the ingredients (& kibble size?) around the same time - coincidence?

I have decided the logical approach would to be try a new diet. I would like to try raw but am not confident I have the knowledge & experience to provide the balance my dog would need, so dry would be preferable. I've looked into a lot of 'hypoallergenic' dog food but when you delve into the ingredients in detail, all is not what it seems.

I have come to the conclusion that real life opinions & experiences are my best option. So here I am. Please help me & my poor itchy pooch.

Thanks

 

[eingana]

Hi zaraz, welcome to DogForum

I'm sorry to hear about your lad and his potential (quite likely) allergy. If you're looking for the ultimate in low allergy diets then that's pretty much guaranteed to be a raw diet where you control exactly what goes into his food so you know exactly what he has, and what he hasn't, eaten. However, a raw diet is not for everybody and if you're likely to be put off by a bit of blood and portioning up raw chicken, or you've not got a lot of freezer space, then it's not likely to be for you.

My dog is a GSD and she's got what is generally called GSD dicky tummy. There's a very specific GSD illness which affects 5% (ish) of GSDs that is a genuine lack of dietary enzymes and that needs lifelong management, but up to 30-50% of GSDs (depending on which sources you read) have a very sensitive digestion which involves sensitivities and intolerances that can include anything from skin problems to projectile diarrhoea, so most GSD people who struggle with this are encouraged to try a raw diet to see if the symptoms disappear with really very simple food. Molly had dry, itchy skin and really short, broken off coat (as well as chronic diarrhoea) on every complete food we tried, and that included all of the ones intended for sensitive digestions.

If you would like to try other dry complete food before facing the thought of a raw diet then I've heard very good things about the Arden Grange sensitive dry food, although it didn't suit Molly as it turned out that one of her problems was fish, which is included in the food.

Good luck

 

[zaraz]

Hi eingana, thanks for getting back to me so quickly.

I'd been looking into Arden Grange but noticed it has barley in & as I'm worried grains may be an issue with him was a little put off. But it may be worth a try as I've heard good things. Sorry to hear it didn't work for poor Molly though.

I completely agree with you about Raw & if I can't get a dry brand that will agree with him I really will have to consider this & do some serious research. I guess I'd feel a bit better if he was fully grown, as a Bernese he's still officially a pup till approx 2 years.

 

[Blue wrecking it]

Hypo allergenic food....raw

OR

harringtons chicken and rice.

They usually sell it at the asda or search online.

My whippet had a dodgy stomach and 6 months on that sorted her out.

http://m.groceries.asda.com/asda-estore/catalog/sectionpagecontainer.jsp?skuId=910000034421&departmentid=1215062479030&aisleid=1214921924385&startValue=&referrer=cookiesDetecting

 

[zaraz]

Not heard of Harringtons before but I'll look it up. Cheers

 

[Andrea s]

Hi Zaras i feed RAW and have done for 4 years or so, i did this as a result of reading into what commercial dog food contained after Daisy our then Lab pup had the most awful tummy troubles for months, we then adopted our second Lab who was terribly over weight at 11 months of age and looked like she was on her last legs.

It has been the best thing i have ever done, not only educating myself and in turn being able to educate others but the general health of my dogs has never been better, we adopted our 3rd Lab who was given up to rescue because of her tummy troubles she had spent months and months with chronic diarrhoea , we took her in to foster trying to get to the bottom of her issues and low and behold 3 days on raw chicken and bobs your uncle she pooped normally for the first time in forever !!!!

It costs me about £50 a month to feed my 4 , kibble would cost me 3 times that for anything that was half way descent.

Firstly so many dogs have grain intolerance so no matter what dry food you choose you will have grain in it unless you go for Origen which i think you would have to buy online and its expensive to feed a dog like yours.

Feeding raw seems daunting butas long as you do your homework and your organised its easy, all you have to do is remember to take it from the freezer to defrost, there are some great books on raw feeding, as well as several of us on here who can give you help if you get stuck, yes you may need to invest in a bigger freezer but i bout ours from the bargain pages second hand cost me £30 and is 2ft by 3 ft and i can get about 120 portions of meat in there. Yes you buy in bulk, its cheaper that way and i can give you some places to order from who deliver, but if you want to give it a go before committing to getting the freezer etc then large pet shops sell frozen meat in block in there freezer section, your looking to give variety a mix of muscle meat and a bit of offal and a bit of meat on the bone such as wings, necks,or ribs, if this is too daunting then most suppliers who supply chicken mince will and do grind the whole carcass bones and all so the calcium and chondroitin is in there for you.

if you want a great holistic remedy for your dogs skin then look at this http://www.aromesse.com/ the rescue i do some voluntary work for use this on the poor dogs who come in with apauling skin conditions , the results are amazing, it sounds to me like your dog has wet excema as a response to her allergy.

sorry for the long post but its a bit of a thing i have about dogs eating correctly, do a bit of research the more you look into it the easier it becomes to switch as it defiantly does work.

Welcome by the way .

 

[Strix]

it's interesting that molly is sensitive to fish, as that's what causes Brude's motheaten coat problem. It took us 12 months of faffing with vets and getting nowhere to find that out for ourselves

 

[Andrea s]

soya is another thing that can trigger a reaction , strangely enough used in some hypo-allergenic foods.

 

[zaraz]

Hey Andrea, thanks for your post - can't be long enough for me, I need all the help I can get

Really useful stuff & i'll look at the link you mentioned. My instinct is that raw really is the way to go & I'm pretty sure that I will do at some stage. I just feel that I need to do my homework first in terms of balance & feeding quantities etc.. Bernese are just prone to so many conditions I want to make sure I get it right, especially as he's still growing. In the meantime my poor dog is just itching away. Thanks for the offer of advice & support if I go raw, I'm sure I'll be needing that.

On the dry front - Yesterday I contacted Arden Grange & had an excellent response from their Nutriton Advisor - Ness. Gave a very comprehensive & tailored reply to my queries. She suggested trying the the fish & potato/sensitive food that Eingana mentioned. Funny how it seems a number of dogs seem sensitive to fish though like Strix's Brude & Molly. But, as Dexter (my dog) has never had fish this may be a good opportunity to try a completely different protein source & see if it makes any difference. Think I'm going to give it a try & see if I can at least get his skin condition under control. Failing that, It'll be raw all the way - which I'm going to start seriously looking into anyway. Need another freezer for starters!

 

[zaraz]

Just for the record - I wrote earlier that Arden Grange contains barley, to quote their Nutrition Advisor: 'there is no Barley in any of the Arden Grange recipes'. Think I got confused with James Wellbeloved there. Sorry about that, all this scrutinizing ingredients is turning my brain to mush.

 

[Andrea s]

It can take a while for you to see results when changing foods, in respect of Dexters skin etc. when changing over from one food to another it is prudent to do it gradually, add small amount of the new food to the old food and reduce the old food in favour of the new over a period of several days this is to allow the gut to respond to any new protein/ingredient.

on the flip side though if you do switch to raw its better to just switch as feeding raw and grain together is counter productive as the grain ellement in dry kibble digests at different rates and can cause the goodness of the raw diet not to be digested properly, any tummy upset if any will settle in a matter of a few days.

Have you looked at Fish4dogs ?? its a relatively small company but have a good ethical mantra and may suit if fish is the way forward, although i have read something about dogs on a fish diet and it not being good long term, i cant remember what it was though , if i remember i will let you know.

 

[pippywhippet]

I alternate between raw and Fishmongers salmon and potato (which is a grain free complete with 70% salmon) I think I read that too much fish can cause eczema in dogs but not at all sure if that is true- mine all have smooth, shiny coats

I had a Ridgeback who suffered with low grade skin allergies which I suspect was triggered by wheat- she did really well on a raw diet with Dorwest Herbs Easy Green mix and Keepers mix supplements )

 

[Northolm]

Not sure if this would help but I know some top BMD people who might be able to help. I don't know if this is a breed specific issue or if they see it a lot in BMD. PM me if you want me to pass there details on to you.

 

[zaraz]

Thanks everyone, all good helpful stuff! Well, I received a package of samples from Arden Grange yesterday (got to say they have been superb & not just for plugging their own products, really impressed) & have already begun the gradual process of switching Dexter over to the sensitive. I was concerned the biscuit size was going to be too small (not being large breed specific) but funnily enough it's much bigger than the Wainwrights Large Breed that he's on at the moment! Obviously far too early to see any change but the good news is he seems to like it (well he'll eat anything, including dog poo - so we're hardly dealing with a connoisseur here!). It could be my imagination but he seems a bit more satisfied after his feeds. Time will tell.

Still thinking raw is the way we will go & interesting about the theory of switching straight to raw rather than mixing with dry as to honest that's what I was thinking of doing; getting him settled then gradually introducing a meal or raw here & there.

Anyway, first of all want to see if this food will help stabilize his skin issues then I'll take it from there.

And thanks Northolm, BMD contacts would be useful.

 

[murphyrules]

Hi Zaraz,

My youngest Beagle is allergic/intolerant to most things in food, I tried Burns Pork and Potato elimination diet, dry food for months with no treats / titbits at all and the itching and diarrhoea stopped completely, only problem was that he dropped alot of weight, After lots of investigation and discussions with vets at work I gradually swapped him on to Wafcol Salmon and Potato small/medium breed food, he is still itch and diarrhoea free and is almost back up to a nice healthy weight. Its taken a long time but its working for him.

Royal Canin do a hypoallergenic food available from vets as an elimination diet but it is around £80 per bag.

If my boy gets bad again I am having him allergy skin tested to finally get to the bottom of things, but at the moment the Wafcol is working for us.

Good Luck. :luck:

 

[Lou-Myla]

my shar pei has really itchy skin and we have had to change her food due to allergies, we use Burns Sensitive + hypoallergenic. and it has helped but she has other problems now. james wellbeloved with no cerals is another good one too. theres a new one out thats called k9 optimum and ive heard thats good too. good luck, i know how u feel beause my Myla is so sore and itchy, hope u get yours sorted. xx

 

[Steeleye Span]

Fishmongers, Simpsons Sensitive is Grain Free, Vitalin do a grain free product, Millies Wolfheat, Eden are also grain free. Canagan is grain free and Symply is hypoallergenic but does have oats and rice.

It's a minefield out there but hope you find something to suit your young dog.