Help Needed! Help please! Switched from Royal Canin to california natural lamb grain free

[ptran713]

I recently switched Capo from royal canin to california natural lamb grain free because he was shedding like crazy and breaking out on his back. Three weeks after changing his food i do not notice any change. Capo is still shedding like crazy and still has spots all over his back. Should i change his food again? I bought multivitamins and fish oil for him hoping this would help. Somebody please help me.

 

[Momma2Bullies]

Hi there, welcome!
And welcome to the "food rollercoaster" as I like to call it. I had my guys on Royal Canin and it was brutal (see my other posts - CLEARLY allergic to corn which Royal Canin is full of). Have tried several others, including grain free (too rich/ too high protein), potato free (bad yeast situation with potato), you name it. I don't know the food you are transitioning on right now, but food can take 2 months before you know what is going on. I am currently in a strict food trial on Wellness simple duck/oatmeal (limited ingredient allergy formula) - in order to figure out some major skin issues (like the breakouts you mentioned). If the break outs are really bad, you may need antibiotics. One thing to keep in mind is besides the kibble, make sure you aren't giving any other treats that might be causing an issue - right now, I am using some kibble as "treats". My guys are looking at me like I am insane and "uh, that's our food mom where is a real treat" but until I know if it is chicken, lamb, wheat, carrots, or whatever, I am not allowing them to have a thing. Another possibility are seasonal allergies - not sure where you are, but ragweed is still an issue here. So: by the end of November, when my 2 months strict food trial is up, I will be able to see if they are all better since seasonal allergies will be long over and then I can reintroduce certain elements into their food to see any triggers....
I have tagged [MENTION=2291]cowsmom[/MENTION] to read this post - she is awesome at food advice (just check out come other threads).

Good Luck, keep us posted!

 

[LariP]

Like [MENTION=5605]Momma2Bullies[/MENTION] said it can take a while to notice a change.
And i completely agree with her advice to check to see if antiobiotics are needed. Also, have you had a scrape done at the vet to rule out mites?
Althoughh allergies in food are the usual suspects, sometimes you have to get the skin issues created by the allergies under control by other means than simply a food change. Changing shampoos, and yes fish oil supplements could help too.

 

[cowsmom]

welcome to ebn. well the shedding can be normal its the spots on the back i would look at. what kinda spots? can you post a picture? are they hives or something else. i would think that 3 weeks into a food change you would see some kinda change. what kinda shampoo you using? laundry detergent? are the bumps constant or do they come and go. are there any other symptoms such as runny nose or chin breakouts or red paws? have you had them to the vet recently for a checkup? is there hair loss? have you tried a bland diet of beef and rice maybe to see if they get better. sorry for all the questions but when dealing with a bully it can be a matter of tracking stuff down.

 

[ptran713]

Hey thinks for the reply everybody. Im new to this website and happy to find out that there are other english bulldog addicts out there. I wanted to prevent taking him to the vet because I was hoping to take care of this skin problem on my own cuz the vet could be costly. He does have a runny nose occasionally and has small patches of missing hair. There appears to be some of scabes on his back also. He did have mange a while back but the last time the vet did a skin scrap it was negative. Im afraid the mange could have came back. I just ordered defendex online which is a mange and mite shampoo that worked for me in the past.

 

[LisaMarie]

[MENTION=6109]ptran713[/MENTION] ,Hi there!! I think you should have the vet check for mange because as you think it might be back and its best to fix that soon. I feed Mocha NVI Salmon,grain free. She is doing great!!! I used to feed her Natural Balance (grain free) but got scare when there was a recall on one of the products. But she did well on it. It is a matter of trial an error when it comes to food. Make sure is high quality food and grain free. Keep using the fish oil and supplements.

 

[Baconator]

Everyone pretty much said what I was going to say, so I'll leave it at and good luck, hopefully you can figure out what is making your little guy break out in a rash