Bulldog has severe food allergies, wanting to Change to raw diet

[nycbullymama]

Hello Brittany,
My EB, Chevy, has many many allergies - food and environmental. I had to definitively know 'what' by ordering a blood test. This helped me to know what to avoid in his food as well as environment (bark, cedar beds, cat hair, mold, fleas, house flies) and they also provided a full listing of foods that he could eat based upon the outcome.

Alternately, though, we went raw. Best book I've found to help with this initially-challenging cutover: "Switching to Raw" by Susan K. Johnson.

Additionally, while I got caught up in all the right ingredients for his diet, while still seeing growing itching and excessive licking as well as redness from head to toe, I forgot to recall how easy it is for EBs to get yeast or bacterial types of dermatitis on their skin. There are other great treatments for this - dietarily as well as topically - as seen in videos right on this website. As soon as I tackled yeast issues, things turned around quickly. I'm still going to stick with raw food for now though as I know the longer term benefits with that.

Good luck and don't hesitate to ask any questions about my experiences on the path to raw.

Allergy testing is not at all accurate when it comes to food. Elimination diets are really the only way to do it if you want to find out.

Take the food panel results with a grain of salt. Your vet should have told you this though, and if you look at the test results it should say it as well. I know HESKA, and Liquid Gold by VARL both both have a disclaimer on their reports that says something like "the gold standard for determination of adverse reaction in food is an exclusionary diet..etc."

I do agree with taking an allergy test to determine if any of it is environmental though.

 

[minibull]

While I do believe that a quality raw diet is best, I've also learned that high quality formulas may not always agree with our bulldogs. So I say, if you found something that works for your dog, stick with it. In fact, buy stock in it to make sure it never goes out of business!!

Thanks for your supportive comment (although I appreciate the constructive criticism of others here, too). Oh my goodness I'd be beyond disappointed if the company were to go out of business! Buttercup continues to do so well and we're on day 12 without any need for a bath! I had no idea that allergies could contribute so heavily to yeast overgrowth and also never dreamed our EB could smell so good -- and not just "not bad," but actually good!

I guess one good thing is that if we do switch to raw then at least we already seem to have eliminated her major food allergens so we can start with a clean baseline to see how each new food affects her.

 

[Vikinggirl]

I'm glad you found a food that agrees with her, and I hope she continues to improve and be allergy free. I agree with Ellie that when you find a food that agrees with your dog, stay with it. Each dog is individual and what works for one doesn't always work for another.