Rules on changing food

[izstigspunks]

I gradually changed Stig's food to Fromm Salmon a la veg from Loyall puppy 3 weeks ago and noticed some great differences. This includes firmer and lesser stools, huge increase in energy and less itchiness. But he still gets 1 or 2 new hives a week. Would it be a great idea if I change his food again at this time? I'm thinking of trying a different protein such as lamb.

My main concern is that because of his allergies, he hasn't received his second set of vaccinations yet. He turned 6 months this past Sept 24th. We went to the vet this past Sat hoping he's well enough to get vaccinated, but the vet was still concerned about his hives and gave us an oatmeal based shampoo and instructed to give Stig a bath once a week. She was kind enough not to charge us for the appointment, only for the shampoo!

So now, Stig broke into more hives either because of the new shampoo or because of my parent's carpets. (We visited them on the weekend). He's not scratching, but I can tell he's uncomfortable. What should I do? Should I ask for an allergy test to be done? The next vet appointment is this Sat.

[cali~jenn]

You can change his food to another protein and not have to go thru the transition phase even so that would be ok. Cant hurt thats for sure. Poor thing. Are you giving any snacks that maybe causing the hives? You can also give benedryl to help relieve the itch I believe it is 25mg per 25 pounds which should be 1 pill per 25 pounds. Make sure that it is the basic benedryl with no tylenol. As for the allergy test I would say that is up to you if you want to spend the money on it right now. You still have options at this point so you may wanna wait a bit while switching foods but if you want to do the test then by all means it may save you a headache.

[lexterwayne]

it might be a cleaning product your parents are using on their carpet like that powder you sprinkle over the carpet to give it fresher smell or something like that has chemicals in it. you might call and ask if they use anything or have used anything recently on the carpet... and i love the oatmeal shampoo i get ours at petsmart it also has baking soda in it to to cut out any smells.. just think of the oatmeal shampoo as when you were a kid and had the chicken poxs and the oatmeal smoothed your itching