new owner. allergies?

[izstigspunks]

hi everyone!

to keep things short, i've had my 5 1/2 old bully for 3 weeks now and continued with the food the breeder was giving him. went to see the vet 4 days after my boyfriend and i picked him up and the vet said he had hives. he prescribed antibiotics and benadryl. my bully is a lot better now, however, still gets the itchies when it's between the benadryl time, and a very small amount of hives.

vet recommended to change the food. originally Loyall and suggested Performatrin. he was concerned about the poutry by-product and large amount of grain in the Loyall. performatrin doesn't have any by-products and has very little grain, however, i was still concerned and picked up orijen puppy instead since i've heard good things about it.

do you think orijen's a good idea? we're still trying to figure out what my bully's allergic to, and the vet wanted to find out if we can figure it out by changing the food before we accumulate bills by doing allergy tests.

from my perspective, it's weird that he suggested something with poultry. should i try something different?

thanks!

 

[bullmama]

Wow your vet is few and far between. Most vets don't give out this very vital information about FOOD- they usually tell you to buy the junk they sell and keep you coming back into their office.

KUDOS to your vet.

Orijen is a good dog food- but why puppy formula when he is 5 1/2 years old? Just curious on that.

You are making the best decision for your bully. It may take several dog foods to find the best one. Check out the dog food ratings, dog food then and now, and the Bulldog Nutrition forum. These are GREAT pages to help in your quest for the perfect food.

Keep us posted!

One more thing, got any pictures? We would love to see your bully! :D

 

[kazzy220]

We are lucky in that Maggie doesn't seem to have allergies to foods - although we have just (very slowly) moved her on to FROMM and also the Grizzly pet products salmon oil. I am SO pleased with how she is looking now - eyes, ears, nose and coat look wonderful and she is a bundle of energy!!!

However, I'm sure you will get a LOT of help on this site. I do recommend [MENTION=4]Lindathedogsmaid[/MENTION] as she is an expert on foods!!

Welcome to this site!! Looking forward to seeing pics of your bullie!!

 

[izstigspunks]

whoops, he's 5 1/2 months old, not years.

the good thing is he's loving the orijen puppy. scarfed it down this morning!

 

[bullmama]

Let us know how he does with it, and congrats on your pup.

Welcome to our site, hope you visit often :D

 

[Weberbulldogs]

Congrats on your new puppy we would love to see pictures!

If His skin isn't showing improvement on the Orijen within a few weeks I suggest switching to a diffrent main protein other than Chicken as chicken is in the top 10 dog allergies, It isn't easy to find a puppy food without chicken so an all life stages formula maybe be your best option. Our frenchie gets "hives" if he eats a chicken based dog food. Some good ALS foods are Natures Variety,Fromm, Acana(same company as Orijen), I think Natures Logic is also ALS

Its trial and error with bulldogs and finding a food for allergies but be sure to switch foods slowly to avoid and upset stomach

 

[Gertie's Mom]

Congrats on your new baby boy! I feed Nature's Variety, which is an all life stages food. They have a line called Prairie that contain grain, and a grain-free line called Instict. I have two bullie girls, almost 4 months old. Luckily , neither seems to have any allergy issues, so they eat the Prairie Chicken and brown rice. But there are also several non-chicken foods. I'm sure you could find one that will work great for your pup. Good luck with him, hope you find a food that's perfect for him! Welcome to the site. This place is so great, you'll learn everything you need to know!

 

[cali~jenn]

All the advice given is great. Food are the hardest thing to get down with bullies. Cutty is going on 5 and I am still switching around for "the perfect food." lol. His allergies arent so bad to need vet care tho so hopefully you will figure out what works for your pup soon. It takes 3-4 weeks for a food to show its benefits so I would go a bag at a time and keep trying. And yes the slow switch is a MUST! I think a week minimum but I really take my time and stretch it out further, it cant hurt thats for sure. Welcome to the site, hope you like it here as much as we do! Also, we LOVE pics so we will be waiting for them. :D

 

[laurentourville]

I would definetly contact [MENTION=4]Lindathedogsmaid[/MENTION] as she is very knowledgeable in the food area. I see you are from Canada, and I know she has also helped some members that live outside of the US in finding a good bully food where they live!!! We feed Horse Nature's Logic Lamb and he has done awesome on it (check out the Dog Food then + now page for his pics!)

 

[izstigspunks]

Thanks so much for all the advice everyone! This feels like a great community to belong in!

I guess I'll try the Orijen puppy formula for now as the vet recommended a brand with chicken. If I don't see any improvements after a couple of weeks, I'll switch to another. Stig, my bullie, was so hyper when my bf and I got home yesterday. Ran around everywhere in the house! I introduced the new food a couple of days ago, along with the old one, and I'm wondering if that can be the cause. =)

Pics coming soon for sure!

 

[cali~jenn]

I am not familiar with the previous food you were feeding but if you changed from a lower grade to a high grade then yes energy would be a sign. lol.

 

[kazzy220]

I am not familiar with the previous food you were feeding but if you changed from a lower grade to a high grade then yes energy would be a sign. lol.

Oh yes ... moving Maggie from a 1* food and on to FROMM which is a 5* food, there is DEFINITELY a HUGE increase in energy!!!

 

[Kikiwhoa21]

Hii [MENTION=1209]savemejeebus[/MENTION]! Welcome! )
You know my oldest Bully Chelios (1yr) the same thing occurred to him when he was about the same age, maybe a month or two older. Well he was on Royal Canin && got horrible hives, swelling it was bad! :/ Vet also gave us antibaotics, gave him a shot, && also benadril. He was on the pills for over a money until we finally figured it might be his food && switched him. To Blue Buffalo we saw amzing results in less then two weeks. After Blue buffalo we went to Avoderm which Chelios LOVED but Faith was getting sick to that so we moved to Fromm Surf & Turf which is AMAZING! They both love it and we havent seen ANY problems since. But honestly, its all up to the dog. What one food maybe good for one could be bad for the other. It's all a process of elimination unfortunatly! :/ Try out different foods until you see && like one that fits your dog!