Trying to pick a protein

[bowserdad]

Hi guys,

Long time lurker but I finally had to register to get some advice. Our lovable bully was doing great on TOTW Pacific Stream kibble for years but recently started to get interdigital cysts and lost patches of hair on his body. We haven't given him anything different and try to keep him under limited ingredients. We decided to switch to raw and went with Stella and Chewys Surf and Turf. I'm not sure if it's the beef in the formula but he developed an ear infection that basically inflamed enough to close his ear canal. After a trip to the vet, he is on a course of steroids and antibiotics. We are cleaning his ear twice a day right now and the swelling seems to be going down slowly.
The vet mentioned that usually ear infections like this is an underlying problem due to allergies in his food or environment. We decided to change his protein to Venison but just went on the Stella and Chewy's website and saw that they are discontinuing it.

We now have to figure out a single protein to switch to again and are thinking of lamb. Do you guys have any suggestions on what you would switch to at this point? Since we are currently battling an infection we want to be careful that we feed him a good protein so that he can continue to heal and get better but we are also thinking long term and want to find something that he will thrive on for the foreseeable future.

Thanks

 

[2BullyMama]

Have you tried the SC duck?

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[TyTysmom]

Its such a struggle with food. And unfortunately its alot of trial & error. We were having several issues with food allergies as well and actually did Stella & Chewy's as well for a bit, Tyson did great on it, UNTIL they had a lysteria recall and got horribly sick.

In food trials, its best to eliminate everything and do one single protein. There are single protein kibbles, "limited ingredient" but we decided to go with The Honest Kitchen. We've had Tyson on it for almost 2 yrs now and he's done AMAZING on it. Now, we do the (base) mix called Kindly... this one has no protein in it. We add our own in. I buy extra lean ground beef, and mix it in with his Honest Kitchen. He loves it. Just a suggestion... if you wanted to do some research on it It's basically like home cooking

Link:

Kindly - Grain-Free Base Mix Dog Food

 

[bowserdad]

Have you tried the SC duck?

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thanks for the welcome. hahaha...

Unfortunately, the duck for Stella and Chewy's is a mixture of duck and goose. We are trying to keep it a single protein to eliminate things that he could be allergic to. We are leaning towards lamb or rabbit but haven't made a decision yet. Do you guys think those are good choices?

 

[bowserdad]

Its such a struggle with food. And unfortunately its alot of trial & error. We were having several issues with food allergies as well and actually did Stella & Chewy's as well for a bit, Tyson did great on it, UNTIL they had a lysteria recall and got horribly sick.

In food trials, its best to eliminate everything and do one single protein. There are single protein kibbles, "limited ingredient" but we decided to go with The Honest Kitchen. We've had Tyson on it for almost 2 yrs now and he's done AMAZING on it. Now, we do the (base) mix called Kindly... this one has no protein in it. We add our own in. I buy extra lean ground beef, and mix it in with his Honest Kitchen. He loves it. Just a suggestion... if you wanted to do some research on it It's basically like home cooking

Link:

Kindly - Grain-Free Base Mix Dog Food

Thanks for the reply. We will definitely keep Honest Kitchen as an option. My only reservation with using it is trying to source a protein. We are leaning away from beef because he seemed to develop the ear infection when we fed him beef and fish. Once we figure out what protein source he is good with, we will try to give Honest Kitchen a try.

 

[TyTysmom]

Thanks for the reply. We will definitely keep Honest Kitchen as an option. My only reservation with using it is trying to source a protein. We are leaning away from beef because he seemed to develop the ear infection when we fed him beef and fish. Once we figure out what protein source he is good with, we will try to give Honest Kitchen a try.

Try a novel protein, maybe duck, venison. We do kangaroo every once in a while since its just as lean. We buy it at Sprouts. Are you sure it was the beef? Was beef the only ingredient in the food? I hate that foods will say "Beef" or "Turkey" but then you read the actual ingredients and it has a ton of other crap.

 

[bowserdad]

Try a novel protein, maybe duck, venison. We do kangaroo every once in a while since its just as lean. We buy it at Sprouts. Are you sure it was the beef? Was beef the only ingredient in the food? I hate that foods will say "Beef" or "Turkey" but then you read the actual ingredients and it has a ton of other crap.

To be honest, I'm not sure of anything. hahaha...it's seriously so hard trying to find the source of the problem. Maybe we will revisit the beef again in the future but for now, we might try the lamb patties and see how he does with it. My only concern is that he's fighting an ear infection right now so I really just want his food to help rather than hurt his recovery.

 

[Dollys Owner]

I think it's a good idea for an allergic bully to switch up proteins once in a while otherwise a protein they were good with before no longer is ok. Tytysmom approach is great- start with the Kindly base mix which is extremely limited in ingredients and try cooking up or serving thawed rabbit, venison, duck, turkey, kangaroo etc with it. It takes anywhere from 2 days to 2 weeks to start seeing the effect of the new protein.