Update On Cody and his 6 month check up x

Cody had his 6 month check up today : Nurse is very please with his weight he weighs 12.7
i spoke to her about him not eating his dry food and she said not to give in to it as he will eat it if hes hungry as hes waiting for more option and that he not aloud any treats for 2 weeks to see if that helps ( gonna be hard for cody lol ) she was also lil conrcred about his skin as quite pink and she noticed hes been eating at his paws and back legs and his ears are really pink so she said he might have a skin condition or being allergic to something so she gave my a list of allergies it can be and where gonna see if it approves by eliminating these but if it doesn't improve in 3 months hes got to have blood work and loads of test done to see what it can be but overall she really impressed in how far he has come since march xx

Aww with skin allergies it could be any number of things  i apologise if i have asked before what food is he on?

hes on wainwrights and with his skin allergies got a feeling its grass pollen as he bites his feet every time he comes in from the garden xx

Ah i see when he comes in from the garden wipe his paws with warm water and dry them many users have thornit this stops them from biting their paws. Next time you visit your vet ask about piriton may relieve your dogs grass allergy.

ah okay will do thats thank you as for the food he seems to like eating the pedigree vitual again as caught him eating it out the storage box lol could i mix that with his wainwrights and maybe try and wean him off pedgiree again as got a feeling the pet sitter was feeding him that when we went away for the weekend xx

If it were me id throw anything pedigree related away , doesn't offer any nutritional value and very low quality

On hot / humid days you could try spraying cody with cold water as heat tends to flare any allergies up.

Mia still seems to be scratching alot so thinking its just summer thing?, we got her on 2 piriton a day n seems to be working quite well, Mia is around 11kg turned 6months old on 6th july if you class 6months from her birth date 6th Jan or do you class 6months as 24weeks?

cody was born the 9th jan lol so from his birthday xxx

Thanks for clarifying cuz i always said it should be from their birthday & not in weeks, he's just 3 days younger then than Mia, hope he's a good boy for you ,I'm really happy with how mias turning out to be,she's our 1st dog &couldn't wish for a better loving dog.

For the paw chewing wash in warm water after walks, this should knock any pollen off. My Flo has been terrible with her back paws but with washing and Thornit she's better, not perfect by any means but better.

he is the sweetest lil guy ever when he wants to be and yeah hes my first dog as well finally got my parents to say yes and they were shocked when i brought a staff home but they aboustley adore him. Does your dog mia pull on the lead xx

Mia is brilliant on her lead even before we went training she was very good never pulling. We have to drag her out for a walk though but soon as she's out the door she loves it

ah cody the complete opposite he pulls all the time but when anyone else walks him he drags them home as he wants to be with my 24/7 lol xx

I'd try him on raw food that has only one ingredient, something like chicken or turkey, and see if that makes any difference. Nature's Menu does 'Just' minces

http://www.naturesmenu.co.uk/category-raw-meals.aspx

To me, if a dog doesn't want to eat his food I wouldn't force it. It could well be his body saying there is something in it that he shouldn't have. (If you did the 'she'll eat it if she's hungry enough' with me and a hamburger, I still wouldn't touch it but I'd be pretty pissed off.)

I personally would do a really strict elimination diet, not by eliminating things you think it might be a problem but everything except one thing, and one thing that is normally fine for all dogs, i.e. chicken. If the itching continues, you know it is either not food related or it is chicken. In that case you change the chicken for something else fairly safe, like white fish. If the itching continues it's then not food. If it then stops you know chicken's a problem.

At the same time, though, you shouldn't change anything else, so no Piriton or anything, because then won't know if the diet change has had any effect.

If the diet change does help, then you know what you're dealing with a bit more. Continue adding one ingredient at a time to see what reactions you get.

The other thing you could do, but it's heaps more expensive, is look at having him allergy tested. Bobbert, who we lost last year, was tested and found to have 18 positives and about 25 borderlines, including things you'd never have thought of. They test for very specific species, so rye grass for example rather than just grass, which means you might then be able to completely avoid that species. The other thing they can do, which Bobbert had, is prepare very specific to the dog vaccinations to help the dog's system cope. Like this:

https://www.heska.com/Products/ALLERCEPT/Allercept-Shots.aspx

But it is expensive so a total exclusion diet would be much easier and cheaper to start off with. I'm surprised your vet nurse hasn't been more constructive in this regard. To me it's fairly basic and obvious. Sorry if that sounds overly critical, but just expecting Cody to get on with his food sounds very old fashioned to me.

my old greyhound was allergic to lots of things and I sent a sample of his hair to a company called holistic remedies UK who charge 35.00 to test the hair , and they came back with a list of things he was allergic to and it helped so much he also gave me a little bottle of a holistic remedy to put in his food to stop the itching and he was great after about three days - this is the link -might be worth a look I know a lot of people who have used him for their pets and allergies ..
http://www.holisticremediesuk.co.uk/hairanalysis.htm

That sounds a good alternative, Carol. I've heard others having success with it but also a couple of people where it missed the real problem. We went down the expensive option route as Bobs had life cover insurance (all ours do), so bless MoreThan, they coughed up year after year.

I think I'd probably do the full exclusion diet first as it's the cheapest - you have to buy dog food anyway - and it's so simple to do yourself. And, I have to say, that's what started us on raw and we've never looked back.

I used to feed my greyhound on natures own mince - it was finally discovered that he had become allergic to the chicken protein as he had been eating it for too long - what a issue I had trying to find dog food with no chicken in.... going to start Buddy on it now he is eating a little more and only twice a day ..

Great news least you know what you are dealing with now

Heya all sorry took me so long to reply been really ill with tooth ache so just thought i would post a quick update cody is doing so much better hes eating alot more now ive cut his meals down to 4 small meals a day and cut down on how many treats he get ( my dad and uncles fault lol ) but he seems so much happier in him self and seems to have a lot more energy which i love feel like i have my old playful puppy back xx

remember and check the ingedients on all codys treats too even the smallest amount can cause an allergy

yeah we are he only getting natural treats atm like wainwrights and natures menu xx