New Here...Need Diet Help

Hi All,

I have a 3.5 year old brindle Staffordshire Terrier. We adopted him at 1.3 years and he seemed pretty healthy when we first met him. He started out weighing 64 lbs. but after only a few months he had gained almost ten pounds. Our vet tested him for a thyroid condition and confirmed that his T4 was low, almost undetectable. He explained hypothyroidism to us and advised the use of soloxine to correct. I was very much against the idea of putting him on medication for a disease that typically is found in adults dogs much older than 1.6 years. We switched vets and sought a second opinion and sure enough they found the same result. As much as I didn't want to agree, I thought two opinions confirmed the findings and D-Bo has been on medication ever since. His weight had gone down slowly to 67 lbs. but is back up to 70! That's issue number one.

My second concern is the amount of allergies he has. I feed him limited ingredient diet (Natural Balance Duck & Potato) due to the licking, scratching, red raw paws, and pinkish irritated belly. It seemed to improve some of these problems but most of these things come and go. The vet said stay clear away from chicken as dogs commonly have a chicken allergy. A vet tech friend agreed. His food contains no grain. I feed him twice daily, 1 cup dry and 1/4 can wet. Lately, his eyes have been a mess. He was diagnosed with lyme and underwent antibiotic treatment immediately which seemed to do an excellent job ridding the lyme syptoms, but left him with an eye infection that resulted in an ulcer that lasted for weeks. Four vet visits and three opthamologist visits later it is finally almost completely gone (the ulcer itself). But now both eyes are producing mucus daily and are constantly red and inflamed and he squints from the pain which is what the specialist thought may have caused the ulcer to begin with. Also, his ears are bothering him quite frequently with a dark buildup. I'm wondering if I should be feeding him differently? Should I consider a raw diet? The eye doc told we two horrible stories of dogs he treated that almost died from raw diets. I thought it was BS, but I don't know enough to make a decision. The concept makes sense to me that he needs to be fed as if he was surviving in nature but I need some direction from those who know.

I'd love to hear some thoughts and opinions from people that care about this breed specifically. I love this animal and hate to see him suffer like this. Please help if you can. Thank you.

Ron and D-Bo

Hiya and welcome

I don't feed raw but plenty here do, and a lot here have dogs that have had allergies, mine to an extent and as you are I steer clear from meat and she is on Fish4Dogs.

It was trial and error with Moo and great advice. Xx

Hi &

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Hi and welcome. I feed raw and find vet opposition to be largely due to their experience only seeing things gone wrong. Many times they get someone who says they feed raw but they did something bad like give cooked bones or something.

I personally believe that a properly administered raw diet can help tremendously. I'm fortunate that mine are not allergic to chicken but there are some here that are. You might consider turkey or lamb. My guess is that much of the skin and eye issues may be food related. Unfortunately, you would have to do trial and error. Also, I am not a fan of canned food. All of it seems to be high in salt and fillers like most dry foods as well. You can always give it a go and see how d-Bo responds. Best way with raw, if you go that way, is instant change. Be warned that there are potential early things you have to get used to. You might want to check out www.preymodelraw.com for info. Best wishes in your attempt to help your boy!

Sorry to hear D-Bo is having such a rough time. Suki has allergies as well. We took he to a dermatologist and she is allergic to most things. She eats a kangaroo and sweet potato dry food now. It did take some trail and error to find the right one.

It's very difficult to work out exactly what a dog is allergic to without a full battery of tests. If he's allergic to chicken, then he'll almost certainly be allergic to turkey, so don't go there! Duck may be ok, but he may also be allergic to that. My boy, Dempsey, is poultry intolerant - he can't eat any birds at all (although I haven't tried ostrich!)!

Venison tends to be a hypoallergic food so that might be a way forward for you, or of course fish.

As to whether or not to change to a raw diet, you should read as much as you can about the various ways to do it and see whether it would suit you - not everybody likes it and belive it or not, not every dog does!

Have a look at the pre model diet site already sugested, plus have a read through these...
http://www.rawmeatybones.com/petowners/whatisrmb.php
http://www.krisannriorawfeeding.com/

Have you tried giving an antihistamine tablet to lessen the effects of the skin problems? I don't know if you can get Piriton in the USA, but it's very effective in dogs in the UK.

Vlad eats kangaroo meat (similar to venison as it has very little fat as they are both muscly animals) and eggs (scrambled) as well as Eukanuba dry food. He tends not to like his dry as much now, but will still eat because he is a greedy little sod So far he has shown no allergy symptoms to anything (fingers crossed!) and he is growing really nicely and always has a shiny coat.

Thank you for the advice and support. Looks like I'll be reading for a few hours to educate myself more.