Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey, everyone. I took Zeus to the vet and followed up on what the doctor said. I asked them about doing a thyroid panel and checking for mites. They said he absolutely does NOT have hypothroidism or mites. They told me it's just allergies and that you can't do anything about it..just not to worry.

I think that's a little harsh to say considering I can tell he is in distress! So, I'm trying to connect the dots and figure out what's going on. Can dog food be the cause of his skin issues??? He's on Blue Buffalo (bluebuff.com) Large Breed Chicken and Brown Rice Formula. That's all he eats. Recently I've been checking online to see if there is a different all natural holistic food. I came across Wellness and Solid Gold. But found out that the Blue Buffalo Wilderness Formula is rated a 9.25! And is basically like feeding your dog a raw food diet..you're just not preparing it.Does anyone have their dog on Blue Wilderness, Wellness or Soild Gold? Should I switch and just see how he does on it?

Zeus is actually really healthy besides these skin issues. I never had him as a puppy but ever since I got him the only thing he gets vaccinated for is Rabies (by law..) He never got fleas/ticks or any other kind of illness. So I think that his immune system and everything else is working correctly but there has to be a kink somewhere if he has these horrible skin problems.

Any advice is welcome. We both need help. Thanks. =)

Did the vet run a thyroid panel and do a skin scraping? If so, and they were negative, try changing his food. Since you were giving him a chicken-based diet, try feeding him only raw hamburger for a couple of weeks. If he has a chicken allergy, you should begin to see improvement.

My GSD mix has bad food allergys. So far he cant have chicken, corn, wheat ,turkey, egg, duck, beef or barley. Hes on Taste Of The Wild fish food and does very well on it. Seeing that chicken, beef, corn, grains and dairy are the main things dogs can be allergic to and seeing that the food you are feeding has chicken you should try a differnt food. Lamb, fish and venison are the three main meats dogs with food allergys can have so try one of them just make sure it dosnt have the other things in them. Try to stay away from anything with egg seeing it comes from chicken. Also make sure you stop all treats while you are trying new food cuz if you try a new food but still giving treats with chicken or any of the others then you are not gonna know if the food is working or not. Keep in mind it will take a month or longer to really see if the new food is helping the skin or not. I put my boy on a veggie food till his skin cleared up then I started adding one thing at a time and watched for signs of itching then marked it in my book. When i found he can have fish i put him on a fish diet and does good. I havnt tried venison of lamb yet and I want to know if he has more then just food allergys so Im looking into getting him allergy tested. Also to run by you dogs that have some kind of food allergy also have contact and flea so make sure you have dog on flea meds and try to stay away from that carpet stuff and febreze which my dog has probs with both.

Hope this helped and it is a pain having a dog with allergys but once you start to get the idea what the dog can and cant have it gets a little better. Also I would like to suggest training you dog the leave it command or to not eat food that falls on the floor which i did with my boy and comes in very handy.

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PanzersMom

"A dog is more then just a dog. They are loyal, they are our guardians,
they are our best friend for life and they should be loved as much as they love us"

Actually Dr. Tobin, they didn't run a thyroid panel or do any skin scraping. They wouldn't. I told them and they said that he doesn't have any of those and it's a waste to check for it. I left the office pretty disappointed.

To Panzersmom though, thank you for your reply. I did hear that chicken could be what's giving him the problems. BLUE Wilderness is even chicken based. It also has Turkey, Salmon and Whitefish in it. No grains, but one. Oatmeal. The one he is currently on has barley and all those types of grains in it. I'm starting to believe it is the food. It is a real pain having a dog with allergies, lol. Leave it is going to be the hardest thing I can teach Zeus. He's all about food. He steals food from people and other dogs.

I heard a lot of good things about TOTW. Does it smelly really fishy? I've heard complaints about that and how the dogs breath starts to smell like fish and they get gassy. Do you see any issues like that with your GSD? I know Dr. Tobin suggested a raw food diet (which I heard from many other GSD owners that it's amazing) I just don't have the time to prepare it..or even know how to go about it. That's why I even thought of going with BLUE Wilderness but I'll have to do what the DR. said to see if it really is the chicken... Wish me luck. lol I'll certainly need it. I'll post an update. Thanks!