Need Help. Health Issues with my dog

[Love my Critters!]

Thank you to everyone for the replies. There is a lot of useful information! To AinaWGSD: She has been checked for hypothyroidism. I will try bathing her more often, I just didn't want to make her skin worse. I haven't done the allergy testing because I just knew she would be allergic to practically everything. I will see if our vet does allergy shots. I'm going to look into it.
To jak2002003 and naturalfeddogs: I've been wondering about the raw diet and I'm going to try it now. I've never talked to anyone that uses it so I didn't know where to start. You are right... I have nothing to lose at this point. Again, thank you everyone for listening to me and helping, I really appreciate it!

 

[naturalfeddogs]

Thank you to everyone for the replies. There is a lot of useful information! To AinaWGSD: She has been checked for hypothyroidism. I will try bathing her more often, I just didn't want to make her skin worse. I haven't done the allergy testing because I just knew she would be allergic to practically everything. I will see if our vet does allergy shots. I'm going to look into it.
To jak2002003 and naturalfeddogs: I've been wondering about the raw diet and I'm going to try it now. I've never talked to anyone that uses it so I didn't know where to start. You are right... I have nothing to lose at this point. Again, thank you everyone for listening to me and helping, I really appreciate it!

Raw is really easy once you understand it. Like I said before, look at the getting started guide at preymodelraw.com. Wonderful information on raw, including myths. Good luck!

 

[Redyre Rotties]

As much as I hate prednisone, this dog probably needs a short taper of it to get her skin irritations under control. This should be done under a vet's supervision. I agree with transitioning her to a completely raw diet.

Your diet should be about 85% raw meaty bones, and about 15% organ meat and incidentals.

Think of it this way. Your dog should have raw meat and bones 6 days a week, along with certain incidentals such as eggs, dairy, pulped vegetables, whole grains (for growing puppies and lactating bitches mainly), ripe fruits, good table leftovers, and organ meat once a week.

There are a number of raw suppliers. Not sure of your area, but if you check around, you can find somewhere to either order from on line, or pick up in your local area.

Then as a long term raw feeder, I use supplements from Nature's Farmacy to make sure my dogs are getting everything they need. I use their Ultimate Vitamin, the Digestive Enhancer, and I use the KA Calcium to balance any meat I feed without bone. I also really like to add the PhytoFlex CCM+ to this mix of supplements. On occasion I supplement with additional Vitamin C. I would want primrose oil, cold pressed flax oil, and salmon oil added to the diet of a dog with skin issues, with oils rotated on a regular basis.

I have maintained dogs on a raw home prepared diet since 1993, including a number of litters, and successful show and performance dogs.

 

[Redyre Rotties]

If you end up buying from the supermarket, here are things you could consider for this dog:

Chicken, all parts
ground beef, chicken, lamb or turkey
beef or pork neck bones, ribs, knuckle or marrow bones
beef heart, kidney, liver chicken liver chicken hearts and gizzards

I would recommend if you go the supermarket route that you find someplace online to order GREEN TRIPE for your dog. This is an unmatched source for good digestive enzymes for the dog. Frozen is preferable to canned.

You can find a lot of information on line if you search Raw Food For Dogs.

If you have specific questions, please let me know.

 

[jak2002003]

As much as I hate prednisone, this dog probably needs a short taper of it to get her skin irritations under control. This should be done under a vet's supervision. I agree with transitioning her to a completely raw diet.

Your diet should be about 85% raw meaty bones, and about 15% organ meat and incidentals.

Think of it this way. Your dog should have raw meat and bones 6 days a week, along with certain incidentals such as eggs, dairy, pulped vegetables, whole grains (for growing puppies and lactating bitches mainly), ripe fruits, good table leftovers, and organ meat once a week.

There are a number of raw suppliers. Not sure of your area, but if you check around, you can find somewhere to either order from on line, or pick up in your local area.

Then as a long term raw feeder, I use supplements from Nature's Farmacy to make sure my dogs are getting everything they need. I use their Ultimate Vitamin, the Digestive Enhancer, and I use the KA Calcium to balance any meat I feed without bone. I also really like to add the PhytoFlex CCM+ to this mix of supplements. On occasion I supplement with additional Vitamin C. I would want primrose oil, cold pressed flax oil, and salmon oil added to the diet of a dog with skin issues, with oils rotated on a regular basis.

I have maintained dogs on a raw home prepared diet since 1993, including a number of litters, and successful show and performance dogs.

That sounds very complicated! I am sure its a very good diet - but many people will find adding all this stuff and pulping up veg etc will seem time consuming and daunting. I am not criticising your dog diet at all, but it may put some people off trying the raw diet.

The dog will do just fine on meat, bones and organ meat and other offal.

They don't need fruit and veg and a average healthy dog won't need any extra vitamins or powders. Dogs make their own vitamin C in the body and so don't need it added to a diet (unlike humans). An adult dog will get plenty of calcium from the bones.

Dairy products are VERY bad for dogs that have allergies. They are not natural for them to eat and are hard to digest. Eggs are fine and they would form part of a wild dogs diet - but too many are very rich and fattening. They can even eat the shells!

I just like to feed my dog - and cat, unprocessed raw food. Their health is great and its inspired me to eat a more natural and healthy diet myself - trying to cut out processed foods.

 

[naturalfeddogs]

Its really not complicated, and all the veggies are not necesary at all. Dogs are not designed to digest that. All they need are raw meat, bones and organs. You start with bone in chicken, then after that is acclimated to move on to turkey, then fish and then red meats and organs last. You won't even start organs for at least two months. You just go protein by protein until the dog adjusts to each one.

With a well rounded variety to the diet, no supplements are needed EXCEPT if you don't feed fish regular, or your red meats are not 100% grass fed. In that case you won't be getting the needed omegas in the diet. So a fish oil supplement needs to be given. I give fish oil capsules.

Look at the getting starting guide at preymodelraw.com. The site has everything you could possibly need or want to know about raw feeding.

 

[1 lucky dad]

I have been threw the ringer with a english bulldog that had bad allergies. I have come home to a bloody house and my poor girl looked like she had been attacked by another dog. I used to have to give her shots weekly and kept her on steroids wich suppressed her imune system and aused ear infections and urinary tract infections and so-on. I spent thousands trying to figure it out and had to take her to specialists and they finally figured out that the biggest cause of her discomfort was dry storage mites, along with seven different trees and three different grasses. Dry storage mites are in all the dry foods we eat. The only thing you can do is only feed canned food and treat your home and keep the dog comfortable with the meds. The meds will cause a shorter life span, butt quality of life is more important. Trust me when I tell you that when its time to end the suffering even when your vetts and all your friends and family tell you that you did everything you could, you still feel horrible and wonder if you did everything you could. I am now crying writing this and its been two years. I hope this helps,good luck.

 

[Redyre Rotties]

That sounds very complicated! I am sure its a very good diet - but many people will find adding all this stuff and pulping up veg etc will seem time consuming and daunting. I am not criticising your dog diet at all, but it may put some people off trying the raw diet.

The dog will do just fine on meat, bones and organ meat and other offal.

They don't need fruit and veg and a average healthy dog won't need any extra vitamins or powders. Dogs make their own vitamin C in the body and so don't need it added to a diet (unlike humans). An adult dog will get plenty of calcium from the bones.

Dairy products are VERY bad for dogs that have allergies. They are not natural for them to eat and are hard to digest. Eggs are fine and they would form part of a wild dogs diet - but too many are very rich and fattening. They can even eat the shells!

I just like to feed my dog - and cat, unprocessed raw food. Their health is great and its inspired me to eat a more natural and healthy diet myself - trying to cut out processed foods.

I don't find it complicated, but maybe that is because I have been feeding dogs this way for almost 20 YEARS.

No, they don't have to have the incidentals, however, in a healthy home prepared diet for dogs, variety is important. Balance over time is the rule, and once you have fed a diet like this for a while it becomes more natural.

Dogs can indeed make their own vitamin C, however, I always support growing puppies and lactating bitches with additional vitamin c.

Products from Nature's Farmacy are designed to complement a home prepared raw diet. In particular the Digestive Enhancer can help dogs transition to a raw diet with less gastro intestinal issue. My dogs also use whole raw chicken much better when they have this digestive support.

Feeding a dog a home prepared raw diet is a very good thing to do, however, it should not be done in a haphazard manner. An unbalanced raw diet, or one that is lacking in critical elements, such as enough minerals, can be worse than any bag diet you can buy in the grocery store. Ca/Ph balance is crucial, and raw meat that does not contain bone should always be balanced with a corresponding amount of either ground egg shell, or mineral supplement. This is the place you can get in very deep water with a home prepared diet, and it should be taken seriously.

These days it is relatively easy to do the research needed to formulate a healthy home prepared raw diet for your dog (or cat). However, one should not just dive in without learning enough to understand how to do it properly.

Just my opinion, of course, from close to 20 years experience feeding a home prepared diet.

 

[Love my Critters!]

Ok guys...I did it!!! I switched to a raw diet. I first read the whole site that "naturalfeddogs" gave and printed out the "getting started guide". I can't find chicken backs anywhere here so I started with drumstick with the skin off. My dogs took to it like champs. It was actually fun to watch them eat it like it's such a natural thing. They knew exactly what to do and my "sick" dog took to it the fastest and scarfed her chicken down, then ran around the yard all excited. I've never seen her do that before. I didn't fast my dogs for a full 24 hours, it was only about 19 or 20 hrs because my sick dog is so skinny it scared me to make her go very long without food. None of the meat markets or grocery stores cut up their own meat to have good left overs. There is a processing plant that is 30 miles away that said they sell hearts and livers for .99 cents per pound. This will be cow and pork mostly. I know I'm going to have many questions... but once I told my husband about it, he said lets do it! We are praying this helps our poor dog. We switched our other boston over too so that it will be easier. He does have a mild allergy problem so hopefully this will help him as well. I think for now I am not going to give fruits and veggies. I will maybe work very little in from our left overs once the dogs are through with their transition. I don't see any reason to do dairy. I will do raw eggs, as I have many fluffy-butt egg producers as well. My husband is a huge hunter, and we don't really like deer meat so we are excited to be able to put it to good use. He also kills feral hogs. I know ground meat should be kept to a minimum, but we ground up good elk meat a few months ago so I know exactly whats in it and how it was processed. Would that be ok to give?

To 1 Lucky Dad, I've very sorry for your loss, I know the feeling of not being able to stop it even though you are doing everything you know to do.

 

[Love my Critters!]

I also already give an omega-3 fatty acid supplement to the dogs and I will continue that. I am going to look into the digestive enhancer as well. I'm open to all information and help!