Switching our dog to a homemade diet

[Weeg]

Glad it’s working well on your end! The knee/joint issue could be a tissue problem or lack of tissue where it needs to be. My bosses old yellow lab had one “knee” replaced at an early age, then the second started to go. They did stem cell treatment (stem cell injections) on the second knee and problem solved! It was a lot cheaper doing the stem cell vs knee replacement. The veterinarians who treated him wrote it up as a genetics issue. Something that Labs are unfortunately prone to having issues with.

The red, itchy, constant licking of the paws is a tough one. We’ve been battling that with Mallace, the Dogo, for a couple years. It seems she’s allergic to grass. The vet put her on antihistamine meds and it did work for a bit. But the dosage had to be upped so much that we pulled her off of it. Try soaking his feet in an Epsom salt bath for 20 minutes or more. It’s very relieving for them.

For Mallace we’ve tried taking certain things out of her diet. For her the diet changes made no difference. The past two weeks they’ve had just beef related raw and no chicken or poultry. Still chewing the feet. May be different for your perp, so wouldn’t hurt to experiment with different meat sources to see if it solves any of his foot problems.

Thank you for all the suggestions!
I don't think its his knee, but we are considering seeing a holistic vet for him, since a regular vet will probably want to do a lot of tests etc. etc. That may get us some answers.

I'll try the epsom salt, thank you for that! I hope I see improvement! He does chew his paws, but they don't seem super "red and itchy", though I may not quite know what I'm looking for haha. He does have some red between some of his toes, but I wasn't sure if that was just his fur or his actual paws. Lol! I can get pictures you think you can identify it as similar to your dogs though.
Maybe I will try a different recipe. Though we did take him off of chicken for a while with no change. He's been off of grain since staring raw, (I know thats another common allergen) so maybe things will start to improve in he next few weeks. It'll only be 3 weeks of raw this Wednesday, so we still have a bit to go. Thank you for all your suggestions!

 

[Weeg]

For quick comparison, it looks very similar to this-

Would that be considered red and itchy? Sure looks like it haha. Though I wasn't sure if it was just his fur between his toes and it was supposed to look like that. Thanks @ShannonsChimkens

 

[Ebony Rose]

That is red and itchy.

 

[Weeg]

That is red and itchy.

Thank you! Just wanted to double check it wasn't his fur.

 

[Weeg]

Alright, I'm gonna do an epsom slat bath ASAP, and see if that helps. We also have booties we bought for him when I thought it may be that his feet got rubbed raw from running, but later realized that wasn't the issue.
I can put the booties on him as well, so maybe if he can't get to his paws to chew them, they wont hurt and he wont limp.
That was always my thought. He chews his paws all night to the point they hurt, and then he limps in the morning. We'll have to see what a holistic vet says though, hoping that mom will make the appointment. It think she will though, she agrees with with me on the allergy issue.

 

[lomine]

The fur is stained from his saliva. The skin doesn't look red.

Paw chewing can also be a sign of nutritional deficiency, like omega 3. I would talk to a vet about it.

 

[addctd2plnts]

You really need to get a Veterinary Nutrition textbook. I've cooked a homemade diet for my dogs and am a doctor. It's almost IMPOSSIBLE to give your dog the correct amounts of vitamins and especially calcium. Dogs take a very high amount of calcium. To give you an idea of how expensive it is, you'll spend 4-5 times as much as expensive kibble to buy meat, cheese, yogurt, cottage cheese, fresh veggies, and complex carbs. Generally, you give 70% meat and eggs with vitamin e and omega oil s added after cooking. If it's wild, you better cook it for a LONG time to prevent parasite transmission. Then 20% vegetables (squash, corn, greenbeans, peas, beets, carrots, celery, tomatoes, spinach, kale etc) and fruit (bananas, oranges, pears, peaches, apples, kiwi, blueberries, cherries, watermelon, and cantaloupe) and you have to vary them widely to get all the vitamins they need. And then 10% carbohydrates. I used whole oats, Spelt, Quinoa, and sweet potatoes, whole potatoes including peels, pinto and kidney beans, and rice. Then add a lot of cheese in for calcium. Don't forget iodized salt or they will get very sick without iodine. Due to their high calcium needs, I gave a second meal of either Kefir, yogurt or cottage cheese with fruit and veggies added in and Platinum Performance vitamins. What you need to know is it's not nearly as easy as human nutrition and dog bones are not actually absorbable, so they don't meet the dogs calcium needs at all. Dog vitamins are made, assuming you already feed a kibble diet, not that they need to supply all the dog's nutritional needs. But Platinum Performance is the best quality and formulated by a vet. They aren't cheap though. The Whole Dog Journal has a yearly review of dry dog food for one issue and one issue for wet foods. They only approve foods verified in nutritional content by an outside lab. There are some foods on their list that are minimal content foods that have fewer ingredients for dogs with allergies. The problem is if you do this yourself, they will not get 1/10th the calcium they need.

Though this isn't a food marketed for allergies, it doesn't contain any of the most common allergenic items. Google Scholar says Beef, Chicken, Lamb, eggs and dairy are most common and only 2% of dogs are allergic to fish. https://www.chewy.com/farmina-nd-ocean-codfish-orange/dp/202220 I use the chicken for my dogs and it is the most well liked dog food we've ever used. I use their low calorie variety and my dogs love it. Usually diet foods are picked over.

 

[Weeg]

assuming you already feed a kibble diet,

If you had read the other posts, I have now been feeding him raw for 3 weeks.

You really need to get a Veterinary Nutrition textbook. I've cooked a homemade diet for my dogs and am a doctor. It's almost IMPOSSIBLE to give your dog the correct amounts of vitamins and especially calcium. Dogs take a very high amount of calcium. To give you an idea of how expensive it is, you'll spend 4-5 times as much as expensive kibble to buy meat, cheese, yogurt, cottage cheese, fresh veggies, and complex carbs. Generally, you give 70% meat and eggs with vitamin e and omega oil s added after cooking. If it's wild, you better cook it for a LONG time to prevent parasite transmission. Then 20% vegetables (squash, corn, greenbeans, peas, beets, carrots, celery, tomatoes, spinach, kale etc) and fruit (bananas, oranges, pears, peaches, apples, kiwi, blueberries, cherries, watermelon, and cantaloupe) and you have to vary them widely to get all the vitamins they need. And then 10% carbohydrates. I used whole oats, Spelt, Quinoa, and sweet potatoes, whole potatoes including peels, pinto and kidney beans, and rice. Then add a lot of cheese in for calcium. Don't forget iodized salt or they will get very sick without iodine. Due to their high calcium needs, I gave a second meal of either Kefir, yogurt or cottage cheese with fruit and veggies added in and Platinum Performance vitamins. What you need to know is it's not nearly as easy as human nutrition and dog bones are not actually absorbable, so they don't meet the dogs calcium needs at all. Dog vitamins are made, assuming you already feed a kibble diet, not that they need to supply all the dog's nutritional needs. But Platinum Performance is the best quality and formulated by a vet. They aren't cheap though. The Whole Dog Journal has a yearly review of dry dog food for one issue and one issue for wet foods. They only approve foods verified in nutritional content by an outside lab. There are some foods on their list that are minimal content foods that have fewer ingredients for dogs with allergies. The problem is if you do this yourself, they will not get 1/10th the calcium they need.

Though this isn't a food marketed for allergies, it doesn't contain any of the most common allergenic items. Google Scholar says Beef, Chicken, Lamb, eggs and dairy are most common and only 2% of dogs are allergic to fish. https://www.chewy.com/farmina-nd-ocean-codfish-orange/dp/202220 I use the chicken for my dogs and it is the most well liked dog food we've ever used. I use their low calorie variety and my dogs love it. Usually diet foods are picked over.

Wow! This is great information, I'll further expand my research on his raw diet, and see what others suggest considering all the ingredients your talking about.
I definitely don't want to switch back to kibble. I did a lot of research on it before the switch, kibble increases the cancer risk in dogs because of the way its cooked, its really hard on there gut, causes inflammation, etc. etc.
Do you think I should be feeding a multi vitamin along with the raw diet? That will supply him with iodine, etc. etc.? I can definitely do that.

 

[Weeg]

You really need to get a Veterinary Nutrition textbook.

It think I have one actually. I'll get the title in a second.

 

[Weeg]

The fur is stained from his saliva. The skin doesn't look red.

Paw chewing can also be a sign of nutritional deficiency, like omega 3. I would talk to a vet about it.

The paw chewing has been going on for ever. From way before we switched to raw. So unless he was getting a nutrition deficiency from the kibble he was eating, then I don't think thats the issue.
I'm gonna try to get him a holistic vet appointment for next Monday. I'll work not that today. Thank you!