k931SAR
01-26-2009, 11:45 AM
During a SAR conference last October several members of my SAR team and I let a representative of Castor and Pollux talk us into putting our dogs on their Organix adult formula dog food, though we had all been quite happy with what we had been previously feeding. Joe and Andy thrived on California Natural Chicken and Rice, but wooed by the idea of organic ingredients, and though the Organix contains a lot of grains, Hubby and I agreed to try the new food.
The crash did not come on gradually, rather, it hit Joe quite suddenly, over the period of perhaps a week; his coat lost some of the fabulous luster on which people so often exclaim, his ears became itchy and yeasty, and he became generally itchy all over. He developed a small sore on his back at the base of his tail (that in Joe is a reliable indicator of food issues), and his skin developed the waxy coating of excess body oils so often associated with a food intolerance. While Andy fared somewhat better than Joe, he too developed the waxy oil and loss of coat quality.
Hubby and I didn't bother gradually transitioning the boys back to California Natural; we put them back on the good stuff five days ago, and are already seeing improvement. Joe's coat has lost the brittle, "crispy" feeling and is starting to reclaim it's former beauty, and since their last cleaning he has stopped the head shaking that resulted from ear irritation. Both dogs were bathed to remove the waxy build-up on their skin, and the general itchiness has eased dramatically. While it will likely take a few weeks to get the contaminants completely out of their systems, that Joe and Andy improved so dramatically after just a few feedings back on the California Natural was sufficient to tell us that we'd done the right thing in moving them quickly back to the food that worked.
Hubby and I have now promised one another to stay with the food on which our boys so utterly thrive, regardless of the slick sales claims of competing food distributors...
Kelly ::feeling a tad sheepish about all of this::
The crash did not come on gradually, rather, it hit Joe quite suddenly, over the period of perhaps a week; his coat lost some of the fabulous luster on which people so often exclaim, his ears became itchy and yeasty, and he became generally itchy all over. He developed a small sore on his back at the base of his tail (that in Joe is a reliable indicator of food issues), and his skin developed the waxy coating of excess body oils so often associated with a food intolerance. While Andy fared somewhat better than Joe, he too developed the waxy oil and loss of coat quality.
Hubby and I didn't bother gradually transitioning the boys back to California Natural; we put them back on the good stuff five days ago, and are already seeing improvement. Joe's coat has lost the brittle, "crispy" feeling and is starting to reclaim it's former beauty, and since their last cleaning he has stopped the head shaking that resulted from ear irritation. Both dogs were bathed to remove the waxy build-up on their skin, and the general itchiness has eased dramatically. While it will likely take a few weeks to get the contaminants completely out of their systems, that Joe and Andy improved so dramatically after just a few feedings back on the California Natural was sufficient to tell us that we'd done the right thing in moving them quickly back to the food that worked.
Hubby and I have now promised one another to stay with the food on which our boys so utterly thrive, regardless of the slick sales claims of competing food distributors...
Kelly ::feeling a tad sheepish about all of this::