I started on raw about a year ago and for Sam, it doesn't seem to be working so well. His coat has never looked or felt worse. He shakes his head despite his ears not being yeasty. He is itchy. I took chicken out of the equation and it helped a little. I also added some coconut oil and more mackerel. I recently went back to allergy pills and that seems to help a smidge. He is five in a week and we have lived in this house for three years. I suppose the crazy weather could have been a factor. Or maybe he is allergic to the cat I got last year.
I tried the Chinese medicine approach with the cool and neutral foods. Oddly, he did mostly well on the Canine Caviar lamb diet, which is a hot food. That said, this year he had only ONE hotspot! It was an allergy hotspot versus a collar, sore, lack of air hotspot as it was on his hip versus in his dewlap like it has been in the past. He did get plenty of hotspots on Canine Caviar (lamb and millet) so I'm thinking of going with the fish-based holistic option.
Am I the only one with a dog that did not do well on raw?
Linus is doing really well on the raw diet, but he also did OK on ProPlan without much in the way of sensitivities to chicken or grains, so I imagine he is a dog that can tolerate a wide range of foods. Though he did have goopy light colored dog eyes, which went away with the raw diet. So, that is a plus. He did have serious occasional diarrhea problems up until I went raw, which I had assumed was food related since his many fecals were negative. Eventually we treated for ghiardia anyway and that was that.
Both of the dogs' weight has been pretty easy to manage on the raw diet, which has been great. Sam is lighter than he has been in a long time and Linus looks good. i did decrease Linus' food when he turned two as I could see that he was gaining a bit, just like Sam did around the same age. No more puppy metabolism, I suppose. Both dogs have been getting veggie fillers all summer, mostly raw zucchini.
Questions:
- Has anyone tried the fish based Canine Caviar variety?
- Can anyone think of anything else I should try for Sam before giving up on raw?
- If I did go back to kibble, would it hurt to feed Linus kibble maybe once a day or occasionally, as long as it was not mixed with the raw? I ask because I've got some traveling coming up, including a long trip overseas, and to have him be versatile with his diet would be a real plus.