Dry, dull fur

[dxboon]

He will be 3 in April. I wanted a higher fat food however.... He is on a grain free diet due to A TON of yeast issues. Then he ended up with a chicken sensitivity. We went with a food that had no chicken or chicken products, which ended up being fish based and as such, a lower fat. Do you know of a completely chicken free food that's also grain free with a higher fat content we could try?

And I'll drop a stool off at the vet to see how that turns out.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I've been trying to get Annamaet to make a non-chicken version of Ultra or a 30/20 version of their Aqualuk. Maybe if they got more feedback from folks wanting a "performance" version of their fish grain free, they'd make it.

[annkie]

I use to feed the Holistic Select brand. They have all kinds of options Holistic Select Dog Recipes



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Meeps83]

The coconut oil I just started running in on maybe Sunday. I picked up a rake after work and I got three take fills out. He obviously needed it.

FWIW I do brush him, just not with a rake. I thought a slicker brush and a zoom groom were enough and kind of thought the rake was similar to a furminator and it would break his fur. I could've kept going but Bear really wanted to interrupt is and hinder our progress so until tomorrow.

I'll look into holistic select. Does Annamaet have contact info listed about that food?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[dxboon]

The coconut oil I just started running in on maybe Sunday. I picked up a rake after work and I got three take fills out. He obviously needed it.

FWIW I do brush him, just not with a rake. I thought a slicker brush and a zoom groom were enough and kind of thought the rake was similar to a furminator and it would break his fur. I could've kept going but Bear really wanted to interrupt is and hinder our progress so until tomorrow.

I'll look into holistic select. Does Annamaet have contact info listed about that food?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

The furminator breaks the topcoat whereas the undercoat rake just pulls out the bunny-like fur underneath. The Annamaet Aqualuk is also a 30/16 food so it's not more fat than you are already feeding; which is why I suggested the sardines. Annamaet is pretty responsive to contact via their website or via FB. I've reached out to them via both platforms.

[Meeps83]

Do you think additional fat would be beneficial for both of them? After we switched I had to bump up Maverick's food by at least 1/2 cup a day to keep weight on him. I don't know exactly how much he lost, maybe like 5 pounds, but for an already thin dog it was noticeable. I did worry that he needed more fat in his diet. Bear though is more more sturdy. I don't think I'll ever have trouble keeping weight on him.

[dxboon]

Do you think additional fat would be beneficial for both of them? After we switched I had to bump up Maverick's food by at least 1/2 cup a day to keep weight on him. I don't know exactly how much he lost, maybe like 5 pounds, but for an already thin dog it was noticeable. I did worry that he needed more fat in his diet. Bear though is more more sturdy. I don't think I'll ever have trouble keeping weight on him.

Dogs are not like us. The higher fat will not be a problem for Bear IMO. Dogs are built to more efficiently use fat for energy, and even if you moved to a 30/20 food, I don't think that is an excessive proportion of fat for a Labrador. Bear is still growing and he should be hitting some growth spurts in these next few weeks/months. Khan is eating a 30/20 food and at the height of his growth was eating 7 cups a day just to maintain. He's been scaled back now at almost 10 months, but at no point was he obese. He was a plush puppy but not excessively so. Now I have to monitor him to make sure he is holding and not losing.

[Meeps83]

Dogs are not like us. The higher fat will not be a problem for Bear IMO. Dogs are built to more efficiently use fat for energy, and even if you moved to a 30/20 food, I don't think that is an excessive proportion of fat for a Labrador. Bear is still growing and he should be hitting some growth spurts in these next few weeks/months. Khan is eating a 30/20 food and at the height of his growth was eating 7 cups a day just to maintain. He's been scaled back now at almost 10 months, but at no point was he obese. He was a plush puppy but not excessively so. Now I have to monitor him to make sure he is holding and not losing.

True that! I've had to creep Bear's food back up a little to keep him at a steady weight so I'm definitely expecting a growth spurt coming up!

[Dennis Thomas, DVM]

In my opinion, any dog that has food sensitivity or allergies, has bad gut. Can't have one without the other. Bad gut leads to leaky gut leads to hyperimmune function leads to food allergy. Bad gut is also the underlying problem with food sensitivity. You mentioned yeast overgrowth. This is due to bad gut and imbalance between good gut microbes and Candida which is an opportunist and harmful to the pet. The pertinent question is "How doe the gut get bad?" Two answers. Recently, research indicated that most puppies born these days are born with bad gut. Their parents developed some genetic mutations in the gut cellular makeup due to poor diets. These mutations are passed along vertically to the offspring. Research this year in humans, indicated the same thing. The other reason is inappropriate diet. Inappropriate diet is synonymous with heat-processed dog food, that contains too much starch, preservatives and additives that are harmful to the dog's gut. Think about the history. Initially, dog food had corn in it. Then, the public realized it was bad, so the producers started using rice. Then, the public became aware that rice was bad and the producers started using potato. Then it was long grains, now it's no long grains. Start to see the pattern? The fact is that all of these are starches and starch is bad for your dog. Dogs are carnivores and do not have the ability to utilize starch correctly. The improper digestion of these starches create the problem at the level of the gut. And, so it starts. Now, we see the producers avoiding grain and using sweet potato or winter squash. Now, that sounds healthy. Maybe for us, but not your dog. These are still starches and they cause the same problems. Other than they are not likely GMO starches, they still create major problems. Then, why do the producers use starch in the diet when they know that it is not healthy for the dog? The starch acts as the glue that holds the kibble together. Without the starch, the bag would be full of powder, not nuggets. Now, you have the rest of the story. I do like the name of that dog food though: Holistic pet food. That's funny.

[Dennis Thomas, DVM]

Oh, I forgot. From a holistic perspective, the hair coat is a reflection of overall balance, particularly the blood. When I see dogs with unhealthy coat, I think deficiency affecting the blood. Iron might be a consideration. I recommend clients giving some chunks of beef liver in the diet to help with this. Good luck.

[Snowshoe]

In my opinion, any dog that has food sensitivity or allergies, has bad gut.

This seems to be true for Oban. Post Lymphangiectasia diagnosis and correction of that gut issue he is no longer itchy and is off the allergy meds, Atopica, and all the other things we tried. And his coat is better. BUT, how does one diagnose a gut issue? Early enough to forestall the associated problems? We had a clue I guess, low albumin. But no other symptoms and since what's low here was considered low normal in the UK we decided that was just him. That was discovered after I opted for the blood work part of a wellness test after being on the Atopica for one summer and itching for three summers. Maybe my VEt should have been more proactive on that? But Oban didn't itch in winter, how is one to guess a gut issue might be causing a summer only itch?

Oban's coat was glorious on the raw food diet, BARF. Now, post knowledge of Lymphangiectasia and on a kibble approved by the INternal Specialist Vet (who does not like raw) and following the usual diet recommendations for this ailment, a low fat diet, his coat is still better than when I rotated three higher fat kibbles. Not dull, harsh and mildly dandruffy like it was. And the kibble is only 10% fat. He is on TCM too, no way to tell which is having the most beneficial impact on the coat.