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  1. #1
    Senior Dog Meeps83's Avatar
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    Maverick is Allergic.....

    To dust mites, storage mites, molds, the yeast from ear infections, and CATS

    I feel bad as I used to have 2 cats up until about a year ago. He also keeps getting ear infections and he's allergic to the yeast they are identifying in his ears.

    2 routes we could go, either desensitizing allergy drops OR a special hydrolyzed diet for 8-12 weeks and gradually adding things in. I'm honestly not sure if we could follow the strict guidelines for the food, so we are opting to do the drops and switching him to a Limited Ingredient single source protein diet to see how things go. The bad side is that it could be 9-18 months before he gets any relief from the drops. Icky.

  2. #2
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    Anytime you hydrolyze any protein, monosodium glutamate is either produced or the assimilation of the protein produces msg...I forget which. MSG can affect dogs just as well as it can humans...and I'd suspect that a pup who already has sensitive tendencies just might be a prime candidate for one who'd react to the MSG.

    I have to stay away from all hydrolyzed (or isolate) products for this reason.

    I'd be afraid of causing Maverick some serious reaction and be double-checking with the vet to confirm that maybe the hydrolyzed diet is a different sort of thing. You wouldn't think dog food would be created this way but you never know.

    Good luck!!!

  3. #3
    Senior Dog Meeps83's Avatar
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    She said the Hydrolyzed diet was the food being so processed that the body couldn’t recognize what it was anymore.

    That info was really informative. Thank you!


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  4. #4
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    Why would they think a diet would help since none of the allergens you listed are food? Doesn't make sense to me unless he has a known food allergy, too.
    Annette

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  6. #5
    Senior Dog Meeps83's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Annette47 View Post
    Why would they think a diet would help since none of the allergens you listed are food? Doesn't make sense to me unless he has a known food allergy, too.
    I was wondering the same thing thing which was one of the reasons we were leaning towards inly the drops.


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  7. #6
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    I wonder if food allergy tests identify all offending foods or just the common ones...or perhaps only true allergies but not sensitivities/intolerances.

    Or perhaps the environmental allergies could be exacerbated by unknown food intolerances...maybe one or two things could be tolerated, but that third thing puts him over the edge. Our vet explained that as a distinct possibility when dealing with Dan's reactions to ingested things. (he and Sunnie also both have sneezing reactions to grass and dust but no other symptoms)

    Is he prone to yeast infections in his ears? Except for water being left in the ears, food allergies are the most common culprit. If he's prone to them, perhaps the vet is considering unknown food sensitivities based on that, too.
    Last edited by SunDance; 02-16-2019 at 04:34 AM. Reason: ears

  8. #7
    Senior Dog Snowshoe's Avatar
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    That's tough. In comparison Oban's problems did seem to stem from food and the link to gut issues. I was offered a choice between hydrolysed food or limited ingredient and went with the limited when he was diagnosed with Lymphangiectasia. I chose the limited ingredient Rayne's Low Fat Maintenance Kangaroo. This was after being on raw which seemingly cured his deadly diarrohea (lost over 20% body weight), but he relapsed. Along the way all his itchies just stopped. They stopped on the raw and did not come back when we went to the kibble. I wonder if this is something to discuss with your Vet, either raw or a limited ingredient kibble. We only went off the raw because Lymphangiectasia is sensitive to fat and it's impossible to control fat in raw. Or wait, were you feeding raw already? It's not foolproof, raw does also hanve antigens but fewer. But that's for food intolerance, mites, much harder to deal with.
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  9. #8
    Real Retriever Beth C's Avatar
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    Environmental issues are so hard to deal with, because you can't get rid of them. Our little dog, Maddie, has both food and environmental intolerances. Because she's allergic to grass, I also have to make sure there's no alfalfa in her kibble, along with any fowl, potatoes, or grains of any kind. I feed her Orijen Six Fish, which still causes problems, but it's better than any others I've tried. I'm glad she's a small dog (12.5 lb.) and only eats 1/2 daily - that stuff is insanely expensive!

    I wish all the best in trying to manage your dog's issues!

  10. #9
    Senior Dog Meeps83's Avatar
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    So the allergy testing didn’t show any allergies to food. She thinks that there is a chance that it might be an underlying issues that we wouldn’t find unless he didn’t get better with drops.

    He does get yeast infections and unfortunately he is allergic to that particular strain of yeast.

    She thinks that since this has been going on for so long that there is a chance it’s food. He isn’t allergic to grass or trees.

    She did mention that a limited ingredient diet could work. She also mentioned Kangaroo. I have noticed in the past that Mav did WORSE on grain free, fish based foods, and potatoes.




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  12. #10
    Senior Dog Snowshoe's Avatar
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    Just to add, we also chose a novel protein when we went to the Rayne's Kangaroo. It's four years now, you'd think the novelty would have worn off, but so far so good. In contrast, when he first got sick and we went first home cooked we used a novel protein then too, turkey. I used turkey, with other things, when we went raw as well. When I did the Nutriscan the highest intolerance came out at - yup, turkey. However sweet potato was novel too and it's fine. Weird, there is just no rule or rhyme or reason sometimes.
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