The Best Dog Foods For Your Allergic Pet
I'm Keeping One Eye On You And One On My Doggy Bones
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Blue Basics Dry Dog Food
Lets face it raising a healthy pet today can be just as difficult as raising a child. It takes more than just filling their bowls to the rim with fresh water and adding in a can of food here and there. Like us humans, dogs require just as much maintenance. They need proper grooming of their fur which includes monthly trimming of overgrown nails. And sifting through their furry coats in search of pesty fleas and ticks.
In addition to all of that, they also need their teeth cleaned almost as often as we brush our own teeth. The proper mix of essential vitamins and minerals is also necessay to keep them healthy. All of these things that our pet dog needs, can be found in the foods that we give them on a daily basis. But do we really know what's good for our pet dogs in the way of canned foods. This could be really difficult for many of us to figure out especially if we have an allergic pet dog in the house.
There are so many brands of pet food on the market today; that it can literally be confusing for pet owners to decide what's the best one to feed their pet. And in addition, it can be even more difficult to decide what to give your pet dog; if they are allergic to one or more ingredients, that are frequently added to many popular brand dog foods; found at the pet stores today. Take it from me, I've had first hand experience in this very area, because I own a female cock-a-poo, by the name of penny. Penny suffers from terrible skin allergies, allergies that leave her skin with horrible looking black spots all over her body. These black spots or blotches are often hard and crusty to the touch.
I also own a white female Cock-a-Poo Bijon mix (see photos). My Bijon mix who we call Hannah, does not have a problem with skin allergies. However like a cat she can be very finicky when it comes down to eating her dog food during mealtime. Unlike our allergic dog Penny, Hannah can eat chicken, turkey and any other foods containing whitefish for example. On the other hand if Penny eats any type of food which contains these ingredients, she will break out with welts all over her body; as soon as the next eight hours or so.
So what do you do if you have an allergic dog at home? Well as much as I hate to admit it, you sometimes have to use your own dog as a guinea pig. You will have to experiment a bit and eliminate with what they could and could not be allergic to. You do this by utilizing trial and error techniques. By this I mean purchase a few cans of different popular dog foods found at your local grocery store.
Purina and Iams are a few examples of popular brands and they come in a variety of flavors as well. Our Hannah prefers dog foods that contain a combination of ingredients. Ingredients that can range anywhere from corn, barley, lamb, chicken, turkey and whitefish. Next to whitefish, our Hannah prefers lamb or chicken. Penny our allergic Cock-a-Poo on the other hand will eat just about any and everything, that you place in front of her. Let's put it this way-she has a very healthy appetite, but unfortunatley she as previously mentioned; also suffers terriblly from the ingredients in the dog foods that Hannah enjoys.
We made many a trip to our local Vets office with Penny. At times the vet could not figure out what was wrong with her. Apparently it was some sort of skin inflammation, but what type, our vet could only guess. So to get temporarily relief for Penny, we often came home with a prescription of either mometasone, or animax. These are two types of antibiotic ointments that are applied externally to the skin of dogs; who suffer from skin allergies and other similar conditons.
After awhile this can get quite expensive. And antibiotics as well as an injection from time to time, with an anti inflammatory corticosteroid; can only temporary alleviate the underlying symptoms. Besides corticosteroid injections and application of topical antibiotics can overtime affect your pets liver. What it all boils down to, is that you have to eliminate the source totally.
And as was the case with our Penny, we eventually learned that her skin allergy problems; were being caused by the ingredients found within ordinary foods that she was consuming on a daily basis. So after much work and by employing the process of elimination, we finally found that we had to give penny a combination of dry and wet dog foods. Some of these canned and bagged dry dog foods were purchased either from our local vet, or from Petco.
We found that one of the best dog foods that worked for our dog was a brand by the name of Royal Canin. Royal Canin is a hypoallergenic dog food that can only be purchased from your vet. The reason being is because it is a prescription grade dog food not normally found in pet stores. Royal canin comes in a few different flavors...venison, chicken, turkey and lamb are a few of the more popular flavors. Royal Canin goes for about $2.00 a can. Quite reasonable considering that it came from the vets.
Besides purchasing hypoallergenic dog food from your local vet, you can also try Petco or an Agway store if you have one in your area. Agway and Petco both carry the wellness brand. There are various flavors of wellness food for dogs as well as for felines. Wellness can be purchased for about $2.50 per can from both distributors. However we have found through trial and error that wellness is our last resort when it comes down to giving it to our allergic dog. In other words upon eating wellness, our penny will on occasion break out in welts when she eats this dog food. It all depends on the ingredients once again. She is for the most part more allergic to chicken and turkey wellness than to beef and lamb.
Wellness also comes in a few different flavors. On your next visit to either Agway or Petco, you may notice a selection that includes salmon, turkey, chicken and lamb among a few other popular brands. Also try to remember, that what one dog finds tasty another may not. So here is another area that you may have to implement by using the trial and error techniques, with you own canine companion. Sometimes dogs like their feline counterparts will act fussy, when it comes down to eating certain flavors of dog food.
Agway and Petco also carry another very popular brand that my allergic pet Cock-a-Poo finds enticing. And that is the Blue Basics brand name. It comes in a duck and chicken flavor; as well as duck and turkey. In addition to the canned dog food, blue basics comes in a bagged dry dog food. Our penny does very well on the chicken and duck variety and also loves the rabbit and potato dry food even more. I believe the reason behind this to be, is because she has a little bit of that hunter instinct instilled within.
Have you ever seen a Labrador retriever or cocker spaniel in the wild chasing down a duck or pheasant. Well I can tell our dog penny is a real hunter at heart. The way she gobbles down that canned duck and the rabbit and potato blue basic dry food. This is surely a dead give away for us, that she is partially cocker spaniel. You may have noticed this one time or another with your own dog. The blue basics dry dog food costs approximately $15.00 for a eight pound bag. The canned variety is comparable in cost to the wellness dog food, which is about $2.50 a can. I usually buy four to six cans of the wet canned dog food at a time, but it will behoove you and even save you some money, if you purchase it by the case. The same goes for the royal canin hypoallergenic dog food that you can find at your vets.
The next time that your pet dog gives you those sad little puppy eyes, they may be trying to tell you something is wrong. Possibly they are not feeling as well they could be, are they lethargic and lying around all of the time? If so perhaps you need to take some time out from your own hectic schedule, to assess the situation and to determine if a change in food type is required. Because if they are constantly itching day and night, day after day, this is one sure sign next to fleas, that they could have an allergy to the foods they have been consuming.
Sometimes if your pet is lying on the bed next to you; during the evening after having a recent meal. You in turn may hear their stomachs rumbling from time to time. This could also be an indicator that they are allergic to the foods you have been feeding them. Like your own child don't they deserve the best treatment as well as the best in the way of good wholesome food? Why not begin by starting them off on the right foot; by giving them a diet that provides a combination of both natural and hypoallergenic ingredients. And you will see that they will not only become your most faithful and best friend; but also provide you with many, many years of added laughter and joy.