We never made it to the vet. We started feeding her only chicken and rice on Monday evening. After two days of ONLY chicken and rice (and peanut butter for her pills), Molly had stopped chewing her paws. When we woke up on Wednesday morning AND when we came home, the socks were still on her feet, proving she really hadn't even tried! BIG sigh of relief! Things were so good that we canceled the vet appointment after talking with them... they said it sounded like we had things under control.
Molly is sitting on her favorite blanket in only baby socks over her bandages... she hasn't needed the muzzle or the cone for 4 days now. We'll still do it for night for a while longer... don't want any set backs. The paws are still raw and nasty looking, but slowly improving with each wash and bandage change.
Now to figure out exactly what she's allergic to, and what food to feed her now. She was on a very limited ingredient fish and potato food before, so that is out. I think we'll try California Naturals Chicken and Rice first, as that has a pretty short ingredient list. But, we'll give it a week or so on the plain chicken and rice to clear out her system. She's LOVING this.
11 comments:
One tip - I've had to do the chicken and rice diets a few times for various reasons. The rice can make the pooches constipated. If you mix in some canned pumpkin, it will take care of that problem :) Mashed /blended veggies of any kind would probably work fine.
I'm glad the diet worked to stop the itching. Purina One Lamb and Rice worked for us for a while until the allergies got more severe for Pi and K. Purina One also has a sensitive skin version (it has fish in it, I think). There are a lot of options that aren't as expensive as the prescription food we have now, and it's worth cycling through those to see if any work. We've found it takes about 2 weeks to notice the impact, both when they switch off the rx food (like when they eat from my parents' dogs' bowls on our trips there) and when they come back to it.
Sorry to be so long winded! I'm glad Molly is doing better :)
Good news! Food allergies are frustrating, but so much easier to control than environmental things.
We also add pumpkin mixed plus a bit of yogurt (even with kibble) and have had good luck for the past year with California Natural Lamb & Rice, though our guy just recently started started the telltale obsessive licking and itching again---hopefully seasonal and not because he's developing new food issues! But all of the CN formulas are nice and simple so you can tell pretty easily what's causing problems. The store where we buy our food also recommends the Natural Balance formulas for allergic dogs because they have unusual protein sources (venison, duck, etc.) though I've never tried them. Good luck---it can be frustrating to figure out the right food, but completely worth it when you finally do.
My cat was on Royal Canin/IVD Limited Ingredients food. They call it Royal Canin Veterinary Diet now. It's duck or lamb or venison or bunny, sigh, with a few other things.
Argo had really bad allergies for a long time. We switched him to Newman's Own Organics, and he's better. We've got Stella on it too, and it actually helped reduce the hyperactivity. Phew. I think all the fillers that end up in regular dog foods are like giving kids junk food.
Poor pup! Glad she's doing better. We've dealt with sensitive, special needs dogs too and it can be stressful!
My dog loves Evo and he had a skin condition that was costing us $100 a month to cure. He actually likes the taste of the food and he is picky!
There's fish in a LOT of dog food - if you call and ask the source of the "Vitamin E supplement" that's listed on literally all of them, they'll tell you it's fish oil. So I hope she's not allergic to fish!
Aw, good luck. We had doggie emergencies this weekend, too.
I've done the pumpkin and yogurt as well, with dogs and cats, mixed into chicken and rice. The pumpkin helped speed things along, and the yogurt helped keep all the good bacteria working in the stomach.
Hope you're little dood keeps recovering.
your dood. YOUR dood. Sheesh. I have a degree in English (two, in fact), and I should be ashamed to admit that.
Good to know your pup is doing better.
I don't know if this is worth anything but we give Bernie Evo. It really seems to work for him whereas the ones you were using gave him some very fun allergies (think chronically farting pug)good luck!
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