Food & probiotic recommendations for allergies with skin & GI symptoms

[hiswayorhighway]

My 3yo terrier mix has been through hell the past couple of weeks. He’s always had skin flareups, despite Cytopoint, Apoquel, weekly Chlorhexidine baths, and Duoxo pads between baths. I always thought it was environmental because he gets pink (he’s a mostly white dog) when we go outside in warm weather (we live in NOLA so it’s warm a lot), and his skin improves in winter months.

Never had an issue with his gut before, but he started regurgitating 12 days ago. It gradually got worse, despite us being in constant contact with our amazing local Vet, despite trying different meds. We ended up visiting the ER vet for fluids, seeing an Internist, changing foods twice, gotten alot of injections to prevent vomiting, etc. He’s regurgitated so much over the past 12 days that he has Esophagitis. He’s on many medications. I think he’s finally stabilized on the Hills Z/D food but he doesn’t like it so only eats tiny amounts. I would like to find something to motivate him to eat. He is in need of a Probiotic as well.

Any recommendations for either in this situation? The Internist suggested an elimination diet and starting with dog food made from Kangaroo meat if hydrolyzed protein isn’t favorable, but I’m not sure which to get because she also said to avoid foods with many ingredients & they all seem to have many ingredients.

 

[alexandriaisburning]

@hiswayorhighway Definitely ask your vet. In my clinic we often recommend Raine Kangaroo but it's getting harder to obtain. Good luck! Hope your guy feels better!

 

[hiswayorhighway]

@alexandriaisburning Thanks for the recommendation, I’ll send her a message about this one to ask!

 

[imagebeastmarkbeast]

@hiswayorhighway Mine is allergic to foods and environment. He’s in an elimination diet eating Purina pro plan DERM. He had canned Hydrolized paté to hide his pills in and make the food tastier. It’s not wet food. It’s like a hard paté. He had treats that are also hypoallergenic and Hydrolized. Takes apoquel and fluoxetine. He’s calmed down a lot. He is three and this all just started up at 2.5 years slowly until he became wild in a January. He was chewing in his paws and then aggressive if you tried to stop him. Anyway, much better now however yesterday my mom gave a centimetre of chicken. Guess what? This morning he was bananas. He’s reaching his three month point so I thought it would be okay to try, but as you can see even a small amount was bad for him.

 

[griffithjose]

@hiswayorhighway Nothing to do with the food, but is it possible your dog is getting sunburned? You mentioned it only happens in summer... I knew a girl with a dog who had short, white hair and she had to spray him with some kind of dog sunscreen before long walks/hikes otherwise he would burn.

 

[petermg49]

@hiswayorhighway We just did allergy testing to start immunotherapy. My dog is allergic to multiple tree pollens , various grasses , all dust mites , cat dander and human (to small extent ) dander . She has been on RC HP which she didn’t like and now rabbit kibble and can by Royal Canin. RC also has duck , whitefish , venison as a prescription limited ingredient food . I’m hoping she will get some relief from the immunotherapy. We are doing the drops . Ive heard of Rayne kangaroo and my vet dermatologist uses it for dogs that can’t tolerate hydrolized or any of the hills or zd prescription brands .

 

[imagebeastmarkbeast]

@petermg49 Don’t expect anything crazy on the immunotherapy. You might still need Cytopoint shots. You probably see the itching go from a 8 out of 10 to like a 3-4 out of 10.

Mine has been on immunotherapy for 3 years. It’s pretty much a forever thing.

 

[sevilodorf]

@imagebeastmarkbeast Immunotherapy certainly has a range of possible outcomes but it can absolutely improve dogs more than this

 

[imagebeastmarkbeast]

@sevilodorf 100% something is better than nothing but expectations need to be realistic.

 

[sevilodorf]

@imagebeastmarkbeast My dog went from having no fur when I adopted him and multiple skin infections to essentially a 0-1 on the itch scale. We had a great outcome and it’s fine to caution that won’t be true for every dog. But it’s also not necessary to imply immunotherapy can’t ever have full results

 

[imagebeastmarkbeast]

@sevilodorf Fair enough. With the allergens their dog has which is exactly to mine that’s why I don’t expect it to get to a 0-1. But guess time will tell.

 

[petermg49]

@imagebeastmarkbeast I’m hoping for the best . She is allergic to trees , grass , people, cats , dust .. even a small improvement would help

 

[hiswayorhighway]

@petermg49 Yea, I started him on the hydrolyzed protein canned food from Hills (Z/D) two days ago and that is what finally got him stable enough to stop regurgitating acid. Anything he eats right now has to be soft because his throat is so damaged from all the stomach acid. He has lost 3 pounds from this ordeal (he’s only 26-27 pounds normally so 3 lbs is visible to me), so I’m anxious to find something he is enthusiastic about eating. He is definitely not enthusiastic about eating the canned z/d.

 

[petermg49]

@hiswayorhighway My vet seems to think dogs generally don’t find the hills zd appetizing which is why we were on royal canine HP. She ate it but was not enthusiastic. Mine really loves rabbit by Royal Canin. She was underweight and gained 1 lb from the rabbit kibble and can by RC . She looks forward to eating now . I know for the really novel proteins like alligator or kangaroo , the only brand in my vet dermatologist office is Rayne . They also have rabbit stew which people use in combo with royal canin when RC is out of canned rabbit . My dog likes the Rayne rabbit treats and meatball treats . Either way your vet should be able to prescribe the RC HP can or a rc can of novel protein or some other vet approved can. See if your put will eat the RC hydrolyzed protein can and then try something else if that doesn’t work

 

[hiswayorhighway]

@petermg49 Okay we may give RC a try!

 

[yodas_prodigy1]

@hiswayorhighway Royal Canin HP (hydrolyzed protein) is much more palatable than the Hill's z/d, so you may want to try that. My dogs strongly preferred the RC HP, and Purina Pro Plan Veterinary Diets HA (hydrolyzed) over z/d kibble or z/d canned. I still keep some canned z/d on hand to slice and bake into treats though for when the hydrolyzed treats that I usually buy are out of stock, which happens frequently. I switch between Proviable and Fortiflora probiotics for all of my dogs.

 

[joemf]

@hiswayorhighway I have a major allergy dog too. We do cytopoint, baths etc. On top of all that - What has helped is Royal Canin Ultamino, Nordic naturals fish oil and a supplement called Redonyl. We also use trizultra + keto ear flush for to stay on top of ear infections. For probiotics when needed we just give fortiflora

 

[hemispheres]

@hiswayorhighway My extremely picky dog is actually liking the Hill's Derm Complete. She wouldn't eat any of the RC formulas. I was skeptical when the vet suggested it but she likes it so much that she would likely eat the whole daily recommended amount right now, we are doing a food transition. However, she's also got a really sensitive gut and it would likely give her massive diarrhea if I let her do that.