Suggestion for allergy conscious kibble

[sgtbrimcg36]

My partner and I adopted my dog (a 5-6 year old three legged super mutt) about a year and a half ago. Every ~6 months we would have to take him for the vet for ear infections and we decided to get an allergy panel done so we could figure out what’s causing all the chaos. Turns out he’s allergic to salmon, beef, chicken, turkey, venison, wheat, corn, and yeast. We are currently feeding him Hill’s z/d and before we were just feeding the Hill’s adult chicken and rice (which is obviously a no go now). The z/d is prescribed, a bit expensive, and it has some chicken in it so I’d like to switch to something else now that we have this information. Does anyone have any suggestions for brands? We prefer dry food (we always hydrate it) because little buddy eats too fast so we like to use puzzle bowls and things to slow him down.
(Note: As far as meats go he can still have lamb, rabbit, and duck.)

 

[dgodshelp7]

@sgtbrimcg36 Purina Pro Plan has a sensitive skin and stomach lamb and oatmeal option. Try that.

 

[stryker4]

@sgtbrimcg36 Any food allergy test is bogus unfortunately. Stick with the ZD or try pro plan sensitive skin and stomach lamb. Just know that in any food that isn’t prescription food, there can be cross contamination of other proteins. Also like someone else mentioned, food allergies are a lot less common than environmental allergies

 

[sevilodorf]

@sgtbrimcg36 Unfortunately those allergy panels are essentially useless. In multiple controlled studies they do not accurately diagnose allergies at all. It is deeply unlikely your dog has those allergies.

https://www.reddit.com/r/dogallergies/comments/xddora/on_allergy_tests

Your vet must've prescribed the Hills z/d so I highly recommend you go back and speak with them. The chicken in that diet is hydrolized which means it's broken down at the amino acid level so the dog's body doesn't recognize it as an allergen.

I recommend asking your vet about using that diet to conduct a full elimination diet that lasts 8-12 weeks without any extras. That is the only way to actually diagnose food allergies, and you will almost certainly open up food options at that point.

 

[sgtbrimcg36]

@sevilodorf We decided against the elimination diet strategy bc we don’t have the money to keep going back to the vet every time something triggers an ear infection. We both just got out of college so we’re by no means have the funds to keep treating this every 5-6 months when we introduce something new we decided the allergy test would have to be the way to go for now. But in the future we might be able to do some reintroducing to see how it goes.
I wasn’t sure what hydrolized meant but thank you for the explanation I feel much better about that now.

 

[sevilodorf]

@sgtbrimcg36 The allergy test is not accurate though. And I'm sorry to say that most stuff like this is actually not food related at all -- 90% of allergy symptoms are environmental. So unless you get to the bottom of this you probably will have to keep going to the vet. And the elimination diet is a necessary step to doing that. At least stay on the Hills z/d

 

[jannacks]

@sgtbrimcg36 Also look into Royal Canin Hydrolyzed food. It's specifically for pups with allergies and my pup consumes this because he's also allergic to chicken or chicken byproducts. It's prescribed, so it is pricey. Purina also has hydrolyzed kibble and I'm sure Hill's must also have their own version of it, but they're all around the same price.