Food for an allergic dog - need your suggestions, please....

I was going to suggest Blue Buffalo, but a lot of their recipes seem to have potato in them. I hope you find something she can eat. Poor little doggie!

Look at the Fromm Family line. I switched my Frenchie to this from Blue Freedom and he is doing so much better! They have a good variety.

I highly recommend you take a look at this product: Nzymes.  I used to go for allergy shots but within 8 weeks I stopped going because the People product worked so well for me. It is also a great antioxidant. (I don't get sick nearly as much.) I buy the granules for Lacey even though she doesn't have allergies, it's just good for adding back what the commercial foods don't have.  Her coat is so soft because of it.  Take a look at some of the stories and photos on the site, it might be worth a try to add to whatever food you find for your pup.

Angie, have you ever considered what is known as a "raw diet"? My cat who recently passed was diagnosed with kidney disease on March 2013, and I kept him very healthy and stable by feeding him a raw diet formula I found from a company over the internet. They make powder formulas that provide all of the nutrients your cat or dog needs per day (everything is organic ) which you then mix with raw meat, salmon oil and water. For Biru's diet we used raw dark ground turkey meat. For the dog version it might call for a different meat. We would make up a 3 pound meat batch and put it into glass canning jars, and then store them in the freezer. We'd take one out and then store it in the fridge as we used it-it was good there for 3 days. When Biru was first diagnosed I put him on the vet recommend Royal Canin diet for kidney disease. He lost an incredible amount of weight and got even sicker. Within 3 weeks of eating this "raw diet" he regained his weight and strength and was chasing his brother cat around the house acting like a kitten again and jumping up on the counters. It was amazing the difference!

Anyway, if you'd like to check it out the site is called www.felineinstincts.com. They started out selling only a cat version, but now they have a dog version too. You can check the ingredients in the powder and see if your dog can tolerate them. If not, you can also email them and ask if a special formula be made just for him without that specific item in it. They are a small company with wonderful customer service.

Traditional vets don't like "raw diets", mainly because it takes revenue away from them-they sell the commercially prepared foods. But I can tell you my cats (16 and 17 years old) did extremely well on this diet the last year of their lives. We lost James to stomach cancer in September and we just lost Biru on Monday to a blood clot. I know this diet had nothing to do with it, but probably helped them live longer. I also know that one day when a new kitten enters our lives we will only be feeding this type of diet. I spent 3 weeks of research on the net trying to find a food for Biru for his kidney disease, and what I learned about commercially prepared pet food shocked me to the core. Traditional vets will try to tell you that raw diets are dangerous because of bacteria, which is total nonsense. How did cats survive before 1900 when we fed them from cans and bags? They hunted mice and no one cooked those mice for them. Turns out they are not like us, and neither are dogs who are descended from wolves who hunt and eat raw meat. They have special bacteria in their mouths to counteract and kill anything harmful.

Anyway, just a thought. Sorry to go on so long. I can never seem to write a short answer

Debbie in MD.

Our dog seems to be allergic to everything also. We feed him Purina HA Hypoallergenic. We get it from the vet.

Check out the ingredients in the Nutrisca chickpea formulas. No grains or potatoes.

Our beagle is also allergic to wheat, beef and dairy. Apparently this is fairly common for beagles (at least according to the vet who has said he sees a lot of beagles with this). We went with Iams healthy naturals. The one we use now is chicken. There's no potatoes or wheat in it. It does have beet in it. We were concerned about barley but it doesn't caused her any issues so far. Make sure you check all treats too. A majority of have wheat as the first ingredient. We give her waggin tails jerkies that have chicken and sweet potatoes. She loves them.

We have used Iams Healthy Natural or Natural Balance LID(limited ingredient diet). The latter worked better for our dog. And if ear symptoms the Zymox above from Amazon is a lifesaver.