itchy dog....is it the food?

Doom

We have two king Charles cavaliers, one is constantly itchy and gets very red on her tummy, It's like an allergy.
Could It be the food, it's Brandys from woodies...I am going to change it for a while and see.
Can you one recommend a good brand? Thanks

kylith

Looking at the ingredients ( Cereals, Meat and animal derivatives, Oils & Fats, Minerals, Derivatives of vegetable origin, Various Sugars, Yeasts) I would say that it's not a very good food. You should always look for the first ingredient to be a named meat, and not derivatives. Cereals are little more than filler, and many dogs don't do well on them. If I were you I'd gradually switch to a better food, you will probably see an improvement in their condition, and with less cereals there will probably be less poo too.

I'd bet on the food, but it could be another factor like allergies. I presume that their flea treatments are up to date.

Doom

Yip...everything up to date...just noticed yeast as an ingredient...this could be the culprit.
Can you recommend a brand? Thanks

I'd go to the Vet and get their advice. It just might save you a fortune in buying unsuitable products! It may be as simple as an allergic reaction to a flea bite!

kylith

Doom wrote: »

Yip...everything up to date...just noticed yeast as an ingredient...this could be the culprit.
Can you recommend a brand? Thanks

I have mine on JWB Fish and Rice, it has about the same percentages of rice and fish which is better for mine since they're older and need less protein. There are plenty of good foods out there, but they're not the ones you see advertised on telly. Look for ones that have meat as the first ingredient, no wheat, and no fancy shapes or colours; dogs don't care what it looks like, the additives are totally unnecessary and they're only there to look nice to humans.

aonb

Brandy is a pretty bad food really. You could try JAMES WELLBELOVED (as Kylith suggested) available at Maxizoo or BURNS available at vets or theres a new pet supplies in Newbridge (opp the silver shop) that stocks it. All are available on the internet too - there are many threads on here that discuss better brands, and where available from - do a search.
As the others said, you will see a difference in your dogs condition/coat/poo when they are on a better quality food, but introduce any new food very gradually.
You should really get the vet to check for an allergy, but I guess trying a good food for a few weeks first if you want to do that - you could introduce something oily like Salmon Oil or Organic Coconut Oil (Supervalu E6 for a big tub) in their food which might help skin itchiness - and is also v.good for them in any case.

Doom

[Deleted User] wrote: »

I'd go to the Vet and get their advice. It just might save you a fortune in buying unsuitable products! It may be as simple as an allergic reaction to a flea bite!

Thanks...but I'd say it's the food, seems to have started since they went on Brandy nuts.

muckety

We have a springer that gets inflamed, dry skin - have had her tested and she has a mild allergy to mites but when we took her off the dried food it improved a lot. Not gone completely but I think the dried food didn't agree with her so only aggravated the other issue. I tried lots of different ones, the vet recommended the hypoallergenic Royal Canin which we fed her for months but it didn't work any better than the others. We've been making fresh food for her which has been much more successful (though I'd love to find a brand that works for her for convenience/ back-up).

Nody

muckety wrote: »

We have a springer that gets inflamed, dry skin - have had her tested and she has a mild allergy to mites but when we took her off the dried food it improved a lot. Not gone completely but I think the dried food didn't agree with her so only aggravated the other issue. I tried lots of different ones, the vet recommended the hypoallergenic Royal Canin which we fed her for months but it didn't work any better than the others. We've been making fresh food for her which has been much more successful (though I'd love to find a brand that works for her for convenience/ back-up).

Try Taste of the Wild, Acana, Applaws or any other of the completly grain free (i.e. no corn, maize, wheat etc.) dry nuts foods ideally with a meat type you know she can handle (I.e. there are chicken only, salmon only etc. versions in case it's an issue with the meat).

Karlitto

My girl wouldn't stop scratching and nibbling herself a while back, brought her to the vet, gave her medication for egzima, that sorted it.

DBB

muckety wrote: »

We have a springer that gets inflamed, dry skin - have had her tested and she has a mild allergy to mites

I'm not sure if you're aware that all dry food, no matter what it costs and no matter what the ingredients, will harbour storage mites, which cause a huge amount of dogs to develop allergies.
So returning to any dry food risks her redeveloping the full blown itch.

byte

DBB wrote: »

I'm not sure if you're aware that all dry food, no matter what it costs and no matter what the ingredients, will harbour storage mites, which cause a huge amount of dogs to develop allergies.
So returning to any dry food risks her redeveloping the full blown itch.

I didn't know that! :eek:

Our Bichon has again got a mite problem in his ears, which causes a suprlus amount of wax, and discomfort for the dog. Vet reckoned it's the time of year where mites pose more a problem and look for warm places to breed, inside the ear especially, if ear hairs are't kept at bay enough.

Do you think these mites might possibly come from his food (Burns lamb and rice)? Or just mites from outside or wherever. He's mostly indoors, bar his walks and nature calls.

DBB

byte wrote: »

Do you think these mites might possibly come from his food (Burns lamb and rice)? Or just mites from outside or wherever.

I don't know if there's a part of the body that storage mites affect more, but you'd have to guess it'd be around the head, wouldn't you?:o

Harvest mites tend to climb on board at harvest time, July through to September-ish, but it takes a couple of big frosts to kill them, and maybe this year it just didn't get cold enough to kill all of the little buggers. They tend to climb on board from the ground up, affecting paws, legs, chest, groin and bum.

That all said, there are a couple of vet nurses on here who know a lot more about this stuff than I do, so hopefully they'll happen along here and enlighten us!

meoklmrk91

Hi OP, it very well could be the food, I would try them with one of the foods that have been listed above, JWB, Burns, Arden Grange, Skinners etc. Some of these can be gotten easily locally but others you may have to buy online, I would recommend buying online as in most cases it's cheaper. Amazon and Zooplus both have good selections. But maybe buy a small bag of food first and see how you get on with it.

Now as you have been buying Brandy which is cheap (for a reason) these foods will seem very expensive, cheap foods are false economy however because you have to feed so much more. With a more expensive food you will be feeding much less so in the long run the bag will last much longer saving you money in the long run. I can feed my boxer for around €20 a month so you should be able to feed your small dogs very cheaply.

I personally would not recommend asking most vets for their opinions on food, most sell Hills which is a very expensive mid-range food at best and you can get much better for your money. Most will recommend it as they get intensives to sell it and surprisingly most vets don't know a whole lot about pet nutrition. Like I said this is my own personal opinion, from my own personal experience. I just think people are much better off doing their own research. There are vets definitely vets who do break the mould but in my experience they are the exception rather than the rule.

This of course could have a different cause, but food would be the first thing I would be trying. Best of luck.