Food Allergy?

[Nicole5158]

For the last week Byron has had more ear discharge than usual in both ears. I don't think it's an infection because he's not scratching at them and they don't seem to bother him. I think he may be developing an allergy to his food. Is that possible? He's always had the same food and never had a problem with it. He's not on any new meds or supplements and he hasn't been in the water recently, so I don't know what it could be. It just seems unusual that he would develop an allergy to his food out of nowhere.

 

[Pam G]

Byron could have developed and allergy to his food..even though he has been on it for awhile. Hogan started to get very dirty gooky ears after he had been on Nutro Lamb and Rice for a few years. Once I switched over to Canidae his ears cleaned up and have been fine now for almost 2 yrs. I would switch to another good quality kibble and see if that helped.

 

[Newfs Forever]

That's why it is good to rotate food occasionally.

Just like anything else, the older we get, the more apt we are to get allergies.

Sue

 

[ardeagold]

It's true...allergies can appear and disappear at any time. Rotating food every now and then is recommended, and in this case, I'd think that it might help.

Canidae is a good product...ours have been on it for about a year now with no problems. However, if you still have problems, you might have to switch to a different protein source. Instead of meat (chicken, turkey, lamb etc) you may have to switch to a fish...like fish and potato or some food that is totally hypo-allergenic.

Good luck!!

 

[kodydixie]

Dixie has allergies and my breeder had us switch TO Nutro Lamb & Rice. Didn't make any difference, after the freeze we will wean her off of Prednisone and go in for allergy testing. They do the same skin tests as for humans, scratch tests on their tummy to see what they react to. Then allergy shots I guess. The vet said there is an allergy food the specialist may recommend. She is two years old and developed allergies a year ago in August at 1 year of age.
What symtoms does he have?

 

[Nicole5158]

The only symptom he has is the gunky ears. I checked his belly and under his fur for any red spots, but he has none. I asked our vet over the weekend and she said it could be the food or that he might need to go on an ear maintainance program. After talking to her and seeing what everybody here had to say, I'm going to try to switch to Wellness or another brand. Thanks for everyone's help and I hope Dixie starts feeling better.

 

[ardeagold]

We have a Golden who's allergic to wheat. We used to have all the dogs on Nutro...but took them off and upgraded to a super-premium with no wheat, corn or soy. That's the Canidae. We also had to make sure to give NO wheat at all to her...in treats specifically.

Her one symptom.......ear problems, with the gunk!!

 

[Newfs Forever]

Something else you may want to consider. Because Dex has the many folds in his chin area, he can tend to get yeasty. And he may start to scratch under his chin and then scratch his ears, spreading the yeast.

I normally clean under his chin 1x daily with the Betadine Solution, dry him off, then use the gold bond powder. And of course, I monitor his ears religiously. For his ears, I use a 50 - 50 mixture water/vinegar.

However, he doesn't have infection in his ears. If he did, I would NOT be using vinegar and water. That would be a big OWWEEE!

HTH,

Sue
PS. I also take the shaving clippers and keep him trimmed pretty close to the skin under the chin.

 

[luvxl k 9]

Hi my part newf developed gooky ears several years ago that the vet said was a bacterial infection. We would do the ear drops and it would clear up. Went through this process several times. Then I found at Walmart some alchohol ear wipes. I started using those on her once a week, cleared it right up and haven't had a problem since. I now use them on Apache and although he has ear canals the size of the Grand Canyon he's never had a problem. I read in a Newf book recently that said because their ears are so large, they can develop bacterial infections quite easily and they suggested this as the remedy. Its cheap and relatively easy.
Karen (Apache's mommy)