Bennie started shaking his head a lot, so we took him to the vet and she diagnosed a yeast infection in one ear, and prescribed Tresaderm.
At the same time, she casually indicated that he "probably" has a food allergy. He is a little itchy in specific spots (belly, base of tail, feet).
I'm bummed out, because he is our 3rd dog to supposedly have food allergies. I hear that they're not that common, but all my dogs have them? I had really hoped to have an easy-to-feed dog, this time.
IF I buy it -- and want to try to do a real elimination diet (though we're horribly NOT strict about food, so I don't know how well we'll do) -- how do you handle this when he has ALSO, recently, become a "picky" eater?
The shelter sent him home with Science Diet. I knew I didn't want him to eat that long-term, so I almost immediately switched him to Taste of the Wild (venison/buffalo?) and he liked it - ate plain kibble willingly. He started to indicate that he wasn't so crazy about it a few months later, right around the time SOME TOTW got recalled (not his). So I switched him to Evo Red Meat kibble, which he'd had a sample of and seemed ravenous for. Of course, after I bought a full bag, he seemed to not like it. So we tried Blue Buffalo grain-free chicken, which he kind of liked (but wasn't crazy for) and that's right when the vet said "No beef, no chicken, no grain." It was an offhand prescription -- just a "if he's got an allergy, which he might, that's what you want to do."
So I bought him Nature's Variety grain-free venison kibble, and he won't eat it without it being drenched in cottage cheese and even then barely touches it.
I cannot go raw -- we need the convenience of a good kibble, I think. But I'm really wondering how I can do a single novel protein/no grain diet if I can't find something that he likes!
Thanks for any tips...
Cara
