really need advice!!

Hi,

What your vet has advised is known as a food trial and it is designed to see if cutting out things from your pets diet will settle down his itchy skin. The best food to feed in one of these trials is a prescription hypoallergenic diet, such as Purina HA or Hills z/d. These diets are free from the most common allergens such as dairy products and red meats but they are also made of ingredients to which it is impossible to react to. However, they are expensive (although if you are insured your company may pay for them) which is why vets may suggest other diets. Burns isn´t a bad choice as they are wheat and gluten free, and also tend to contain low allergen ingredients such as white fish or soya beans.

The most important thing about a diet trial is that you feed only the food prescribed and nothing else. You must do this for at least four to six weeks to see if his skin will settle. If it doesn´t he may be allergic to things in his environment like pollens or dust mites rather than his food. You can take your time changing him onto this diet, swop the food gradually over a week or more, but once he is on it he must have nothing else; no treats, no additives, nothing, otherwise the test will be pointless. If the skin does settle, then the vet will probably advise introducing new foods back into his diet one by one to see if he will react or not.

There are blood and skin tests that can be run to test an animal for allergies but they are expensive and most veterinary dermatologists will advise a food trial before these are undertaken. Talk to your vet about the difficulties you are having and they will be able to advise you.

Cat

I´m not surprised he´s not eating....going from a mix of wet and dry to just a new dry is a bit daunting to some animals....I must say that being allergic to chicken is a new one on me...I´ve heard of beef and even pork but not chicken,still...one never say´s never and there´s always one (LOL)!.

Two of my dog´s are also intolerant to certain food stuff´s,that being wheat and gluten and I used to feed the James Welbeloved complete dry and their pouches too or NatureDiet (meat packs).....they improved in leaps and bounds and their skin cleared up well.

However I went from J.W to Skinners Hypoallergenic Duck & Rice complete dry,partly because of price but also,the J.W began to disagree with Vlad and gave him the run´s for some reason,so all my dog´s are now on Skinner´s and they all thrive on it and enjoy it immensely.

You could try crumbling an Oxo cube over your Burns dry and adding a little warm water to make it a little more palatable and appetizing..or you could cook a little white fish,allow to cool and add this flaked to his food mixed in....just try mixing the dry with something smelly and delicious and I´m sure you´ll find that your little pooch will start eating his new diet....all the best now with him!.