[AbbyandBrady]

I posted a while back about bare patches on Abby's skin. The scraping hadn't shown anything and the vet gave me some anti-fungal shampoo just in case. There's been no change however. Next thing to work with is a potential allergy...in fact someone else with a boxer in the neighborhood saw the patch and said, oh, allergy? His dog had the same exact type of spots. 4 weeks after a new food and the hair was growing back in.

So, that being the case...Abby is on canidae now (lamb and rice formula). Likes it  although, I am not sure that she actually tastes it How do I go about picking a food to try for her? What should I pick, how long to I keep her on it before I should decide that that food isn't working, etc.  I have been cautious to do this because of the food issues and when I initially decided to maybe try natural balance varieties, one got added to the list, which made me skeptical of the brand. Some of that seems to have started to fizzle, so I figured I may as well start trying something new for her.
My thought maybe was the natural balance potato and duck? Any other suggestions?

 

[ChloeAndBrodisMa]

We are going thru a allergy problem now too. Bald spots and sores we dealt with for almost a year. Thyroid testing and numerous skin scrapings through out the months and everything comes back normal. Right now we are doing the baths twice a week in Malaseb shampoo along with Derm caps. We have started the elimination diet also but have screwed up and had to start all over again due to someone giving her something she shouldn't of had. Chloe used to be on Canadie and then we switched to the Natural Balance but I got nervous after the other kind they had got recalled. She has been on California Natural sweet potato and herring for 4 weeks now and no sores! and the sores that she once had that left bald spots, the hair has already grown back in.  Good luck because I know how frustrating allergies can be.

 

[AbbyandBrady]

Oh, Cal Nat though...that's another one to add to my list, thank you!!
Abby doesn't have any sores, just the bald spots...she's had them all along but they have become much more noticable as she's gotten a bit bigger. Possibly old scars also from play with litermates until 5.5 months, but I want to at least give it a shot as there are quite a few of them. The skin underneath is black or dark gray, is that what you see also?
I have been told too early for thyroid testing, as she's under a year, it's not likely the case...but we will talk to the vet about it again once we try the food.

 

[ChloeAndBrodisMa]

Yep, that's exactly what we see. Matter of fact hubby just noticed last night she has this circular black spot on the side of her showing thru her fur.  I have no clue what that is..Another thing to add to the list. But yes everytime there was a bald spot the skin that was exposed was black.

 

[AbbyandBrady]

I see Cal. Nat. contains barley, oatmeal/rolled oats...thoughts on this forr ruling out along with rice? I believe natural balance is strictly potato...

 

[AbbyandBrady]

Interesting...ok, that's good to know. My thought was that if it was a scar, it would be much lighter in color.

Ugh,  the other night I bought a 40 lb bag of canidae all life stages. Brady for some reason won't eat it even though he likes the lamb and rice. Now, if I get Abby on something new, I will have a mostly unused 40 lb bag of canidae! I am sure I can donate it to a shelter even if open....

Abby has had the natural bal before and LOVED IT....went nuts digging for the bag when she saw where I put it...maybe I will start there and see how things go. Looks like the only recalled items from NB were venecian products.

 

[RileyLayla]

Our 2 year old boxer has a food allergy, which took us a long time to get under control. We started him out on Nutro Max but after his first break out on his back and neck the vet suggested an allergy food along with steriods and antifungal shampoo. So we switched him to Natural Balance Venison & Brown rice, and with the steriods and shampoo it cleared up his back but was still scratching his neck. We then stopped giving him anything (rawhide, biscuits, treats), only dog food but was still broken out.  I tried to avoid going to the vet because she always gave him steriods (we went through it 3 times) and I didn't think steriods all the time was good for him. When we got our new puppy we brought Riley to the vet and she suggested we try a duck & potato formula and she also gave him chlorhexiderm to rub on him. We now have him on Wellness Simple duck & potato and occasionally put the chlorhexiderm on his neck and he is so much better. I feel bad that he can't have anymore treats but he is looking so much better and not scratching. I know how fustrating it is but good luck I hope she clears up.

 

[JeepKuntry]

Dog food is the biggest pain.  No matter what food we put Charlie on I can tell you one bad thing about it.  With the Canidae he was shedding constantly.  Now with Chicken Soup, he'll start pooping and it'll be solid and by the end looks like diarhea.  With all the food recalls I hate to even think about trying to switch them.

 

[lillyzmomma]

Try a raw foods diet.  It may help and is generally better for their system.
Another + is that you controll what goes into it and its easier to monitor!

Liz and Lilly

 

[AbbyandBrady]

Not certain I have it in me yet to do the rawfoods diet, ha! Although I commend all who do. If it gets tough with a couple diff't tries at different foods, I will put a little more thought into it!  I have gotten a few reminders of oteher foods that are out there from this post, so I will look into those.

It doesn't seem that the spots don't bother her at all, no itching or anything...she was flaky initially but once on the canidae for some time, the flakiness went away.  As she doesn't seem bothered by it (although whether it has any other effects on her that we cannot see is a different thing), I won't rush the process. I will check back in with you once she's been on the NB for a bit, if that doesn't work, I will move onto the next one listed here! She will be thrilled when I walk in with that tonight...I thought she was giogn to tear down a wall trying to get to the bag when we had a sample bag of it!

 

[AbbyandBrady]

Well, after about a week (with her getting into her canidae during that time) Abby seems generally more healthy. She seems to be less lethargic, her coat is a little shiner, MUCH less eye boogies and we think we see bits of fur in the bald spots that weren't there at all. So, we will see how it goes!

 

[boxerlove]

Our Berkeley had two bald patches on each hind quarter.  She had them for a few years....they got worse as she got older. The vet could find nothing wrong with her at the time and there was no flaking or dryness.  The spots would sometimes seem to get better with hair growing but always came back.  

We never did know what was causing the spots and they were exact on each side no hair, black skin showing.  Now we think it might have been a kidney problem, when she died suddenly we started researching what it could have been and excessive thirst and the bald spots were symptoms of kidney problems, she had both.  There was also a high chance she had heart problems and the vet thinks that is what she died from.  She went from normal (for her) running in the yard to just falling over dead while playing.  It was so hard not knowing that she had this and not being able to help her.

Yours sounds like an allergy problem more than what our Berkeley had but if I had known at that time we could have had her checked for kidney problems, etc.

 

[AbbyandBrady]

I am so sorry to hear that happened...I would be heartbroken. I will look into this and talk to the vet. Given all the food issues, and not knowing of course what they fed her before we got her, it's worth looking into. The excessive thirst is far from the cicrumstance here though, so that is comforting to me in some aspect. In fact, we hoften have to "remind" her to drink. I am anxious to see what happens with these spots though within the next few weeks. We have both noticed such a change in her already over the past week. I am sure she has too...given her extra energy, she is getting into so much trouble these days! ahahahahah!