Question by Yvonne K: What kind of dog food is the best for my dog ?
I currently use Authority and recently I have noticed a lot of hair loss.. I asked the doctor about it on the visit and he said it could be the heat ( we live in Florida) or it could be the food.. I know that Authority is like mid- grade- My dog is about 8 months- I have some fears of switching his food. So should I try something else? What should I try? And will he be ok with the switch or should I wing him off the other food ?
Best answer:
Answer by Nicole
We switched our puppies to Avoderm after doing some research. We were told that the switch could be sudden, but we did a cross taper adding a little of the new food to the old and then increasing the new and decreasing the old over about 10 days. They did really well with the switch and it wasn’t scary at all. One pup had been having some skin trouble and the other had not been having completely solid stools. Now, those issues are resolved. Avoderm is cheaper than the other food and we read reports of it being good for dogs with allergies. Our vet has been telling us how healthy our pups are and how beautiful their coats are, so something is working.
As your vet said, though, this could be due to warmer weather.
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4 Responses
Any decent vet should be doing a skin scraping – it’s not the heat.
Hair loss can be a sign of a food allergy, or it could be that your dog has a skin infection or mange mites. The treatments are very different for each, and it needs to be properly diagnosed.
I would suggest you find another vet, and ask them to do a skin scraping to see which it is, and if it turns out to be complicated, ask for a referral to a board certified veterinary dermatologist. They can often get to the problem faster and more effectively (and therefore more cheaply) than a general vet poking around – a lot of vets don’t like dermatology cases because they can be easy, or they can be very nebulous. It could also be a thyroid issue – but it’s not the heat.
the dog food you are now feeding could very well be a part of the problem – it is heavily made up of chicken. The top food allergens are beef, corn, chicken, wheat, soy and dairy (that means eggs, too). Avoid these, and you may see a difference.
A lot of dogs with food allergies and skin problems respond well to foods based upon fish – Wellness has a couple, and Taste of the Wild Salmon is also good. the omega-3 oil goes a long way towards not only bringing down inflammation without drugs, but also has the fabulous benefit of strengthening the cell walls – and that will help with the skin problem.
please get this properly diagnosed, and run, don’t walk, if anyone proposes that you dip your dog for mites. Demodectic mange mites can be killed efficiently with the right choice of top spots, and a vet up on the current information will know a dip is not only painful but also archaic.
The faster you get this diagnosed, the faster your dog will be comfortable. Good luck.
I think you should. You should try Blue Buffalo Puppy Turkey and Potato. When you switch food keep the former dog food and add a little of the Blue Buffalo Puppy Turkey and Potato in the former dog food each week, keep doing it until the Blue Buffalo Puppy Turkey and Potato has fully filled the bowl. I hope your puppy gets better.
First of all, in changing foods, you should do it by stages in order to avoid the dog developing diarrhea, etc.: first 3 days, feed a mix 3/4 your current food and 1/4 the new food; next 3 days feed 1/2 and 1/2 mix; next 3 days, feed a mix of 1/4 your current food and 3/4 the new food; finally feed only the new food.
Now, you want to still be feeding a puppy formula food until he is a year old. You should be feeding a DRY food, not canned; and the first ingredient should be a Meat, not a meat meal. You want to read the food label to determine the percentage of protein content – the higher the better, and the order in which the ingredients are listed – the ingredients will be listed in the order of their content in the food.
I feed my own dog Premium Edge Lamb, Rice and Veggies formula. Premium Edge is the ONLY dog food that has MEAT in both its puppy and adult formulas; the other brands all have Meat Meal in their puppy formulas. Lamb is gentler on the stomach for dogs with digestive problems.
If you can’t find Premium Edge in your local stores, it can be ordered online via Amazon with free shipping of the 35 lb. bags from at least one supplier usually. Also, good alternative choices (although they Do use a meat meal instead of meat) are Nutro, Nutro Natural Choice or Nutro Max. Until another company bought out their source of lamb meat, they also provided meat as opposed to meat meal in their lamb formula.
Brush your dog daily and note whether there is a general shed of hair or if it’s being lost in clumps. It could be the heat; it also could be an allergy; generally, if it’s an allergy, the lamb formulas are best – and, if possible, formulas without yeast in them. But generally, it’s because the food is inferior or the dog is allergic to something in the food..
have several options for feeding your dog — from using commercial dry
dog food (or beefing up a commercial food diet) to using the natural and raw
diets to making your own. All the options have their pros and cons, so only
you can decide which option is best for your lifestyle and comfort level.