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Old November 4th, 2009, 04:06 PM
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Any vegetarian doggies?

My boston terrier has allergies. She's two now. Itchy skin. One diet I have not tried was vegetarian? Does anyone have experience with this? I did the prescription diet that changes the protein so that it's not like a meat protein??? I have a suspicion, the more protein from meat source I give her the more she itches. Could be my imagination though. I added salmon oil, she broke out. I've been giving her pure duck treats, she's been itchier lately. Hmmmmm.....
She eats a diet of Go Duck and I add Wysong duck in the can. I have tried every protein for 12 weeks including the prescription diet from the vet. Yes I have tried the frozen raw patties as well. Now they say that meat is not usually the allergy.
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Old November 4th, 2009, 04:09 PM
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Has your dog been tested for allergies? You're certain it's food allergy?

I'd be more inclined to try homecooked or raw. Dogs are not designed to eat only veggies .
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Old November 4th, 2009, 04:15 PM
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Have you eliminated all grains, corn and starches from her diet? I would think they would be a more likely candidate for allergies. Starches would be in the form of potatoes. Possibly rice but unlikely. Dogs seem to be able to process rice better than potatoes if there is an issue. Possibly eliminate grains and corn first. I don't understand why corn was put in pet foods to begin with. We can't digest corn. Why would they think cats and dogs can?
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Old November 4th, 2009, 04:42 PM
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Sib.HuskyMom Sib.HuskyMom is offline
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I agree with looking into allergy testing.
My in laws dog is a german sheppard, and has always had digestive problems. The vet put him on a duck and potato food because it was supposed to be easy to digest. But since it wasn't getting better, they had him tested for allergies and it turns out, he's allergic to duck (among a few other things).

I have my dogs on Orijen 6-fish formula. The only protein source is from 6 different kinds of fish, no other meat, so technically it's vegetarian . Plus it's completely grain free, and they absolutely love the taste/
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Old November 4th, 2009, 05:14 PM
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One of my two dogs has poultry allergies and in the process of getting there we tried a vegetarian diet. She got very ill on that and threw up daily. It just didn't seem to meet her digestive needs at all (go figure a carnivore eating just veggies huh...) So now we steer clear of most grains and avoid anything that lists poultry or poultry fat or animal fat (as animal fat could be poultry). It's always a hit and miss thing trying foods out with allergies. Keep all your food bag labels with the ingredients list on them so that you can cross reference what's in what. Good luck.
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Old November 5th, 2009, 10:15 AM
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Actually luckypenny I am not convinced it's food. The duck food she has uses quinoa for the grain. It's the new Go Duck. I did notice that she is worse late summer to early fall. I'm watching the seasons now. I might try orijen. My dermatologist vet said that skin testing is very expensive and allergy shots are 25 % ineffective.......My home vet wants to try some blood screening now that she is two. We can isolated outdoor allergies as well and some suspicious foods.
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Old November 5th, 2009, 06:26 PM
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First of all, dogs are carnivores, and any commercial kibble that calls itself vegetarian is a just trying to appeal to human diet trends and not addressing the diety requirement of dogs. And, it's heavily processed filler, not food.
If you are trying to eliminate possible food alergies, simplify the diet to one specific type of food at a time. Try feeding only raw chicken for a week or two. The itching will either get worse or better. If it gets better, try beef, turkey, lamb, duck, organs, green tripe... guess what? You're feeding RAW!
If one particular animal makes it worse, don't feed that animal, and continue feeding RAW.
Either way, the answer is to do a systematic switch to a RAW diet. Easy, inexpensive, and the best thing you can do for your dogs health.
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Old November 5th, 2009, 07:39 PM
Longblades Longblades is offline
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Quote:
One diet I have not tried was vegetarian?
Dogs are NOT obligate carnivores and can live long, happy lives on a vegetarian diet. A co-worker, years ago before we had such varied dog foods commercially available, had the same problems as you and raised her hound on a vegetarian diet. As with human vegetarian diets it was not easy getting the right mix of foods and took a lot of cooking just for the dog but she did it. If you are sure that's the next step to try just do an internet search and you will find quite a bit on vegetarian diets for dogs.
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Old November 6th, 2009, 02:30 PM
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Dogs can survive on a vegetarian diet.. it's not ideal though and most will not thrive. They will simply survive. Unless your dog is allergic to all meat products it's usually the diet of last resort. They aren't meant to live on no meat.
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