My Allergies: Part II

A while ago I wrote all about my outdoor allergies in my blog post My Allergies: Part I. Unfortunately, last fall at my annual checkup, my vet also diagnosed me with food allergies.

To my mom, this was her worst nightmare. She had been using the immunotherapy on me all summer giving me shots and now this. Here is why the vet diagnosed me with food allergies. I constantly dug at my ears, while mom constantly gave me ear drops. Yet they were still red, and really icky inside. That is the best way for mom to describe how they looked. They didn't feel too great either. At my checkup my mom let the vet know how concerned she was with the ears and the scratching despite the fact that she was giving me the shots. She felt I should not be having these symtoms still. One thing to learn about the immunotherapy is that it can take a few years for it to work completely. But the doctor said that he was sure the ears were caused by food allergies. As a very experienced vet he sees this sort of thing all the time, and he was very confident in his diagnosis. Well, mom is very confident in my vet so she trusted him.

The first thing we learned is that you can't be given a test for food allergies like you can with environmental, or if you do it isn't as reliable. The only way you can test for food allergies is to start eliminating everything. 

Foods to Eliminate

• No grains, including rice and potatoes
• No beef
• No poultry (chicken, turkey, duck)

Then we were given suggestions on what to try.

Foods to Try

• Sweet potatoes
• Lamb
• Salmon/Fish
• Venison

Mom took off to the store and got totally overwhelmed by all the choices and had a hard time finding a food that would fit in with the suggestions. She gave up at the large pet retailer and went to my shelter Wright-Way Rescue because she knew they sold the high quality food by Fromm's. She came home with their Salmon Tunalini for me to try and I liked it really well. She started working on increasing my new food while cutting back on my old food. But, after several days I started to not feel well. Mom noticed me licking the floor and eating leaves and grass outside. Off to the vet I went and after a quick blood test I was diagnosed with mild pancreatitis. I was very lucky that it was caught so soon. The vet recommend that I try a food with less fat. One of the disadvantages of the grain-free foods is that they are higher in fat. My Fromm's food had a crude fat percentage of 16%. The vet recommend staying as close to 10% as possible.

Off mom went to the store AGAIN! This time she came home with Nature's Recipe Grain Free Salmon, Sweet Potato & Pumpkin Recipe. It had a crude fat percentage of 12%. Well, after eating it only a few times my allergies got worse. I had a severe reaction to something in the food. The only thing mom could figure out was that it contained poultry fat.

Natural Balance to the Rescue!

This time mom went to Petco where a very helpful person helped her pick out Natural Balance Sweet Potato & Bison Formula. The third time is the charm! I have been eating it ever since! I love it and have had no reactions to it at all! Thanks Natural Balance for making a high quality, natural food for us problem doggies!

On a side note mom had always fed me a little canned food with my kibble. We found Wellness Lamb and I love it! But Natural Balance also makes a canned sweet potato & bison but our local store doesn't carry it. Maybe Truman will have it at Blog Paws? I hope so!

Love Dolly the Doxie (mix)

xoxox

Help me be the Face of Wright-Way Rescue!

My rescue shelter, Wright-Way Rescue is having a contest! They are looking for a special dog that they rescued to represent the shelter in all of their publicity. Please follow this link 2013 Face of Wright-Way Rescue Contest to see all of the dogs that are trying to win this coveted prize. Mom really wants me to win. This is very important to her but I am over 200 votes behind the leader even though I am in the top 3. Please LIKE my photo to help me be the face of a shelter that is doing amazing work rescuing dogs that otherwise do not have a chance. Thanks! Love, Dolly. xoxox

My First Blog!

Hi! I am Dolly a dachshund mix. Mom is glad that they call our breed Doxie because she has a hard time spelling dachshund. She adopted me from a shelter in Niles, IL called Wright-Way Rescue. She had never heard of the shelter when she found me on Petfinder.com. She was in mourning after her last cat Herb had just passed. She had wanted a dog for the last two years after losing her job when the economy tanked in 2008 desiring more companionship than an elderly cat. So she typed in her zip code and there I was! Me and my four litter mates, my name was Zola then and I was six weeks old.  Wright-Way Rescue operated differently than most shelters, in fact, they just had a write up on cesarsway.com WrightWayRescue.net. She was able to "reserve" me for a meet and greet when I made it to Niles and could be adopted. But there were a lot of complications. Wright-Way rescued my litter from a "humane" society shelter and we were in very poor condition and pretty sickly. It took us seven weeks before we could be adopted! But mom waited and she was so glad she did! When she saw me for the first time right away she said "Look how big her feet are!" Well, us Doxie's are known to have bigger front feet than back so she was pretty sure I wasn't going to be a HUGE dog. She loved my brown brindling on my face and paws and thought I was really cute. So her and Dad said we would take her right away and didn't even wait to get to know me. Which is good because I was very distracted with everything going on and didn't make the greatest first impression in the personality department,  As she cuddled me in her arms on the way home from the shelter she told Dad that she wanted to name me Dolly and that was that! Please stay tuned for the next installment of my new life! Love, Dolly.