koolietas Posted July 6, 2009 Share Posted July 6, 2009 My 4 yo Sheltie has in the past few weeks had a few problems with dermatitis and the vet would like to see him start an elimination diet. She suspects the trigger may be fish or salmon in particular... Just wondering if other raw feeders have done an elimination diet with their dogs? The vet has recommended ceasing the salmon oil capsules I give him daily and has started him on Ultra EPA oil instead and has recommended probiotics. Anyone know of a good brand for probiotics? As a prey model feeder, the only real sources of protein I do not regularly feed is rabbit, duck & quail. I think rabbit will be the most accessable, so will commence feeding rabbit for a couple of weeks when I can source it and see how that goes. Would love to hear from anyone with suggestions/advice. Koolietas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stormie Posted July 6, 2009 Share Posted July 6, 2009 I have done an elimination diet on raw/prey model. I used horse meat as I was able to get muscle meat, brisket as well as horse offal, so it worked pretty well for us. He went without eggs for most of it, but I was able to get some quail eggs at some stage to use. As for probiotics, I just use the human ones - Inner Health Plus. You can get it in powder or capsules. If anything, I think doing it raw is much easier and can give better results as you are really refining what you are feeding, where as the commercial foods still have so many different ingredients in them. Goodluck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
poodlefan Posted July 6, 2009 Share Posted July 6, 2009 Protexin is about the only brand of veterinary probiotics I've heard of. Inner Health Plus would probably be just as good. Any unique source of protein not fed before can be used on an elimination diet. Turkey might be another option if you've not fed it. A lot of people add potato to an elimination diet too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
~Anne~ Posted July 6, 2009 Share Posted July 6, 2009 I have trialled an elimination diet on a rescue Pug with great results. You can't give any supplements at all though while they are on the diet. They should only have the novel protein and carb source and water. Nothing else. We fed goats meat and sweet potato. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
First Time Puppy Owner Posted July 6, 2009 Share Posted July 6, 2009 Best of luck with the trial We have done two elimination diets - one raw and one dry prescription food, sadly both with out much success as he is allergic to grasses and trees primarily. A great alternative to fish oil is Mega Oil from the health food shop. The ingredients are Flaxseed Oil, Soybean Oil, Evening Primrose Oil, Borage Oil (15ml GLA), Safflower Seed Oil, Sunflower Seed Oil, Sesame Seed Oil, Pumkinseed Oil. I feed yoghurt daily so I have never looked into probiotics really. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tiggy Posted July 6, 2009 Share Posted July 6, 2009 You can buy Pet Custom Diets from Better Pets and Gardens which is Camel and Sweet Pototo but I think that's WA only . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
koolietas Posted July 7, 2009 Author Share Posted July 7, 2009 Thanks everyone for replying I have fed rabbit to him on a couple of occasions - but the last time would have been about 18 months ago. Unfortunately I feed turkey on a regular basis - so cannot use that...but thanks for the suggestion poodlefan. I have never seen horse/goats meat here in Tas - but thats always an option if rabbit is unsuccessful and I can source it. The trouble started when I started feeding a couple of Evo treat biscuits for a snack/treat a couple of months ago...no skin problems since I stopped feeding supplements/fruit/veg a couple of years before that. I ceased feeding the Evo treats about 3 weeks ago - and have noticed some improvement. The vet suspects salmon as he had a mild colitis reaction to mackeral a couple of months ago (the first time I fed mackeral to him) and I feed fresh salmon weekly along with the salmon capsules daily. I can source wild whole rabbits for $7 and also minced rabbit (which I can use for treats). I did an elimination diet a couple of years ago for an abandoned cat I rescued - he is allergic to fish & beef...and was quite easy to identify. Hopefully I will have similar success with my sheltie. Fingers crossed anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
poodlefan Posted July 7, 2009 Share Posted July 7, 2009 KT: I can source wild whole rabbits for $7 and also minced rabbit (which I can use for treats). Gee, I wish I could. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
koolietas Posted July 7, 2009 Author Share Posted July 7, 2009 KT:I can source wild whole rabbits for $7 and also minced rabbit (which I can use for treats). Gee, I wish I could. I thought that was pretty cheap! Most of the other places I phoned were between $15-$20 for a whole rabbit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
poodlefan Posted July 7, 2009 Share Posted July 7, 2009 KT:I can source wild whole rabbits for $7 and also minced rabbit (which I can use for treats). Gee, I wish I could. I thought that was pretty cheap! Most of the other places I phoned were between $15-$20 for a whole rabbit. Yep. Farmed ones are around $16 here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Diva Posted July 7, 2009 Share Posted July 7, 2009 (edited) I have never seen horse/goats meat here in Tas - but thats always an option if rabbit is unsuccessful and I can source it. Halal shops are good for goat - not necessarily cheap ($8 kg here) but they usually carry it for their client base. Also around here game meat and Asian butchers have it. My dogs much prefer rabbit though, hope you have luck with it. Edited July 7, 2009 by Diva Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sas Posted July 7, 2009 Share Posted July 7, 2009 Thanks everyone for replying I have fed rabbit to him on a couple of occasions - but the last time would have been about 18 months ago. Unfortunately I feed turkey on a regular basis - so cannot use that...but thanks for the suggestion poodlefan. I have never seen horse/goats meat here in Tas - but thats always an option if rabbit is unsuccessful and I can source it. The trouble started when I started feeding a couple of Evo treat biscuits for a snack/treat a couple of months ago...no skin problems since I stopped feeding supplements/fruit/veg a couple of years before that. I ceased feeding the Evo treats about 3 weeks ago - and have noticed some improvement. The vet suspects salmon as he had a mild colitis reaction to mackeral a couple of months ago (the first time I fed mackeral to him) and I feed fresh salmon weekly along with the salmon capsules daily. I can source wild whole rabbits for $7 and also minced rabbit (which I can use for treats). I did an elimination diet a couple of years ago for an abandoned cat I rescued - he is allergic to fish & beef...and was quite easy to identify. Hopefully I will have similar success with my sheltie. Fingers crossed anyway. Where about's are you? I'd love to get whole rabbits for that price1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stormie Posted July 7, 2009 Share Posted July 7, 2009 Thanks everyone for replying I have fed rabbit to him on a couple of occasions - but the last time would have been about 18 months ago. Unfortunately I feed turkey on a regular basis - so cannot use that...but thanks for the suggestion poodlefan. I have never seen horse/goats meat here in Tas - but thats always an option if rabbit is unsuccessful and I can source it. The trouble started when I started feeding a couple of Evo treat biscuits for a snack/treat a couple of months ago...no skin problems since I stopped feeding supplements/fruit/veg a couple of years before that. I ceased feeding the Evo treats about 3 weeks ago - and have noticed some improvement. The vet suspects salmon as he had a mild colitis reaction to mackeral a couple of months ago (the first time I fed mackeral to him) and I feed fresh salmon weekly along with the salmon capsules daily. I can source wild whole rabbits for $7 and also minced rabbit (which I can use for treats). I did an elimination diet a couple of years ago for an abandoned cat I rescued - he is allergic to fish & beef...and was quite easy to identify. Hopefully I will have similar success with my sheltie. Fingers crossed anyway. If you've fed rabbit before, I wouldn't be using it for an elimination diet, even if it was 18months ago. If he does have food allergies, he may have developed them to the rabbit during the times you've previously fed them (even though he may not have shown any signs at the time). The idea is to feed something the body has never encountered before, to ensure you get true results. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Summersaint Posted July 7, 2009 Share Posted July 7, 2009 You can buy Pet Custom Diets from Better Pets and Gardens which is Camel and Sweet Pototo but I think that's WA only . they can send eastern states if the order is big enough.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
koolietas Posted July 7, 2009 Author Share Posted July 7, 2009 Thanks everyone for replying I have fed rabbit to him on a couple of occasions - but the last time would have been about 18 months ago. Unfortunately I feed turkey on a regular basis - so cannot use that...but thanks for the suggestion poodlefan. I have never seen horse/goats meat here in Tas - but thats always an option if rabbit is unsuccessful and I can source it. The trouble started when I started feeding a couple of Evo treat biscuits for a snack/treat a couple of months ago...no skin problems since I stopped feeding supplements/fruit/veg a couple of years before that. I ceased feeding the Evo treats about 3 weeks ago - and have noticed some improvement. The vet suspects salmon as he had a mild colitis reaction to mackeral a couple of months ago (the first time I fed mackeral to him) and I feed fresh salmon weekly along with the salmon capsules daily. I can source wild whole rabbits for $7 and also minced rabbit (which I can use for treats). I did an elimination diet a couple of years ago for an abandoned cat I rescued - he is allergic to fish & beef...and was quite easy to identify. Hopefully I will have similar success with my sheltie. Fingers crossed anyway. If you've fed rabbit before, I wouldn't be using it for an elimination diet, even if it was 18months ago. If he does have food allergies, he may have developed them to the rabbit during the times you've previously fed them (even though he may not have shown any signs at the time). The idea is to feed something the body has never encountered before, to ensure you get true results. As his signs are only mild at this stage, we weren't even going to do an elimination diet straight away. Just stop the fish products...but I decided to do the elimination diet path instead. Although I have fed rabbit on a couple of occasions, with the last occasion being at least 18 months ago, the vet was happy for me to proceed on that path. Perhaps if his allergy was more serious, then she wouldn't have suggested that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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