Quote:
Originally Posted by Poppinjay
Uh, well we've gone into the upper cost bracket several times. So that's what we would do.
The most common allergy for dogs is wheat. So stop serving her any wheat based dog food. That's easy because the market now has many inexpensive non wheat dog foods. Get cornmeal based or make it yourself.
Inflamed ears is usually caused by wheat allergies. Likewise the vomit....
|
Wheat is by far not the only food allergen that effects dogs and corn is a big problem too. Do not feed your dog corn based food if it has allergies.
Corn, wheat, preservatives, dyes, beef and many other things are food allergens for dogs. Also, dogs can be allergic to grass (and I'm not referring to when they eat it).
What foods have you tried? Have you been doing anything different to your yard? How long has your dog been having problems and did you make any changes when this started?
For the time being, try putting your dog on a bland diet. You can cook rice and boil chicken (nothing added) or you can ask your vet for the Hill's I/D formula. As far as a better food goes, look for Blue Buffalo, Nature's Recipe, or AvoDerm (all easy to find at Petsmart). Nature's Recipe is a pretty decent food for dogs with allergies and it doesn't cost as much as AvoDerm and Blue Buffalo.
If you can find the money to have the allergy test done that will help you solve this problem but I understand the lack of money. That said, it may be cheaper to do the test than to steam clean all of your carpets and buy ten different bags of food.
The interaction with kids is all about getting the dog used to new things and practicing. Training is key. If a dog is not used to kids being around, of course it will be a little weird.
Edit: To add my own experience here, I adopted a baby German Shepherd mix back in February and had no idea what I was getting myself into. She has a sensitive stomach, food allergies and a condition called Megaoesophagus. There were a lot of vet bills so it was really hard for me. It seemed like every time we thought we had solved one problem, another would pop up. But we figured everything out and now she is very health and almost and adult. She even graduated from her obedience class tonight. For me, it was better in the long run to bite the bullet and pay the extra vet bills because once we got all the medical problems under control everything was 100 times easier.