How many of us are there with dogs on restricted diet ?

[vikki.k]

I was just wondering how many other cocker's are on a restricted diet? Baja is on Hills Perscription d/d egg and rice until we find out what is wrong with him after having the long episode of giardia.

It's been 2 months now of having these yellow nuggets of food, not a single biscuit/treat/vegetable/chew has touched his lips. He seems used to it now, but part of me does wonder if he misses all the old treats he used to get.  
 
Mole has been on the same food, as we feed them together and don't want to run the risk of Baja accidentally getting some of Mole's. So poor Mole hasn't had any treats either.

Two months on they now think the freezer door opening is the best thing ever as it results in an ice cube  

If what the vet thinks to be true and Baja does end up with a food intolerance does anyone have experience of having two dogs, one with a food intolerance and one not? It seems unfair to me to give Mole yummy treats whilst Baja goes without............is that me being soft? Or do we just find foods suitable to Baja's needs?

I guess we will know more when more blood tests come back this week, I was just thinking about it all today!

Thanks for listening  

[Nicola]

Rodaidh isn't yet but you know as we've 'talked' about it that he may well be at some point depending on how well he responds to the allergy injections.

I think in general dogs adapt pretty well, it's nice to be able to give them treats and variety but you're doing this for his long-term health I don't think they pine for stuff they can't have like we might do. I think if Ro does have to go on an exclusion diet I'll still give the other two their normal food and stuff but just make sure they're kept separate and if it was a long-term thing I'd try to find some alternative treats he could have.

I hope the bloods give you some answers this week

[vikki.k]

Thanks Nic, I just need to keep telling myself he's not like us and yes we are doing it for his long term health.

Really hoping for some positive news from the bloods this time, then we can start on the intolerance process.

When I'm feeling down about it I just laugh about our lovely vet who is Spanish and had my OH puzzled by asking if Baja had ever had ehhhh in his diet.................after going back to basics of has he had lamb, chicken and salmon the vet said well what about ehhhhh, lets try ehhhhhhhh. Finally worked out he meant Egg, but just cant pronounce it with his Spanish accent  So when feeding Baja we tell him he has some tasty ehhhhhhh for tea 

[Nicola]

I think Ro would get z/d Ultra allergen-free rather than d/d so no ehhhhhhh for him  

[sportsmonki]

...does anyone have experience of having two dogs, one with a food intolerance and one not?

Not cockers but my eldest BC kept being sick and was very thin for a while so I did an elimination diet for her and it seems that chicken, particularly chicken fat, was the problem.  I haven't found it too difficult managing her diet and those of my other dogs who don't appear to have any intolerances.  I do still give my others chicken-based meals and treats sometimes.  I feed my eldest BC seperate from the others, and dont let her in with the others until their bowls are up, so she's never got their food!  Treatswise I usually have non-chicken treats if she is with us, but if I'm using chicken for my other dogs I make sure I have chicken-free treats with me for her (seperate bag).  I don't think she worries that she is being given a different treat or food to the others and haven't found it difficult to manage her diet  .

Hope Baja is OK and that you soon find out some answers.

[catcmartin]

our charlie is on a low fat diet after a bad bout of pancreatitis a couple of years ago.  I spent the first year paying out for Hills I/D until I found out that Burns is actually lower in fat and protein than the Hills is and the Burns staff were a great help and source of information .  So switched him over about 1 year ago and he is doing great on that.  I am always very carefull what if any treats he gets, and so far his pancreatitis has been fine with no further bouts.

[LurcherGirl]

Three out of my four dogs are now on special diets.

Flash (saluki) is allergic to animal protein and is on a vegan diet.
Jesse (Am cocker) is allergic to all sorts and is on a home cooked special diet.
Troy (Pyrenean) has an extremely sensitive stomach since Previcox tablets buggered it up and now gets the runs as soon as I give him anything other than his normal food...

Dylan (lurcher) is the only one that is "normal" - when it comes to diet anway. 

Vera

[vikki.k]

Useful to see there are more of us out there!

No news yet, so will see what we get by the end of the week. I'm hoping for something simple like the chicken intolerance, so have my fingers crossed for that if anything.

In an ideal world I want him on healthy paws, so hoping we can get the go ahead to try it and see what happens 

Thanks for the replies 

[Mudmagnets]

Not sure if you would call Smudge & Katie's diet restricted, but Katie cannot have anything by Burns except the Ocean Bites, Smudge does better on Burns than anything else. Both of them are ok on plain dog biscuits, but get the jips with biscuits with 'meaty' additive. (like marrowbone rolls for example)

What a funny pair

[louis mum]

Vicky we are still trying to get to the bottom of Alfies allergies    The allergy tests came back negative  however by elimination then reintroducing certain foods we do now know some triggers, but defo not all  We found mashed potato and white fish for a few months cleared him up, then reintroduced certain foods to see if any response. Virtually all meat we cant give, we did introduce AG fish and potato with success for a time; he flared up recently and developed terrible purple staining so we have stopped it and gone back on the homemade foods. He is great at the moment, the only problem we have is that he loses too much weight too quickly  But on the AG gained too much  We do add oil of evening primrose (cant remember why now    ) but there was a reason  I will check it out again 

Treat wise both mine just get fish 4 dogs stuff, I just find it easier and they clean their teeth in the process. When feeding we do have to stand between them so Alfie cant get Lennys, bit of a pain but its only for a few minutes.

Hope you get to the bottom of his troubles quickly 

[MollieMoo]

Mollie has been suffering with Pruritis and has seen the specialist dermalogical vet.  He came to the conculsion that her itchy skin wasn't caused by envirionmental factors, so we needed to restrict her diet (which was the worst case scenario).  Due to other problems with her tail sitting low due to anal gland problems we put her on Hills RD and this solved the tail problem and has maintained the anal gland problem, so the decision was made to keep her on the Hills RD and not to give her anything else.  We started this on the 4th December and it was really hard over christmas, but to make life easier for myself I also put Daisy on to the same diet.  They are both looking really well and they have both lost weight which has been good, and they are now both at ideal weights.  To be honest as I said it was my worst case scenario, but tbh I really had to re-train myself not to give them extras..........they always had a treat in the morning, a bonio at lunch time, the scraps off my dinner, home made tuna bread and biscuits, carrots, apples etc and now I would really like to try and keep up the non treating, at least I can keep their weight steady

I am just keeping her on the restricted diet and we are keeping an eye on her skin to see if any patches start to erupt, if there are signs of it starting up again we may have to try her on an anti allergy food.

[vikki.k]

Mollie has been suffering with Pruritis and has seen the specialist dermalogical vet.  He came to the conculsion that her itchy skin wasn't caused by envirionmental factors, so we needed to restrict her diet (which was the worst case scenario).  Due to other problems with her tail sitting low due to anal gland problems we put her on Hills RD and this solved the tail problem and has maintained the anal gland problem, so the decision was made to keep her on the Hills RD and not to give her anything else.  We started this on the 4th December and it was really hard over christmas, but to make life easier for myself I also put Daisy on to the same diet.  They are both looking really well and they have both lost weight which has been good, and they are now both at ideal weights.  To be honest as I said it was my worst case scenario, but tbh I really had to re-train myself not to give them extras..........they always had a treat in the morning, a bonio at lunch time, the scraps off my dinner, home made tuna bread and biscuits, carrots, apples etc and now I would really like to try and keep up the non treating, at least I can keep their weight steady

I am just keeping her on the restricted diet and we are keeping an eye on her skin to see if any patches start to erupt, if there are signs of it starting up again we may have to try her on an anti allergy food.

I guess thats the thing, we had to retrain ourselves to stop the bonios and chews and they seem fine without them. They do have icecubes but thats all. Throughout it all though Baja's weight fluctuates from week to week, he gets the same food measurement and the same amount of exercise yet the vet still picks up that his weight isn't steady and moves from 15kg, 15.2kg, 15.4kg. He's tall and the vet is confident he isn't over weight, yet always comments about the .2 difference!

No blood results yet, hoping for to hear from them tomorrow!

[louis mum]

Mollie has been suffering with Pruritis and has seen the specialist dermalogical vet.  He came to the conculsion that her itchy skin wasn't caused by envirionmental factors, so we needed to restrict her diet (which was the worst case scenario).  Due to other problems with her tail sitting low due to anal gland problems we put her on Hills RD and this solved the tail problem and has maintained the anal gland problem, so the decision was made to keep her on the Hills RD and not to give her anything else.  We started this on the 4th December and it was really hard over christmas, but to make life easier for myself I also put Daisy on to the same diet.  They are both looking really well and they have both lost weight which has been good, and they are now both at ideal weights.  To be honest as I said it was my worst case scenario, but tbh I really had to re-train myself not to give them extras..........they always had a treat in the morning, a bonio at lunch time, the scraps off my dinner, home made tuna bread and biscuits, carrots, apples etc and now I would really like to try and keep up the non treating, at least I can keep their weight steady

I am just keeping her on the restricted diet and we are keeping an eye on her skin to see if any patches start to erupt, if there are signs of it starting up again we may have to try her on an anti allergy food.

I guess thats the thing, we had to retrain ourselves to stop the bonios and chews and they seem fine without them. They do have icecubes but thats all. Throughout it all though Baja's weight fluctuates from week to week, he gets the same food measurement and the same amount of exercise yet the vet still picks up that his weight isn't steady and moves from 15kg, 15.2kg, 15.4kg. He's tall and the vet is confident he isn't over weight, yet always comments about the .2 difference!

No blood results yet, hoping for to hear from them tomorrow!

Hope its good news  Let us know how he gets on.