When our Labrador Retriever puppy reached 11 months, I was amazed at how often he was rubbing his head on my leg. At first I thought he was showing affection, which is typical of labs. However, it didn’t make sense when I started noticing him rubbing his head on table legs as well. Something told me he didn’t like table legs that much.
When it came time for his next vet checkup, I mentioned to the vet that he was losing some of the hair around his eyes. The vet had him lay down and checked his belly. We found a lot of small red areas where he had been scratching that were inflamed. The vet also checked his paws and found areas where he was chewing.
The vet gave him an antihistamine to help rule out whether it was a seasonal allergy. He said for me to give it to him for a week and then bring him back to the office so the vet could see how he was doing. Within a few days the symptoms were gone, but unfortunately they returned once the antihistamine stopped.
A friend recommended a woman who owns a specialty pet food store in the next town. She said she was very knowledgeable of different types of dog allergies and might be able to help us resolve the issue. We decided that even though it was a bit of a hike, we would make the trip to see what this person had to say.
We took the dog with us so she would have a chance to see him and we could show her the symptoms. One of her first questions was, “What food are you feeding him?”. We told her it was Chicken Soup Dog Food and she said that she liked the food but that he might be allergic to some of the grains in it. She said a lot of the symptoms he was having were typical of a dog food allergy. She recommended we try a grain free allergy dog food with a different type of protein and carbohydrate to see if that resolved the issue. Even though it wasn’t cheap, we went ahead and bought the food and made the investment in the animal that we love so much.
Our dog ate the new food for six weeks. When we returned to the vet, he noticed a difference and so did we. The red spots on our dog’s chest were gone and he seemed to be scratching a lot less. Over the course of 12 weeks, I could tell that the hair around his eyes was starting to grow back as well as on his muzzle. We knew it would take a while for his coat to return to normal, but this was definitely a positive sign.
I believe Chicken Soup for the Dog Lover’s Soul to be a very good food and used it for around a year. I have also read many positive reviews from happy dog owners. It’s unfortunate that my dogs happen have grain allergies and therefore cannot eat it.
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