Allergies revisited

[AllieBaba]

Mylo has food allergies. I know for sure she's allergic to beef (so odd) and wheat products (gluten). She turns bright red and itches, and it can affect her behavior somewhat, too.

For a long time, I was feeding her lamb & rice food, the only brand at my local store. When I could I would get the high end stuff that didn't have any beef/wheat gluten in it, and she did great with that. She used to do okay with the lamb/rice stuff, but as it turns out, wheat is like the third ingredient in it, and it's not really THAT much better than any other generic crap food as far as she's concerned.

Now that I have Klaus eating us out of house and home, I have decided to just start cooking for Mylo (she doesn't eat much) and only feeding Klaus dog food. I will continue to feed him the rice and lamb food, it's pretty good food and he does well on it...

I cooked chicken breasts for treats this weekend, but at the end of the weekend, that needs to go and be replaced by fresh treats...here's what I fixed:

I boiled venison for the new treats...

I took the cooked, chopped chicken and mixed it with cooked, cold oatmeal, and added some of the venison broth to moisten it, and that's what Mylo got last night and this morning. There's enough for about 2 more days, I think...and then we'll do the same with the venison. then we'll move on to the next type of meat..possibly salmon, I have some big chunks of freezer burned salmon in there that I'm not really interested in eating.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it. Hopefully will see a less red, less itchy Mylo in about 2 days. If I can keep the kids from feeding her/letting her steal the food they eat. Last night she got a whole bowl of potatoes and hamburger gravy...the potatoes are fine, but hamburger and flour...yikes.

 

[strollingbones]

i am removing mine from kibble....most of the nutrients are cooked out of kibble....the dog feels full but isnt getting the calories needed.....

i am using 'dr pitciarn's natural health for dogs & cats

you are basically cooking and fixing your dog foods that are good for it....they have this healthy powder.....its real good to sprinkle on the food....if you decide you want to do the healthy powder let me know and i will mail you the expense ass parts....(you have to buy it in big ass cans. no use us both having a 22 buck can of bone meal lol)

i am using kidney beans, brown rice, cottage cheese, yogurt, eggs, whole wheat bread. etc

 

[AllieBaba]

Yeah, I have to avoid the bread. And the bone meal, because bone meal means beef bone meal, and that is a big allergen for the Mylo.

I have done this with her for short periods before and it always works out really well. I just have to make sure I cook every couple of days. I'm grateful she's small..I would NOT want to try this for Klaus....I'd need a cauldron.

What this makes me realize..there's a huge market out there for reasonably priced, allergen free dog food. If I were an entrepreneur or of that bent, I would be researching the hell out of this and I think I'd start a business. Cuz I'm sorry, but when you're talking big dogs, $70 for a 30 lb bag of food is just not possible. Thank GOD Klaus so far doesn't appear to have any food allergies. I don't get the cheapest food by any means...but that would not be doable.

 

[AllieBaba]

I think I would focus on chicken and oatmeal..it seems to be the cheapest. Chicken is great food for dogs..you can feed everything but the bone, and that cartilege and skin is good for them. Pork is, too..and they CAN eat those bones, if you find a way to grind them (Mylo can eat hambones, her jaws are that strong. Which makes me believe that pork bones are different than cow bones..softer).

 

[Grace]

Oats have gluten in it possibly from contamination with wheat products handled in the same fields/people/processing plants or machinery, Allie. Keep with the rice though. It isn't grown with the other stuff. I think. Dont forget the boiled carrots in the broth. Dogs LOVE carrots. Mine like them raw, but I have to dice them so they won't choke.
Venison sounds good. As does the salmon. Maybe rabbit. All these things are eaten in the wild (except rice and carrots). Pork is another white meat. I can't eat beef any more either, so I eat chicken, turkey, pork, fish.

Im going to have to start cooking for my little dog too with no store bought dry foods. Poor thing is itching himself to death and I dont want to keep him on baby benydryl forever. He gets one tab per day and it soothes him but I dont want a druggy dog all the time. Also....I wipe him down with a very wet washrag dipped and wrung out lightly in a solution of half apple cider vinegar and water. Make sure its APPLE cider vinegar. White is too strong and will burn too much. I use ACV as a rinse and it has a slight tingle burn but it doesnt hurt my head and it doesnt hurt Moki. It soothes the skin.

 

[Grace]

I had no clue about the rice being gluten free until I read the side of the Rice Chex box. It said naturally gluten free. Yay! No more doggie biscuits for Moki. He gets a few rice chex, dry, as his treat. Hes a happy camper!

 

[strollingbones]

garlic is big too....put garlic in their food...

i feed a 100, 75, 45 lb ....they get kibble in the am cause husband is lazy but at night they get rice etc

 

[strollingbones]

bone meal just says it is steamed bone meal....

kelp is good....cod liver oil

 

[Grace]

The Pet Food List. Pet Food brands, manufacturers, products, ingredients, sources, cat, dog, food.

 

[Grace]

This is what I feed mine:

Natural Dog Food, Cat Food & Puppy Food for Pets With Food Sensitivity – California Natural

(Green bag. Rice and Lamb. Small bites or bigger chunks. My two big dogs prefer the small bites)

 

[AllieBaba]

cool, thanks.

Mylo does super well with the oatmeal, so for her the gluten level is negligible. I've tried feeding her rice and I can't remember how she responded to it. She LOVES oatmeal. She'll gobble it all day, lo.

I will look into rice...oatmeal is kind of spendy and the price fluctuates. I was looking at bulk quick/rolled oats, and $50 for 50 lbs is a GOOD price. Now you don't use 50 lbs of dry oats to make 50 lbs of cooked oats...so this bears some research. If rice is cheaper, that's even better.

Rabbit is expensive which leaves it out. And I don't eat rabbit, myself, it's just one of the things I don't do (also don't do horse or goat..though I LOVE goat meat!) Mutton would be good, but that's hard to come by here, and it's expensive (and in small quantities) when it's available.

 

[AllieBaba]

Crap, rice is even more expensive than oats! That sucks!

We'll be going with oats until either the price of rice drops or Mylo begins to show signs of sensitivity....

I wonder how soy measures up...what other grains are there..canola...

 

[AllieBaba]

Oooh...soy is a pretty bad allergen, cross that off.

 

[geauxtohell]

I wish I could post the picture of our patient from last month with dermatitis herpetiformis secondary to a gluten allergy (he had just ate a loaf of french bread).

It was impressive. If you would have seen this guy, you would have sworn his life was in peril. It took us a little while to figure it out too.

At any rate, gluten allergies can be a real problem for pets and people alike.

 

[AllieBaba]

Gluten is da debil.

Does terrible things to me too, and it's getting worse with age.

 

[geauxtohell]

Gluten is da debil.

Does terrible things to me too, and it's getting worse with age.

This has got to be the worst manifestation. Note: this is open source. Our patient was worse.

 

[AllieBaba]

Ouch.

So did it go away?

 

[geauxtohell]

Ouch.

So did it go away?

Oh yeah. The first step is to separate the patient form gluten (obviously) and we treated him with dexamethasone (decadron) and he got better (I didn't personally manage him, so I don't know much more than that).

Steroid bursts are pretty typical for managing any allergy, to include Asthma.

Anyways, one of those: "Looks worse than it is" situations. We thought it was something much worse, pemphigus vulgaris, so we did a punch biopsy and it came back negative.

Thank God.

 

[AllieBaba]

Man I so didn't want to do an image search of skin disorders today...

 

[Grace]

Every day, people stuff themselves with gluten and are poisoning their bodies. EAT GRAINS! 100% WHOLE WHEAT BREAD! OATS AND BARLEY! YUM! GOOOOOD FOR YOU!

No. It isn't. Thats some bad shit.

I think I'm gonna try the caveman diet. Lean meats, fish, veggies, fruits, nuts, tubers, etc. Cavemen didn't have sugar. If they found a beehive, that was their sweet rush. They didn't have loaves of bread nor big ol bowls of pasta. No salt either...unless they their cave was near the sea. Nor milk. They ate the damn cow. Nor cheese. Nor butter. Maybe they figured olives left oil residue...maybe not. But to bring down a mammoth, they had to be strong. Thats how I look at it, anyway. And can't hurt to try. PLUS...I'm down 17 lbs in the past 2 weeks.

I haven't had sugar in a week now. And I am still in remission from the RA. I have only eaten gluten free breads and cookies, sweetened with honey. My pets are going to go on a cavedog diet too. But gotta watch out for the meats. Grass fed, not caged up.