suddenly very itchy on week 3 of chicken. Allergy?

[caudex]

We had always assumed that Mowgli was allergic to chicken, since he reacted to every dog food that contained it. When we started with the raw chicken 3 weeks ago, itching went down dramatically, almost overnight. Not completely gone, but instead of compulsively scratching til he bled he'd just.... scratch the itch, and be done. Aside from a few head shakes on Scarlett, (we're watching her ears) she seems to be good.

Last night/this morning he started back up with the compulsive itching. He just got his first Benadryl since we went off kibble. I gave him a treat two days ago, so I think that that is "gone" by now. Can a meat allergen build to a "threshold" in the system and cause a delayed reaction? I kinda thought that since the digestion is so much faster with meat, that maybe they just don't have TIME to be sensitive to it. And if he is, what is my next move?

 

[judilse]

Were you feeding only chicken? If his feed was only chicken then is ok to conclude that he is allergic to chicken, but if the feed you were feeding had other stuff it would be difficult to say what he is allergic too, is he allergic to grains, if not you might want to feed white rice and fish, my cc Danzo had allergy issues, he was reacting to something from his dry food, so I stop the feed, did a trial of brown rice and pasta for a while and he did not react so I knew he was not allergic to the rice, I did another trial with corn, where I feed him a meal containing only corn and in less an hour he reacted and develop some bumps, so from that I knew it was the corn, lucky I was able to get a kibble that corn free, but it's also chicken free.

 

[judilse]

corn and chicken free dry feed

 

[musicdeb]

It can take up to 6 months for the dog to detox from the kibble to raw. Titan did the same thing. Everything was going great and BAM! started itching again. I was frantic! I used to belong to this raw diet forum and everyone told me to relax and to keep on keeping on, that Titan was detoxing. They were right, at about 12 months the difference was amazing! Titan no longer has skin allergies or ear infections! BOOYAH!

Hang in there! He could be detoxing. However, be aware that some dogs are just allergic to chicken rather it be in kibble or raw meat. Only time will tell.

 

[judilse]

It's from holland, don't know where it available to you, hope this helps

 

[judilse]

Musicdeb you are an expert, nice respond solid and to the point, seems you have lots of experience to share, how old is Titan?

 

[musicdeb]

Thanks, judilse, but I'm no expert. I've share my experiences and my knowledge after doing research for a number of months. Titan is 4 1/2, he will be 5 years of age in September 2014.

 

[judilse]

Nice to have you around

 

[musicdeb]

Nice to have you around

Thank you!

 

[caudex]

Judilse, the primary principal of prey model is that they get no grain of any type. No corn, wheat, barley, rice, etc. Just meat. Mowgli is allergic to any and all of these, and appears to be sensitive to processed food in general. They can't process the carbs anyway, so they aren't particularly valuable. Just keeps them full.

I have tried several times to look up your dog food and cannot find it on Google for the life of me. Who is the manufacturer?

Thanks musicdeb, that's reassuring. I knew about them suddenly losing fur during detox, but didn't hear about itchies. We'll persevere!

 

[judilse]

I couldn't find it on google neither, my supplier says he order it from holland, that's as much I know of the feed , I would have to ask the supplier of the manufacturer

 

[ruthcatrin]

Yah, give him a bit longer. It IS possible to be allergic to raw chicken, but its less comon.

 

[DennasMom]

Denna's reaction was pretty low-grade, but we had to avoid chicken when we went Raw as well as in kibble.

After a few months, I started adding in small bites of chicken (like cuts off the bird I was prepping for our own dinner)... I kept at that for over a year, and now, just last week, she ate a whole chicken (spread out over the week), and so far, with zero reaction. I'm hoping we've adjusted her system to be ok with chicken now.
I was thinking back to my own childhood allergies, which have nearly all gone away... hoping the same would work for dogs... so far, so good... so, I'm hopeful!

I'd say, if you don't see any improvement in another week, switch to pork or rabbit or beef as your main protein, and see if that helps.

Also - adding a fish oil supplement might help. Unless you're feeding free-range/pastured meats, the omega 3/6 ratios are normally not optimal, so additional cold water fish oils can be beneficial.

 

[caudex]

It's coming and going-- he has been great the last 3 days, and itchy this morning. I'm probably going to roll with the detox theory for now, we're slowly introducing our next protein anyway.

We're big fans of coconut oil in this house, but I'm leery of the fish oil-- yet another thing my delicate flower had a violent and smelly reaction to...

 

[musicdeb]

I agree with you, caudex, give her some more time because I too believe she is detoxing. Titan detoxed for a few months and his allergies got worse but then at about 8-12 months on raw diet, everything cleared up.