[martystan]

I have joined this forum to hopefully gather information on pitbull health issues. I have a 3 year old male Lab-Pitbull mix named Boots. He has a wonderful personality but he is suffering with a significant itching problem.

I have taken him to the vet multiple times and to no avail. He was tested for mange but the doctor's deep skin test searching for mites turned up negative. The vet has him on a thyroid supplement called PalaTech since his thyroid is a bit low which he said was from having his testicles removed before I adopted him.

The Vet claims that the diet should be changed to a very refined diet including ground beef, brown rice, green beans and no dog food. This can get expensive. I did it for a while and seemed to help a bit so I backed off of that routine because it was costly and time consuming. I have been feeding him IAMS All Breed ProActive which he likes. I give him an egg each day for the coat. He continues to itch and scratch giving himself open sores. I have no clue what to do at this point.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[scratchin dog]

OK that IAMS stuff is garbage. Most likely he is allergic to the ingredients of the food.
Here are your culprits:
Corn Meal, Ground Whole Grain Sorghum, Chicken By-Product Meal Ground Whole Grain Barley, Dried Beet Pulp, Dried Egg Product.
Dogs are not meant to eat corn and grains.

[scratchin dog]

Either get him on a raw diet or a high quality kibble without those grains.

[rustychain]

trust your vet on this one he is right i would change his diet, he more than likely has food allergys try reasearchin a raw diet.. it doesnt have to be expensive at all, it can be alot cheaper than dog food. u can get scraps and things such as meaty bones chicken ect..from a local butcher cheap. u can find some real good treads on here bout raw diets... your dog will love u for it.

[Kaitlyn]

I'm going with allergies as well. Diesel used to scratch himself silly on Purina and Authority, now he's on TOTW and all scratching (and bleeding) is gone. So, I'm going to conclude he was allergic to grain and corn and now that he's on grain free he has NO problem. And it seems like his tail is splitting less and less too.

Purina, Iams, Science Diet - it's all crap. Oh and Pedigree. Anything you can buy at a grocery store or a supermarket really aren't good for dogs.

www.dogfoodanalysis.com 5 and 6 star foods in the review section.

[Love4MyDogs]

My one girl Kelsi has that issue too. I feed her Innova dog food with Kelp and Fish Oil from Seapet. As long as I don't forget to put the oil and kelp in, she never gets really itchy. If I forget for a few days for some reason, she starts itching really bad again and getting the bald/red spots.

[Sweetie Darlin']

I've been researching all brands of food, reading reviews, etc. I read so many fantastic reviews on Natural Balance for allergies. You might try researching that brand--maybe it will work for you too? Good luck!

[titan1]

My boy Titan has allergies, but the are under control now. We have him on DVP fish & sweet potato, Seapet or Canine Caviar Kelp, Seapet fish oil with natural vitamin "E". The past 2 years he has had seasonal alopecia, but again I found a product from a company called Epi-Pet that has done miracles (and not just for alopecia but for many skin problems!). Not to make this sound like a commercial but I always tell people I only sell what I use on my own dogs.

[pitgirl17]

I agree with everyone, he is allergic to the food. My girl has horrible allergies and they do come up the the spring and the fall. However alot of the problems went away when I changed her to a grain free diet. We moved to Wellness Core. She loves it and feels a lot better. Remember this type of breed is more pron to allergies and skin problems and some have it worse than others. You just have to figure out what is right for you dog. Fish oil really helped her coat to not dry out and really brought back her natural oils.
Good Luck

[Mollie's Nana]

This breed is notorious for skin problems... Here's a thread on quality kibbles... I feed Taste Of The Wild, but Wellness and Solid Gold are good kibbles too. Hope this helps you some.

http://www.pitbull-chat.com/showthread.php?t=15101

[WackyJacki]

After being on Wellness, Canidae, Innova EVO, and several other "high end" kibbles, my Boston's coat still wasn't great. A bit itchy, definitely flakey, and lacked luster.

Six weeks after starting a raw diet, her coat look amazing. It looks like she had a bath everyday haha. And no doggy odor, no gas (she always had horrible gas!) and if you know where to shop, it can be way cheaper then these "high end" kibbles.

Best of luck!

[scratchin dog]

A raw diet is the best you can feed your dog. Unfortunately too many people put their own convenience and pocketbook over the health of their dogs. Raw is actually cheaper to feed than a quality kibble.

[WackyJacki]

Originally Posted by scratchin dog A raw diet is the best you can feed your dog. Unfortunately too many people put their own convenience and pocketbook over the health of their dogs. Raw is actually cheaper to feed than a quality kibble.

I agree that it is best, and am sooo glad I "saw the light"

However, I don't think most people don't do it because of convenience/money issues (although that certainly is the case for some), I think most people either:

A) Have never even heard of it (which is scary)
B) Are going on the poor advice of their veterinarians and their scare tactics, including vaccinations (even scarier!)
C) Really are brainwashed by the pet food companies and their slick advertising and believe they are doing the best for their pet.

It's a sad world we live in where money overpowers everything.

[The Riddler]

In Hawaii everything is $$$ I get chix backs for 64 cents and pork butt for $1.41, Turkey wings for 90 cents, Liver for 97 cents and what ever I can get from hunting, and friends cleaning out their freezer. Here Evo red meat is $65 for the 29# bag. thats $2.25 # the chixs and the pork but comes out to $2.05 and its less doodoo.

ps you don't need to supplememt if you feed good food. I give my dogs a whole fish about once a week. and only veggies they eat is the grass that gets on the food from my lawn

[WackyJacki]

Originally Posted by The Riddler In Hawaii everything is $$$ I get chix backs for 64 cents and pork butt for $1.41, Turkey wings for 90 cents, Liver for 97 cents and what ever I can get from hunting, and friends cleaning out their freezer. Here Evo red meat is $65 for the 29# bag. thats $2.25 # the chixs and the pork but comes out to $2.05 and its less doodoo. ps you don't need to supplememt if you feed good food. I give my dogs a whole fish about once a week. and only veggies they eat is the grass that gets on the food from my lawn

Yep.

I get rmbs and organs at the local butcher for under $1/lb and most other boneless meats I get on sale for $1.50-1.80/lb.

Way cheaper then Innova EVO (which is way overrated imo)

[Zoe]

If you are going the kibble route, I'd pick a food with limited ingredients. Pick on in which the ingredients is on that your dog has never had before and see how the dog does. This way you can begin to illiminate what might be causing the issue.

Here's the link to Natural Balance so you can see their limited ingredient foods.

http://www.naturalbalance.net/dogformulas/allergy.html

Wellness has a couple limited ingredient foods as well..

http://www.wellnesspetfood.com/dog_w...ons_index.html

There may be other companies with limited ingredient foods out there as well.