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Old December 26th, 2011, 01:00 AM
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Myka Myka is offline
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Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Saskatoon, SK.
Posts: 945
Hmmm...well heck, I don't know what's going on.

Roxy's feet are worse than they have been before...swollen, slightly red, some broken skin. Definitely not even close to the worse case I've seen, but something is still bothering her. Her skin rash is mostly gone...seems to have a flare up for a couple days once a week or so. By flare up I mean she will get covered in the all over red bumps (like in the first photos of in this thread), but they go away in a couple days. She usually has one small patch (less than dime-sized) on her side/chest/haunches that looks kind of like eczema - scaly, raised, rough skin. Sometimes it is red, most times it is normal colored. These patches will lose the hair off them as the scaliness flakes off.

From what I understand allergies showing up as foot irritation are always (almost always?) food related. I know holistic veterinarians suggest large daily doses of fish oil (omega 3) to help with allergies as it is an immunity booster and anti-inflammatory, but this is one ingredient I am questioning if she has allergies to. However, she hasn't had a drop of fish or fish oil in 4 weeks now. How long does it take for allergies to clear the system? Is it too early to start adding in fish oil? Fish oil should help the allergy, but not if the allergy is fish.

I need a new bag of dog food soon. She's been on the Iams Small Toy Breed for 4 weeks. I am considering a switch to California Naturals Lamb & Rice. Cali Naturals has limited ingredients and thus often helpful for dogs with allergies, and a different protein might be a good step to take.

Roxy's pre-adoption diet consisted of the Iams as well as a homemade food of about 75% white rice, 20% ground beef, and 5% carrots. This is just what I could tell from looking at it. I am not sure what ratio of homemade to Iams she was getting. We have been unsuccessful trying to contact Roxy's old owners.

Is it too early to make a call on whether she is ok with the Iams or not? It doesn't seem to be the answer - at least not fully - but am I being too quick? Regardless, at this point she is 75% better now than she was on the Orijen. So...environment related (weather has been bouncing from spring/winter/fall and may be related...I haven't documented weather compared to flare ups...or laundry detergent, or?)? Or food related?

Please help me make some decisions on the next step...or whether I should wait a bit longer before making anymore changes.
__________________
Ella - Jun '20 - Reg AmStaff
Squeak - '15/16? - Tabby cat (adopted Nov '18)
Streak - '18 - Black cat (adopted Nov '18)
Peewee - Jan '06 - 6.5 lb Chi (adopted May '09)
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Roxy - Feb '05 to May '20 AmStaff (adopted Jul '11)
Myka - Nov '98 to Jan '10 - APBT X
Lacy - Sep '92 to Jul '03 - Sheltie
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