adopted dog with several health issues

[redtailhawk]

[COLOR=MediumTurquoise]I recently adopted a wonderful (aprox 4 yr old) Lhasa Apso mix. She unfortunately has a chronic skin problem. She was treated by my vet for staph skin infection with antibiotics for 10 days and Benydryl baths. There was initial improvement but she is licking and scratching again. She is now on a lamb and rice diet with no treats as well as a supplement of acidophilus every other day. The vet also discovered a significant heart murmur that may lead to CHF down the road (hopefully a long road!!!) (low heart rate and irregular). My question is what other supplements can I give her to help the skin and the heart issues? Keeping her weight down with good diet and exercise is already happening. I am limited on funds but she is worth all I can do for her. I bring her twice a week to the nursing home I work at as part of the activity program there. She is the best dog for the job. Any help for a holistic approach to her health care is greatly appreciated.

[Luba]

Thank u for rescuing this baby

First off, have you considered a holistic vet in your area?

You can home cook for your dog, it's easy and may solve a lot of your problems. Processed foods are just that, processed.

If you look at your dog food label you will see by products/lamb meal more then likely. The process for rendering down meat not fit for human consumption but for dogs is disgusting.

Some food is obviously better then others. But you may wanna try the home cooking.

Supplement wise I'd say some vitamin e, fish oil and shark cartilidge for sure.

Do you have any pics?

[mastifflover]

I would also suggest Flax seed oil and Omega 3's. Luba is right I might go with a raw diet for your new baby. I know a lot of people that have switched with amazing results especially skin and coat. Thanks for rescuing

[Lucky Rescue]

Many people do swear by a raw diet to help skin problems, etc.

If you want to try it, here's a link to get you started. You can also go to Google and type in "barf diet dogs" (without the quotation marks.)

Raw Diet

[redtailhawk]

Thank you for the quick responses. Greatly appreciated. Is there a specific dog's weight to mg ratio for any of the supplements? I will check into the raw diet but am first switching back to the brand of lamb rice I was first using as this may be why there's a problem. I noted today, that it seems since switching brands earlier in the week is when the symptoms started. I had tried a cheaper lamb rice food and had noticed along with the licking and scratching ...increased thirst, more (and LARGE) bowel movements (including one "accident"at the nsg home) and behavior change (acting starved...ie. lunging at anything that remotely resembled food and increased "hyper"-ness). With the first brand of dog food there wasn't any of this going on. So much for saving money.
Luba I have so many pics (new mom syndrome, right?) and will post one of "Chi" kayaking in the pic section (as soon as I figure it out, LOL)
Chi and I went back to the shelter she had come from and she picked out a cat (named her Tai It ends up that they were both strays. I am the lucky one.