Stinky feet, Ear Infections, growths, Hives??
I see a lot of questions about this in this group and I wanted to share my experience with my dog Kashmir. We got her at eight weeks old. She was fed Victor puppy food for 12 months then we moved to large breed formula. Then the health issues slowly started. 1st, fatty growths, 9 of them. Vet said they were nothing..ok. Then Hives, which we did not know were hives. They were just round red spots that would break open scab up and the hair would fall out. Had lots of blood work done, everything looked good. Antibiotics were cleared up for a few months and then it will come back. And then she got really really sick. She was throwing up and diarrhea which within a day turned into bloody throwing up and bloody diarrhea. My normal vet was out for a few weeks so we took her to a back up Vet. She sat on the floor with my dog who was so so sick and she said to me your dog is a lot sicker than you think she is. She said I’m gonna give you medicine to clear this up, but you seriously need to consider having her allergy tested through them. It was like $800 and we were $3000 in within a year. So my breeder turned me onto this test that you can get through Amazon, it’s called 5Strands and they send you the kit you pluck out 13 hairs as I do believe and you want the root of the hair with it and mail it to them. 5Strands sent me a book not just a few pages. This poor dog is allergic to just about everything and most additives that come in American dog food. Beef and fish number one Level 3 allergy, the worst. Pea protein right on down to shampoo and maple trees. I spent a week calling dog food companies, and at that time I had switched her to a fish-based food out of Texas that was very expensive and actually making her sicker so I was making her food out of chicken and rice, but I needed a balanced food. Her breeder suggested that I call Farmina, and they were wonderful. She went through Kashmir‘s allergy list and linked it to one of their foods that would work, which was chicken and pomegranate with spelt, which is a fish, but she’s not allergic to spelt. It took about four weeks. She gradually lost all of her old hair as new grew in. New black, shiny healthy hair. All of the scabs went away no more hives. She was a different dog. Farmina expensive, but it’s worth it and really not that expensive. She’s 85-90 pound dog so she gets 2 cups a day and I top it with wellness 95% chicken or 95% lamb she shines like a new penny. It’s $101 every 7 weeks delivered by Chewy. Or check local supply.
So if you’re having issues with ears, smells, do yourself a favor and your dog and get them allergy tested.