# Poor health - Want to try switching to a new food



## Caesars Mom (Feb 20, 2012)

My almost 6 month old, Luna, is amazing.....however she seems to be plagued with "issues" right now, and even though I have pet insurance for her, I would like to try and avoid hundreds of dollars of medical bills if her "issues" are simple ones that I might be able to help/correct myself.

Here's a brief summary of our situation. Luna, at almost 6 months, is only 40 lbs. She is TALL and SKINNY. Like, notice all her bones skinny. Like "everybody who meets her for the first time asks if she is alright" skinny. While I have not done any bloodwork on her yet, her vet says clinically she shows no signs of typical GSD gastrointestinal issues (good looking and size stools, no diarrhea, no vomiting) and he said that we would rule out any of that when she has her bloodwork done before we spay her in the next 1-2 months. Besides her being skinny she is itchy. Always chewing on herself and licking her stomach and underarms. She presents a rash there that doesn't go away with Benadryl or Simplicef. And lastly she has developed a limp. It's slight, but now that I notice it, it seems quite pronounced to me. These symptoms all may be separate, but a small part of me wonders if they may be related and perhaps part of her diet. Is she intolerant to something in her food that is causing all or some of these symptoms.

She has been on ProPlan Large Breed Puppy since she lived with the breeder. While I have never been a fan of the PetSmart brands of food, my vet, who I love & trust immensely, said he liked that food and said it was ok to keep her on it. So I have. But now I want to switch. 

My question......do Luna's issues sound familiar to anybody else out there reading this? Anybody have recommendations on a good quality dog food to transition Luna onto? I know everybody is very opinionated about the food they feed their dogs and I am ok with that. I just want to see if there seems to be a trend towards a certain brand or type. I am thinking grain free, but do they have a puppy formula that is grain free?

Thanks for any info you have that you want to share.


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## Ken Clean-Air System (Feb 27, 2012)

There are grain free puppy formulas, but as long as the calcium and phosphorus levels are fairly low you don't necessarily need to feed a puppy or large breed puppy formula. You could look for an All Life Stages food with good ingredients and acceptable levels of calcium and phosphorus.

The itchiness and rash could be caused by a food allergy, or intolerance to an ingredient in the Pro Plan formula. It's possible your pup is allergic to chicken, or possibly corn which seems to figure heavily into the ingredients in the formula you are feeding (corn gluten meal and whole grain corn are both in the first 5 listed ingredients). Going by the ingredients alone it doesn't look like a very good food.

Not sure if the limp or the seeming inability to put on weight could be related to the food or food allergy.


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## Caragirl (Sep 2, 2008)

I am sorry you are having such issues. Our now 10 yr old GSD had horrible problems with food until we switched to a grain free diet. I do have a friend whose dog seems to have a flour allergy. He gets a horrible skin rash whenever he ingests any flour at all. She had to try a few foods to find one that worked for him. It is hard to have a new dog and have to work through such issues. Hopefully you find something that helps!


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## Shade (Feb 20, 2012)

I've been feeding both of my dogs Authority and haven't had issues but I decided to try Fromm, it's $20 more a bag which is still reasonable

Here's the website with ingredients for the Large Breed Puppy which I'm using for Delgado

Large Breed Puppy Gold dog food - Fromm Family Foods


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## carmspack (Feb 2, 2011)

digestive enzymes - probiotics , full breakdown of food and maximum absorption. 
The limp may be pano.
Vet may be lovely and have good "bedside manners" , but advice on nutrition , hmm.

Carmen
CARMSPACK.com


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## Caesars Mom (Feb 20, 2012)

Thanks for all the replies so far! VERY helpful. So am I reading correctly that I want to make sure what I feed a puppy is low calcium and phosporous?

I didn't state very clearly before that I have had my vet look at all these symptoms. I was not trying to imply that I don't want to take Luna to the vet at all. The last vet I saw who wasn't my regular guy felt that Luna's rash could be dietary or environmental. She suggested we see how she responded to the Simplicef and a short dose of prednisone and if symptoms didn't go away then we would go in for scratch testing. I figure why not try another food before we scratch test and see if I notice a difference. Especially since her weight has always been such a concern to me. The limp was not that noticable to the vet when we last went. She said that it could be growing type pains, and I alsk know there is the possibility of Pano or even worse....the dreaded ED. I am guessing that the limp is NOT related tot he food, however if she is not getting proper nutrition due to an intolerance in something in her food, then it could make sense that a limp could present itself as yet another symptom. So who knows.

As far as my vets advice on quality dog foods.....this has always been my biggest quandry. I have always firmly believed that Science Diet, Iams, ProPlan,etc are JUNK quality food filled with fillers and very little "real" ingredients. But I look at the dogs at my breeders and they are all BEAUTIFUL, healthy weight, clear eyes, shiny coat etc and they eat the "junkier" brands of food. My vet said that the large companies have spent a significant amount of money in researching and developing these large breed formulas and he felt that they really had a good balance of nutrition in them. He did however say that he would not stick with this brand once Luna should go off puppy formula and that we would look into one of the "better" albeit expensive, brands for her adult life. 

I have heard a lot about grain free and if that is safe/healthy for a puppy I might try that as I hear it is grains that cause a majority of the allergies.

Thanks again!


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## grace23 (Jan 26, 2012)

Wow, definitely sounds like you have a lot of problems with your baby 
If pet insurance won't cover some of that - because they call it "preexisting", you might want to try Pet Assure (or something similar to that), which will cover 25% of preexisting. I've had a policy for about a year now and I've probably saved close to six hundred bucks, which pet insurance would not have paid for.
Good luck with your pup!


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## Caesars Mom (Feb 20, 2012)

grace23 said:


> Wow, definitely sounds like you have a lot of problems with your baby
> If pet insurance won't cover some of that - because they call it "preexisting", you might want to try Pet Assure (or something similar to that), which will cover 25% of preexisting. I've had a policy for about a year now and I've probably saved close to six hundred bucks, which pet insurance would not have paid for.
> Good luck with your pup!


Luckily none of it was pre-existing. The rash developed only about a month ago. Although I had noticed her itching and chewing before that. Just no rash. The limp just showed up 2 weeks ago. The skinny part, I guess she has always been skinny, although she was a healthy weight when I brought her home from the breeder (insert guilt here). I have been feeding her the same food as the breeder and following the high end of the mfg recommended feeding scale so I don't understand why she got so skinny in my hands. I have seen pics of a few of her other siblings and they look a healthy weight. I plan on taking her back to the vet if a food switch doesn't seem to curb any of my issues. But I thought this is an easy thing to try on my own first so might as well get that underway before I take her in. The limp scares me. My 1st GSD got ED at 5 months. We did the surgery and he was never 100% and couldn't continue in Schutzhund. We are suposed to be beginning agility with Luna next week but I am nervous now that she is limping. Ugghhhhh.....love this breed, but they seem to have SO many issues.


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## Sunflowers (Feb 17, 2012)

OK, maybe it is true that "large companies have spent a significant amount of money in researching and developing these large breed formulas and he felt that they really had a good balance of nutrition in them." 

But it makes no sense to me that the vet would recommend staying with a food that is obviously not meeting your dog's nutritional needs. It may work for other dogs, but if it is not doing it for yours, I would switch immediately. Could be that one or more of the ingredients in her current food is what is causing the itchiness and allergies and failure to gain weight.

This is the crucial growing period, when the foundation of your dog's health is built. Why wait? 

My breeder fed Fromm's adult gold to all the puppies. If I were to feed kibble I would go with that first.


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## Gretchen (Jan 20, 2011)

You could check out the brand, The Honest Kitchen. It's dehydrated raw formulas. You may not need to switch over 100%, we've had really good results using it about 1/3 to 1/2 of our feeding.


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## lrodptl (Nov 12, 2009)

This is the place to start in my opinion;Natural Dog Food, Cat Food and Puppy Food for Pets With Food Sensitivity ? California Natural


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## Kyad02 (Oct 21, 2011)

Innova Prime fish formula is grain free and potato free with low calcium/phosphorus.


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## doggiedad (Dec 2, 2007)

have the blood work done and have her urine and stool
sample checked. don't guess at your dogs health.


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## mahhi22 (Jul 14, 2009)

carmspack said:


> digestive enzymes - probiotics , full breakdown of food and maximum absorption.


Ditto the DE & PBs. Rumi's issues improved tremendously on them.


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