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Royal Canin Hypoallergenic prescription dog food (Rabbit & Potato) - thoughts?

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Gus did someone say- 'cheese'??     Barked: Sat Jan 28, '12 1:29pm PST  Well, we are back here. Sigh. Again. Spent the morning at the vet with Gus. Again. We had about 6 good weeks on The Honest Kitchen. Then this last week has been the same old story. This time is anal glands became inflamed along with his paws. Poor thing. We know he has seasonal allergies, but vet is very positive that the paws, anal gland issues, and colitis are food related. I agree, I think I was hoping they weren't! So here we are again. Having to change foods. This time his vet - who I trust, who's specialty is allergies and 80% of her patient base are "allergy kids" (what she calls her patients). People come to her for just that. So I do trust her. But she said the words I was dreading this time: "I think it's time to put him on the Royal Canin we prescribe here." I grimaced. But what else can I do? We've tried homemade diets which -- I have a chronic illness so I don't always have the energy to make him food from scratch. And I'm constantly worried that he's getting the proper nutrition with homemade, and we run into the same problems with the allergies. We've tried The Honest Kitchen - he did okay on the base mix. We've tried just about every "allergy friendly" food on the market. Some of them he has reactions to right away so immediately those are out. Others he can eat 3-6 weeks before his symptoms start acting up again. If I take out everything I *know* causes are reaction - it eliminates all the dry foods on the market. Which is why we went to THK. His vet said that the foods sold in stores are not regulated, and so even though they say they are "gluten free" or "allergy friendly", they are still all processed on the same equipment and belts as their other formulas. This leaves traces of things like chicken, wheat, corn, soy, or whatever their other formulas have in them that the allergy ones do not. Which I believe, because most PEOPLE food that is allergy friendly contains warnings that it may contain traces of the allergens because it's processed in the same plants. So makes sense a dog food would be the same. So even though I'm buying a food that claims to be free of chicken and grains (which are in most of THK's formulas) there can still be traces, and for dogs like Gus who are highly sensitive/allergic - those traces cause symptoms. Vet said that the prescription foods through Royla Canin are FDA regulated and that they have to process the foods on separate equipment, etc to ensure they are "hypoallergenic". I guess I need to do more reading. We came home with a bag of the Royal Canin Hypoallergenic Rabbit & Potato, but not sure what I'm going to do right now. I know he can't go raw (the colitis), and I know we are pretty much out of luck with any other dog food. So maybe it is just time to try it and see. I know potato is the first ingredient. I'm not too worried about that, since he does best on a low protein diet. Does anyone have experience with this food? Did it work long term? I'm tired of having to change foods every 4-6 weeks. Tired of Gus ending up in the vet all day on a Saturday in pain Thanks for reading. Edited by author Sat Jan 28, '12 1:32pm PST my posts | my page | msg me | my family's posts | gift me | become pals [notify]

Turner - Gone Too- Soon Hi I'm Turner- Wanna Smell My- Butt?     Barked: Sat Jan 28, '12 2:41pm PST  We used RK Venison and Potato for years. Turner had a food allergy and we were offered either rabbit or venison. We chose venison. Even though it was very expensive, it was worth it. He never had any sores, itching, red skin or pussy eyes. Not once. If anyone gave him something he shouldn't have (a cookie or OMG human food) we knew within hours he would have a rash and within 24 hours he would have pimples and itch like crazy. I took him to a k-9 allergist for testing and she gave us a list of things he could chew. I spent alot of money at bullystick.com and bestbullysticks.com but it was worth it. I figured it was cheaper to feed him the RK than it would be to treat endless skin infections caused by scratching. Now we have Grunt, who is allergic to cut grass. The minute he walks on it he breaks out and itches. We've added MSM to his meal once a day it's 1/8 tsp per 25 pounds. His fur is beautiful, skin is healthy and coat is amazing. Good luck. my posts | my page | msg me | my family's posts | gift me | become pals [notify]

Uno I'm huntin'- wabbits     Barked: Sat Jan 28, '12 3:08pm PST  I would find something comparable with better quality ingredients like california natural, I think they have a venison and kangaroo formulas now. my posts | my page | msg me | my family's posts | gift me | become pals [notify]

Turner - Gone Too- Soon Hi I'm Turner- Wanna Smell My- Butt?     Barked: Sat Jan 28, '12 3:12pm PST  Oh yea, Turner was on it for about 5 years! my posts | my page | msg me | my family's posts | gift me | become pals [notify]

Gus did someone say- 'cheese'??     Barked: Sat Jan 28, '12 5:09pm PST  Thanks Think we might just try it and see how it goes. One negative is the amount he has to eat - nearly 2 cups a day! He is only 15 pounds! That is crazy. But will give it a try and if he does well then we can look for a rabbit base food. my posts | my page | msg me | my family's posts | gift me | become pals [notify]

Member Since 12/24/2011     Barked: Sat Jan 28, '12 5:45pm PST  Sorry to hear you're going through this, it's not easy to have a dog that has food issues. One of my dogs had chronic colitis for almost three years, we tried so many foods to find one that might help. Frustrated with seeing her in so much pain often, and visits to the vet for antibiotics, I tried a homemade prey model raw diet after a few months of heavy research on it first. Within two months on raw, her colitis subsided slowly, and now it's been over a year on the diet and she is doing wonderful and colitis free. I hope the new food works for him and he gets some relief from his symptoms. my posts [notify]

Uno I'm huntin'- wabbits     Barked: Sat Jan 28, '12 10:26pm PST  natures variety instinct also has a rabbit formula, but I would try their LID foods first. my posts | my page | msg me | my family's posts | gift me | become pals [notify]

Maxwell I'm triple- superior MAD- now!     Barked: Sun Jan 29, '12 6:52am PST  I would feed it too. It is super expensive and hasn't enough protein but I suspect the vet is right about the equipment being cleaned better than ordinary kibble manufacture and it isn't bad ingredientwise at all. If you don't want to go raw which is the ultimate elimination diet then this is much better than that hydrolyzed protein stuff. I do think that 2 cups is far more than needed. Start with 1 and increase if needed. Just because the bag tells you a dog of a given weight needs 2 cups doesn't mean it is so and these instructions are for 1.25 cups for a 10 pound dog and 2.13 for a 20 pound dog, half way would be 1.66 anyway, not 2. A cup is 304 calories, how much does your dog need now? http://products.royalcanin.us/media/125115/102a%20product%20gu ide_hypo_selected_121410.pdf my posts | my page | msg me | my family's posts | gift me | become pals [notify]

Member Since 12/31/1969     Barked: Sun Jan 29, '12 8:48am PST  Actually colitis does not preclude feeding your dog a raw diet. Thats a misnomer made by most vets. Your dog will do much better on a proper prey model raw diet(PMR). In most instances PMR will cure colitis, not agravate it. PMR is the only way you can determine exactly what food if any your dog is allergic to. Most dogs that have allergies to kibble based proteins will not be allergic to a food in the raw form. I know many people who said their dog was allergic to chicken only to find out that their dogs could eat raw chicken with no problems. Here's what I suggest. Switch your dog to a PMR diet by following my recomendations on my web page at http://www.skylarzack.com/rawfeeding.htm Once he is fully introduced to a raw diet and his body has adjusted to digesting it, if he is still having problems, go to an elimination diet. This will be the best elimination diet you can possibly use because you are going to reduce the diet to only one ingredient. You can pick any protein source you want to use to begin with. Lets say you pick pork. For two months you will feed your dog nothing but pork. Nothing goes into the dogs mouth that didn't come from the body of a pig. At the end of two months either your dog will be over his problem or not. If his symptoms disappear, he has a food allergy and its not pork. Then you GRADUALLY add other proteins to his diet. When his symptoms reappear, the last protein you added is the culprit. It is the food he is allergic to. If you get all the proteins added back and his symptoms don't reappear, he isn't allergic to any animal based food. If during the pork only phase of the trial his symptoms did not disappear, switch to another protein source for another 2 months. Lets say feed chicken only. Feed nothing that doesn't come from the body of a chicken. If after the 2nd two months the symptoms are still there, he does not have a food allergy. If he symptoms go away, the dog is allergic to pork. This is a long process and its so very difficult to see to it that your dog eat such a limited diet however, it should answer a lot of questions. Switching from one kibble to another is fruitless as you have found out. You can change the main ingredients but there are so many chemicals in kibble that there is no way to run a credible elimination diet to get any meaningful information. my posts [notify]

Gus did someone say- 'cheese'??     Barked: Sun Jan 29, '12 1:16pm PST  My vet didn't tell me not to feed him raw. Just about everyone here who does raw told me NOT to do it since he has so many GI issues. Due to Colitis he digests slower. So there is risk of bacteria for HIM because he doesn't eliminate his food as quickly as healthy dogs. I've considered raw, but still not sure it would be best for Gus and his conditions. Also I'm not willing to switch him to it during a flare up since he is prone to intestinal infections when he is like this. I did eliminate all grains the last flare up, and that has helped. I'm going to try the RC, and see how it goes. I think at this point I'm honestly just defeated. I need to have something he can eat, even if it is just a "in between" kind of food. I'll let his GI system settle a bit and then we can work on finding another food that I feel better about feeding him. Maxwell - thanks for the link. I will look at how many calories Gus needs and adjust accordingly. I think there is a lot of air in the kibble - it is light. Good news is he seems to like it, and no symptoms so far. my posts | my page | msg me | my family's posts | gift me | become pals [notify]

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