| Three thoughts here: having been owned by goldens for twenty some years, all of which were plagued with allergies, I was told by a rescue once to not feed anything containing corn. I believe (could be wrong on this) that most allergies are ultimately food related and manifest with itchiness/ear infections. Once I switched to a food not containing corn,that helped tremendously. Second, these dogs also religiously received annual boosters...my dogs now receive fewer shots and are not itchy at all, nor do they have ear infections. Third, feeding the same food continuously (again, prevaling wisdom when I had my goldens was to not swtich foods around) could create food sensitivities to some particular ingredient or could result in some deficiency so I now switch around between three different dog foods that they have done well on rather than feed only one. None of my dogs are at all itchy and none have had ear infections, including my old lab who is conservatively eleven or twelve (a rescue so guessing at age). These may be "superstitious behaviors" on my part...had good results so just kept doing but the difference in health between my current three dogs and the three goldens I had is remarkable. By the way, the vet had wanted to put my goldens on pred, but switching foods helped enough that we didn't have to do that.  |