Science Diet - Sensitive Skin

[NewRescueMom]

Anyone have any thoughts on this product?

[Barbara Surplus]

Nope. Stick to what's as close to natural as possible. This would not be it.
Barbara

[NewRescueMom]

My sisters dog has terrible skin allergies and the vet recommended this but I didn't think it was so hot! She has tried alot of different topical stuff but the dog keeps her up at ntie licking and scratching..

[Barbara Surplus]

She should perhaps start fresh with a very simple diet - if she's not averse to trying home-cooked or raw with only two or three natural ingredients, I'm quite sure she'll see a difference in a short period of time. Of course, switching to a super premium dog food will help as well. Neither does it hurt to add an essential fatty acid blend of oils to the dog's diet as well as Vitamin C to maintain a healthy immune system.

The poor dog is obviously in state of misery here - the obvious solution would be to change his diet. There's no doubt in my mind that it's the SD causing the problems.
Good luck.
Barbara

[SarasMom]

I'm not familiar with this particular product. Could you list the ingredients? I understand that SD makes some good prescription diets for specific conditions, but I know their regular food is crap. If you see any of the following ingredients in a food, forget it and find another.

• Soybeans
• Wheat
• Corn
• By-Product Meal
• BHT
• Beet Pulp
• Animal Digest- yuck, I don't even want to imagine what this is!

[ellak]

Try to find out if Solid Gold will work for you. It's a much much better quality food and it specializes in the development of "non-allergenic" products.

[CarolineS]

After dealing with a dog with food allergies for the last two and a half years, I've come to the conclusion there is no such thing as a "hypoallergenic diet". A dog with allergic tendencies will become allergic to anything that contains protein if it eats it for long enough.

The only sure-fire way to manage allergies is to prepare the food yourself. You have to strip the diet right back to only one protein source and one carb source. When you do it yourself, you don't have to worry about the dog being allergic to perservatives and trace elements you might find in commercial food. You know exactly what the dog is getting and if the allergies don't improve, you can switch to another protein source until you find one that works. It takes a lot of research and time to do this yourself, but the results are amazing and more than worth it.

[ellak]

Originally posted by CarolineS
After dealing with a dog with food allergies for the last two and a half years, I've come to the conclusion there is no such thing as a "hypoallergenic diet". A dog with allergic tendencies will become allergic to anything that contains protein if it eats it for long enough.

The only sure-fire way to manage allergies is to prepare the food yourself. You have to strip the diet right back to only one protein source and one carb source. When you do it yourself, you don't have to worry about the dog being allergic to perservatives and trace elements you might find in commercial food. You know exactly what the dog is getting and if the allergies don't improve, you can switch to another protein source until you find one that works. It takes a lot of research and time to do this yourself, but the results are amazing and more than worth it.

WOW!!! Didn't realize to what degree the allergies can be present in dogs. Thanks for info.