[MyCodyBoy]

Cody is on Wellness Super5mix large breed which has no corn.
The carbs are rice, oatmeal and Barley.
Cody has been on Wellness for a long time now and we have only had problems with his ears since early August. He has been given some treats as well but doesn't get them all too often.
I am going to cut out the treats and hope to see a change, but if I don`t see a change could it be because of the other carbs in his diet?

 

[goldhaven]

I have heard that it could be in the chicken meal.

 

[Bock]

Never heard of chicken meal being a problem. Chicken meal = chicken.

Since it's only been happening since August I would suggest seasonal allergies causing problems, or perhaps some other kind of allergy. Dogs can sometimes have problems with detergents, Febreze, carpet powders, etc.

 

[goldhaven]

My sister in laws golden had very bad ear infections for about a year, pretty constant. She switched his for to a lamb and rice and he hasn't had an infection since. That was 4 years ago. I guess it could be anything. Different dogs have different allergy's. Chicken was just one of the things that came to mind

 

[MyCodyBoy]

Never heard of chicken meal being a problem. Chicken meal = chicken.

Since it's only been happening since August I would suggest seasonal allergies causing problems, or perhaps some other kind of allergy. Dogs can sometimes have problems with detergents, Febreze, carpet powders, etc.

I don't use any of that chemical stuff in my house, not even dryer sheets for our clothing. Once I had kids I got ride of all kind of chemical cleaners.

I just wanted to post this in reply to the previous post
"Chicken meal is simply chicken that has been baked to remove bacteria and other toxins. Chicken is simply pure chicken"
http://searchwarp.com/swa5545.htm

I think I will try to keep his ears really clean and see what happens over the next couple of months. I did try switching him to a grain free food a while ago but he did not do well on it at all.
It could be the Barley or oatmeal for all I know.
I would love to put him on Raw but I am afraid the price would be even higher than Wellness which is crazy high already.

 

[Bock]

I don't use any of that chemical stuff in my house, not even dryer sheets for our clothing. Once I had kids I got ride of all kind of chemical cleaners.

I just wanted to post this in reply to the previous post
"Chicken meal is simply chicken that has been baked to remove bacteria and other toxins. Chicken is simply pure chicken"
http://searchwarp.com/swa5545.htm

I think I will try to keep his ears really clean and see what happens over the next couple of months. I did try switching him to a grain free food a while ago but he did not do well on it at all.
It could be the Barley or oatmeal for all I know.
I would love to put him on Raw but I am afraid the price would be even higher than Wellness which is crazy high already.

It'd be weird for a food he's been on for a long time (how long?) to all of a sudden start causing him problems.

 

[Heidi36oh]

My Spice had Ear Infections on a regular basis, the only thing that helped was cleaning her ears every day, dry them after every swim or bath!

Food change never helped her, but it's worse a try!

 

[Bock]

My sister in laws golden had very bad ear infections for about a year, pretty constant. She switched his for to a lamb and rice and he hasn't had an infection since. That was 4 years ago. I guess it could be anything. Different dogs have different allergy's. Chicken was just one of the things that came to mind

Wasn't trying to discredit chicken as a possible cause of some dogs' allergies, just wanted to clarify that there is not something special in chicken meal that would make it different than chicken. Chicken meal, in itself, would not be an allergen...it would be the chicken.

 

[MyCodyBoy]

It'd be weird for a food he's been on for a long time (how long?) to all of a sudden start causing him problems.

Since he was about 6 months. He is now 13 months old.
He was on a vet food(with corn) up until then and he was horribly itchy from that food, no ear infections though.

Do you think it would have anything to do with being on the Adult food? we switched him to the adult at about 11 months.

 

[Maggies mom]

Cruiser has seasonal allergies and has been battling ear infections since March. Put his on allergy meds called atopica and his ear infection have gone away. Still has some gunk in the ears but not anything like before.. the meds are expensive but it is working!

 

[Bock]

Since he was about 6 months. He is now 13 months old.
He was on a vet food(with corn) up until then and he was horribly itchy from that food, no ear infections though.

Do you think it would have anything to do with being on the Adult food? we switched him to the adult at about 11 months.

It COULD, but I would really suspect seasonal allergies in your case. You could try benadryl for a few days and see if that helps any.

 

[bwoz]

We went through this too. Sometimes a food can have ALL great ingredients, but the grain CONTENT could be too much. For example, I always fed Canidae with great results. Once they changed their formula, there was the itchy scratchy and ear infections constantly. After alot of trial and error, I figured out if the food is too grain heavy we have problems no matter how good the quality of the grains may be. It was just too much. I feel for you, it's craziness trying to find the right food sometimes! Good luck in finding what works for your pup soon.

 

[Duke's Momma]

Never heard of chicken meal being a problem. Chicken meal = chicken.

Since it's only been happening since August I would suggest seasonal allergies causing problems, or perhaps some other kind of allergy. Dogs can sometimes have problems with detergents, Febreze, carpet powders, etc.

That was my first thought as well. Or, it could be that maybe it's damper where you are right now that before? I'm not sure it's food at all.

 

[jlthorsen]

We went through this too. Sometimes a food can have ALL great ingredients, but the grain CONTENT could be too much. For example, I always fed Canidae with great results. Once they changed their formula, there was the itchy scratchy and ear infections constantly. After alot of trial and error, I figured out if the food is too grain heavy we have problems no matter how good the quality of the grains may be. It was just too much. I feel for you, it's craziness trying to find the right food sometimes! Good luck in finding what works for your pup soon.

We had a similar problem with Sienna on Canidae... her ear infections were constant! After talking with a woman at the local pet store, she suggested that the grain could be the culprit. We are not trying out the Canidae grain free to see if that helps with the ear infections. If not, we'll try something else. We clean Sienna's ears at least once a week, usually every other day.

 

[missmarstar]

I would venture to say it is either something in the new treats you are giving him, or its a seasonal type allergy. Eliminate the treats and see if that helps! Very unlikely that a food he's been on since 6 months old is all of a sudden causing him allergy symptoms. Good luck!