I have a Dogue de Bordeaux of which I rescued in January. She is 4 - 5 years old and come with a bag of wagg.
First thing I done was move her to James Wellbeloved large breed over a few days. She has always had dry skin, I put it down to the fact she wasn’t kept in the best condition. she was 45kg and now weighs a healthy looking 55kg. Recently I was told by my vet the dry skin will probably be a food allergy and I should get her booked in for some tests.
Having just found this website it seems that James Wellbeloved contains some stuff which can cause allergies. So I have been looking at food for her which doesn’t contain all the red stuff and is better for her.
I have come across millies wolfheart riverside mix, shall I try her with this for a month or so and if there is no improvement take her for tests? or does anyone have any other recommendations? as a side note, I do not give her any other food such as treats etc to rule out any other source of the problem.
Hello and welcome to the forum,
The tests might work out to be expensive. Personally, I would start with a food with minimal ingredients if I was looking to identify an allergen. Then introduce things gradually to see if any cause the dryness to flare up. I recently tried fish4dogs finest wet complete which is just mackerel and potato. It is popular with my dog. The naturediet is just meat, rice and vegetables and fourthgalde is a similar food. I am sure somebody may be able to advise about a dry food with minimal ingredients but often people try grain free for allergy issues as a starting point.
The riverside mix does look good however and the fish oil in it might help with the dryness.
Hello and welcome to AADF forum. Nice to hear that you have rescued your dog and are now trying to give him a better diet to improve his health. The advice by Tinyplanets is good - keep to a recipe that is as simple as possible.
Coincidentally one of my dogs had coat and skin problems when I used to feed JWB a few years ago. I transferred her onto a grain free fish (salmon) diet and it improved greatly. She’s back on it again at the moment and coat/skin are good. Also, very few dogs are intolerant of fish.
You asked about MWH Riverside. Just checked the formula and it has a lengthy list of ingredients with the meat source/protein derived from duck and trout. It’s a quality product but at this stage I’d be more inclined to go for something with salmon in it and a simpler recipe.