Hi Everyone,

I have a male yellow lab that appears to have allergies. He is prone to ear infections and licking his feet. He also scratches a lot. He is currently on a grain free diet which controls the ear infections and the scratching somewhat, but I am thinking about putting him on a homemade diet or a raw diet. Does anyone feed these diets for allergies? What kind of homemade food do you prepare? I am a bit wary as I want to make sure he is getting the right nutrition if I decide to go the homemade route.
Thanks for any help!

Try doing an elimination diet with a novel protein first to see if it really is the food.

Try this website- lots of good information: www.dogtorj.com

If you decide to feed a raw diet, Switching To Raw by Susan K. Johnson is a very helpful book.

You might want to test first to see what he is actually allergic to---and avoid that food. Many allergies are to inhaled pollens and not foods, but if it is a food allergy, it is usually a protein source. A raw diet is usually a high-protein one, so it would be very important to find out what protein sources to avoid.
You can go the novel protein route, like the previous poster said, there are several ones available through your vet. There are no commercially-available novel protein diets that I am aware of that are truly "hypoallergenic."
Be careful with the high-protien raw diet or home cooked diets, you really have to know a lot about nutrition to provide the correct balance of nutrients to keep him healthy AND allergy-free.

Robin is correct. If your dog is allergic to Dust Mites, no diet in the world will help.

I was going to say the same thing. How do you know it's the food? Can I ask if your dog has been on anti-biotics? Maybe several rounds of it? I found out the hard way after multiple rounds of antibiotics and keto, that the itchy feet come back even worse than before. Yes, grain free food helps but I have learned to give the dog probiotics to replace the good bacteria in the digestive trac. Go to health food store and buy the refrigerated kind from a reputable company. Then, the most amazing of all is unrefined, organic coconut oil. You can buy this at Natures Farmacy on-line. If your dog has been on antibiotics and has itchy feet, please try the coconut oil. It won't hurt the dog and you will be amazed.

OOps. Give the coconut oil orally - put teaspoon twice a day in food.

I'm not completely sure it's the food, like I said, when I switched him to a grain-free diet, things improved but he is still scratching and licking feet. I have changed his food multiple times from Pro Plan- chicken and rice, Wellness, Taste of the Wild- Fish formula, Eukenuba breed specific for Labs, a vet brand, and now Orijen Adult. The best results are on this food, but there is still a lot of room for improvement.

I understnad what you and your dog are going through. I do like the Orijen food. Was your dog on anti-biotics? Just trying to determine if there is a correlation? Thanks for your response.

No he has not been on anti-biotics.

Natures Farmacy has recipe for home made diets on their website. I have not tried their recipe before.

Hi. you can ask your vet to test in a blood sample: INMUNOCAP (specific IgE cuatitative), against the main proteins responsible of food allergies (milk, soy, corn, wheat,) you can include the most common mites in US (dermatophagoides Farinae and Pteronyssinus), and maybe some indoor molds and common gras pollen in your area.
Guillermo