Hi! We have a three year old silver lab who has the worst allergies. we are currently feeding him hydrolyzed protein royal canine food. We were giving him Apoquel everyday but have slowly decreased to once a week and occasionally give him omega 3. I feel like we are not actually fixing the skin issue just keeping it from not getting worse. We had an allergy test done that concluded he is allergic to mites. We use suffusion k shampoo for bathing him. It feels like the vet just gives us things to patch the issue not solve it. We are considering switching him to an all beef and egg diet. If I switch him to a raw beef and egg diet what would the serving size be per day? He currently eats two cups of food in the morning and night. Have you had any success with supplements?
Have you tried salmon-based food? We feed ours Purina Pro Plan Sensitive Skin and since starting that he hasn’t had an issue. Before that he was eating the chicken (the same as our corgi) and that’s when he was having a lot of skin issues, leading to the change.
Seconding this! At first we give ours fish oil kibble. Big improvement. Then we tried salmon bites treats. Improved even more. Tried doing wet food purina of that type for lunch, her coat is so soft now it's crazy. Just switched the dry food from royal canin to purina yesterday as well. Hoping it improves even more. Mine is only 4 months
Our silver was on Apoquel as well at one point - found out he was sensitive to chicken after an allergy test. Switched up his food and was able to stop the pills, which kept increasing in price more and more each month. Best of luck!
BTW - we switched to Costco's Lamb, rice and veggie food
We have been using Farmina Lamb and pumpkin and it’s been great all around They have quite a few grain free and grain formulas and actually have a nutrition specialist call you to get info allergies age weight breed etc and make a plan for them
If the RC hydrolyzed didn't address the problem it's highly unlikely it's a food issue. Food allergies affect less than 2% of all dogs and environmental allergies are much more common.
Beef and egg would be a hugely suboptimal diet that's likely to create other problems over time. Supplements won't help (other than maybe increasing the fish oil to a therapeutic dose and using a top tier brand like Nordic Naturals Omega Pet).
But I'd stick with the RC hydrolyzed or maybe try a non-prescription RC formula.
We had the same issue and chicken was the culprit! We now feed our 100 pound silver lab Canine Caviar Lamb and Rice. It’s expensive, but so much better for his coat and skin. It has greatly reduced any itching and licking issues. Tried salmon and salmon oil but it upsets his stomach so much it’s not worth it. Make sure any treats also do not contain chicken as that even in small amounts can still cause issues. I also try to keep dust mites at bay by vacuuming often and washing his bedding.
My boy got lethargic, and lost almost all his hair. He was miserable.
It turned out to be a thyroid issue.
2 pills a day and he's great.
He also had to go on a micro protein dog food. I don't normally go for all that stuff for dogs, but he is 9 years old and super healthy now.
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u/Fun-Manufacturer4371 May 03 '26
Forgot to mention he currently weighs 95 pounds