Our 14 month old Winnie bites her paws so much especially after eating. We had her on TLC food from birth until about 11months old. We switched to GO lamb food thinking that it was a food allergy. We are on the 3rd bag but she is still biting her paws and we feel so bad. Talked to the vet numerous times! She has always had itchy ears too and had several rounds of meds. Any suggestions?
You have my sympathy as my last Lab had skin/ itchiness problems. The way to establish if it's a food allergy is to put your dog on an exclusion diet - so feed only one source of protein at a time for a period of a few weeks and see how he reacts. Or it could be environmental allergies. Or you could ask your vet to do allergy testing. When I had my last dog I didn't really understand what to do and I wasn't at alll methodical in excluding foods. However I discovered that feeding him tuna and rice significantly helped reduce itching. At the time I thought it was because I had excluded wheat, but now I'm not so sure as we also occasionally gave him left-over table scraps (meat and veg only, and only once or twice a week), and he did still have the odd skin flare-up. So looking back I can see it could have been a reaction to one of the meats. In old age he decided he no longer liked tuna and rice so I fed Symply kibble - salmon and potato - and that seemed to suit him too. So one possibility is to try a fish-based diet. The other thing I'd say is to get vet treatment as soon as you need it as otherwise your dog can scratch /chew so much they cause an infection ( and then of course it's antibiotics first). My boy needed the occasional course of steroids throughout his life but lived to 14 1/2 years, so don't be unduly worried if your vet recommends prednisone/ prednisolone.
