June Bug says Hello!

[JuneBug08]

Hi There!

I am a newbie to forums so please bare with me as I figure it all out.

I have a 5 yr old R&W Basenji girl who I got from Taji Basenji, Seattle, WA. Her name is June Bug and she has kept me very busy the last 4 years - at the time I thought I had done enough research to fully understand the Basenji breed, little did I know I was only getting started wink.

I stumbled upon this forum while doing raw feeding research and thought it would be a good resource for future needs. Sadly, June Bug has a red rash all over her legs and belly, the fur clumps up into dark crusty fur and falls out if you rub on it. She licks it raw too so I can't imagine it isn't bothering her.. the vet said food allergies and after 6 months of the ridiculously expensive hypoallergenic vet diet the rash has not improved at all.

I would appreciate help, tips, and advice from anyone who may be able to help me with her rash and raw feeding as I am still doing research and haven't made the switched quite yet.

Thanks and I look forward to help and future posts!

[Alex]

Welcome to our community!

[stash]

Yuck allergies know some what about that, Kaiser has a possible grass allergy, took a while to pin point but grass seems to be the culprit and over some seasons and wet grass, he comes out in red itchy rash and bumps on his bare skin or lightly haired areas and feet and licks and licks which makes things ten times worse, so we wash rinse him after walks and he takes a antihistamine tablet when it gets too bad. He is on raw so we add fish oil and sardines to his diet for his skin, found out veal is out for him it gave him a lumpy rash and goat tripe gave him the worst runs. A holistic vet would be good to help find out what sort of rash it is, as there are other causes food and contact allergies. Raw is a good start as you can go through the different proteins one by one and leave out any that cause problems. Sadly it is a horrible thing for them to suffer and hard to pinpoint, sure you will get some good advice on the forum and good luck, keep us updated on how you go.

Jolanda and Kaiser

[tanza]

What are you feeding her, many dogs, not just Basenjis do not do well with grains in food. Have you talked to her breeder about the allergy problems?

[DebraDownSouth]

When a dog doesn't improve within 2 mos on a food change (which food did they give you? Switching to a couple of ingredients, like fish and potato, generally offers the best and fastest response), then it is necessary to go to severely limited with ONLY a couple of ingredients, no grains if the food given wasn't limited. Keep in mind you must totally limit treats too. You can undo an allergy diet with very little treats.

The next thing is .. did they do a skin scraping to make SURE not another issue? Have they done a FULL thyroid panel. Although what you described does not sound like thyroid, it could be aggravating it.

And while many allergies are food, not always. Often it is chemicals in the grass/lawn treatment, carpet cleaner, etc.

[MrBaRooampBitty]

Some years back, during our Shiba Inu and Jindo period our Jindo developed a terrible rash and wht with her licking turned into huge hot spots, loss of hair and everything. Our vet narrowed it down to a grain alergy, suggested we go to an avocado based food, AvoDerm. Within 2 weeks she stopped itching and chewing, and 6 months later all her hair was grown out. As time went by she developed a beautiful luxurious coat, never had another problem with alergies or skin problems. We realize that B's dont have the long double coats like Shibas or Jindos, but our philosophy is if it ain't broke don't fix it, so we have just continued feeding AvoDerm to our B's as we accumulated our pack. The main problem with it is, if we feed them as reccomended they gain weight, so we really have to watch their diet.