Pet Health Community

How about giving us some product names you have experienced success with?

I have had good luck with many different brands and we are always experimenting with new brands and formulations. The only thing you want to make sure of is that they are made for pets. Pets take different dosages of vitamins, fish oils, and probiotics than people. As for specific brand names, it is difficult to for me to recommend any one brand since so much depends on species, size of your pet, and what type of formulation you are looking for, such as capsules, pills, powder, etc. Sorry I cannot be more specific, but check with your veterinarian and they can give you some good recommendations for brands based on your pet's medical history. I would hate to recommend a product and possibly make your pet sick because of an underlying medical condition that I do not know about.

I've also found the probiotics for dogs can really help their digestion and allergic symptoms. My Lab couldn't digest anything until we put her on the fish formula Alpha by Natural Balance. Like you said, I think the fish oils really help her skin and coat and the probiotics have thankfully taken her diarrhea away. And the superfoods and vitamins keep her symptom free.

How about using a shampoo for itchy skin? I have used Head and Shoulder's for itchy scalp on my son's dog. It seems to help a little bit.

MY most important recommendation is: make sure your dog is not allergic to any ingredients in the products you are using! Allergy testing works.Allergy shots 1 1/2 years. my dog is allergic to aspergillus molds. Can she take pre or probiotic that contain aspergillus as an enzyme? I am confused about the difference about being allergic to the actual mold and the enzyme containing the mold. Can anyone explain this to me. I know my dog needs to take probiotics or enzymes for good digestion since she has food, airborne, contact, etc allergies. Also, She is having reactions to food/supplements containing fish, crab, shellfish. My vet says she is not allergic to fish oil, etc, but having histamine release when she ingests them. Therefore, how do i get the necessary omega oils/supplements into her diet without the use of fish, crab or shellfish? I really need some suggestions. My dog has hair loss, red, flaky, itchy skin. If your dog has contact/ airborne allergy bath your dog. I was using a soapfree aloe/oatmeal cleanser that had lactic acid but not oils that worked great. I am trying to find a better soapfree cleanser for her since she has to be bathed at least twice per week or she gets more greasy flaky red itchy hair loss. I have not been able to find a soapfree cleanser with just aloe and oatmeal without all of the filers and oils added, so if anyone has found one please let me know.

Keep the ears clean! Zymox is good ear cleanser, some have hydrocortizone, so check labels. Her ears keep getting infected,red and irritated like her skin. I bring her to a dermatologist, and use the recommended ear treatments, but as soon as i stop the problem comes back.

I have been told that my dogs case is very difficult due to her allergies and hypothyroid disease. Ask your vet about your dogs thryroid function. My dogs problems would be less if her thyroid disease had been diagnosed and treated sooner. Now i am trying to keep her comfortable/healthy at 10 years old which is very expensive and difficult. Recently i discovered some foods I was feeding her had the aspergillus enzymes in them in several varieties which may have been causing her more problems, but I did not know about her allergy to aspergillus mold until this month when I asked for her allergy testing results again, for my records. So always try to get all of your dogs testing results from your vet, and make copies.

For dogs that can use other shampoos I have been told and have used Zymox shampoo and conditioner. the Zymox conditioner is probably the best because it truly deflakes your dog without stripping the oils and you can use it often as recommended on the label even if you do not need to bath you dog yet, you can just use the conditioner.

Another recomendation is with probiotics, make sure they are made in the USA and the ingredients are from the USA as well by a good company. Not all probiotics are made the same. a good way to make sure your dog can take them is to call the company and ask for samples, good companies will send samples before you have to make a purchase and that is wonderful. Same with foods as well. I recently purchased some products and when I received them only one stated it was made in the USA only, nothing about the ingredients being from the usa, and that was not on the website, so beware , look at the labels carefully, just because it says made in USA, does not mean ingredients are from the USA as well!
After having several dogs with allergies because of the breed I like, I think dogs with allergies do better on wet/dehydrated foods over dry foods, probobly due to wet food/dehydrated foods tend to have less to no preservatives and preservatives can cause allergies to be worse.
Investigate homeopathic chinese herbs: I have read over over again that they work as an alternative. Traumeel homeopathic medicine works great for pain and it has almost no side effects unlike non steroidal.
I do not know about vitamins need information.