Thanks Jason, that is VERY helpful! May I ask what you did with his diet that helped the skin issues Oreo was having?
For 6 years Oreo was on Science Diet Large Breed formula. I knew it wasn't the best, but he liked it and the food agreed with his system so we stuck with it. About 2 years ago, Oreo became anemic, went through drastic weight loss and was on some pretty strong steroid meds(prednisone, I believe) for 2 months or so. He got through everything OK and his food didn't seem to be a contributing factor in the anemia so when his skin showed problems a year later (and I forgot to mention the ear infections earlier, and licking his feet), food issues weren't the first diagnosis. Like I said, the first treatment was antibiotics. After several rounds of that, some tests to rule out worms and stuff, he had the T4 done which showed hypothyroidism
. We treated with Soloxine and a different antibiotic, but like I said, the results were less than stellar. That is when we looked at allergies.
After consulting with an allergist, I decided to try changing food and treats before going through all the lengthy tests and stuff. In Atlanta, there is a place called Red Bandanna dog food and I talked to them about the problems I was having and asked for recommendation
s. They gave me several options and I picked a Trout and Sweet Potato formula from a company called Pinnacle. Oreo loves it and it helped tremedously with his skin condition. From the difference in the ingredient's list, the best guess is he is allergic to chicken or wheat.
I will also note that on the onset of his skin condition, the vet recommended giving him 4 3V caps (from DVM) a day. It's basically vitamins with omega-3 supplement. That did help some as well and I still give him that daily.
I may have missed early posts, but you never really said what Connor's "issues" were. Is it a skin issue? Infections? Behavioral?
Jason