Suggestions for food allergies?

Basenji Feeding

  • Our male dog has developed red rashes on his underside. We took him to the vet and they put him on an antibiotic, which we finished and has made little difference. I am thinking this is a food allergy.

    We are feeding him blue buffallo wilderness duck and potato.

    Does anyone have a suggestion of a good food that is grain soy free and not with rice due to arsnic?


  • There are a number of foods out there that a grain/rice free. You just need to search…... I would not think that Duck/potato would be a problem, unless it is the meat source... I know some dogs can be allergic to different meats. But generally this is the type of food that dogs are put on with allergy problems to foods.

    And if on the belly or back by the hind legs, I would look into it being a yeast infection and not food related.


  • Wouldn't antibiotics of taken care of it?


  • no- antibiotics (for a bacterial infection) would not clear up a yeast infection as it is a fungal infection. You may see some improvement but not a complete cure. You would need an antifungal for a yeast infection.


  • Thanks I will try that.


  • Reading further about yeast infections is that it is caused by carbohydrates in dog food.unfortunately every comercial dog food has starch in it.

    Looks like raw is the only diet that is really carbo free?


  • Another thought, I may not be food. It may be just an allergy to grass or something flowering he has run through!


  • @Barklessdog:

    Wouldn't antibiotics of taken care of it?

    No it would not… as noted by LewieFitz


  • @Barklessdog:

    Reading further about yeast infections is that it is caused by carbohydrates in dog food.unfortunately every comercial dog food has starch in it.

    Looks like raw is the only diet that is really carbo free?

    You might just want to try a different to first clear up the infection and work from that… Many of mine (male and female) would at times get a yeast infection... once cleared (and sorry be a while so I don't remember what we used) it never came back, but I did find that it would happen in the winter


  • Dog Lovers Gold has grain free foods.
    I would suggest to see someone with a more natural health approach than a regular doctor - so much antibiotics…


  • Ava has allergies. I switched her to a grain-free rice-free food in the AM and found that Fromm Salmon Tunalini worked best for us. She gets raw at night and an omega-3 capsule every day. I also switched to unscented detergents and soaps, natural cleaning products and organic veggies. She gets Benadryl tabs, as needed, but as little as possible. All this helped, but what worked best was winter. Ava has been symptom-free for months, then yesterday, I noticed her starting to scratch and bite her paws. Sometimes, it's hard to find what triggers the allergy, so you just have to eliminate possibilities and see what makes a difference. Good luck!


  • Well with Kaiser we went through all his raw foods one at a time to make sure it wasn't a food allergy and changed to natural products for cleaning no air fresheners/fly spray etc for contact allergy, fish oil tablets and two courses of gastriplex and traumeel tabs and the help of a great holistic vet and have narrowed it down to something at the dog park we regularly visit so we only went once a week and he would come up red spotty and itchy that same day and let him recover and take him again and every time he would turn spotty, even tried coating him with papaw ointment to give a barrier which works to lessen the degree of redness but now have stopped going completely and 4 weeks on he has had no recurrence of the red spotty skin on his underside. To keep going to the park was just continuing the cycle of him having to heal over and over and we were not progressing. So what we suspected to be a food allergy turned out to be a contact allergy to what we don't know but where we do, you may have to start being a detective and keep a close eye on internal and external factors, it's taken us 7 months to get to where we are at now so it can seem daunting dealing with allergies.

    Jolanda and Kaiser

  • First Basenji's

    @LewieFitz:

    no- antibiotics (for a bacterial infection) would not clear up a yeast infection as it is a fungal infection. You may see some improvement but not a complete cure. You would need an antifungal for a yeast infection.

    a substance that is know for qualities of anti-fungal,yeast,bacterial is coconut oil. google and read about it, most dogs love it, I use it for cooking and cleaning/treating my cast iron skillet. Also to treat my cutting board as veggie oil goes rancid.

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