Allergy Shots for the Dog?

I wish I were making this up but sadly, I’m not.

A friendly woman with whom I often chat at the gym, who I don’t know very well other than the fact that we both love dogs and I had a real convo this morning, and I left feeling really sorry for her canines.

She mentioned that one of her ‘kids’ is suffering from horrible allergies, manifesting in constant itching and scratching, to the point that her poor little paws are bleeding!   She’s taking her to the vet today to begin her treatment of allergy shots.

Allergy shots!?   For her dog!

Oh, dear… I just had to say something… so, I did.

I asked what she’s feeding her dog.  She said she eats a very top of the line lamb and rice food which she buys at the vet.

I subtly suggested she might want to try something without rice (um, pardon me but why the heck would a dog need rice?) because, even though the ‘premium food’ coming from the vet may be superior to the mega-saver bags of kibble at Costco, dogs can still be allergic to rice.

She didn’t want to hear me.

I completely recognize that you cannot change others, so I zipped my lips and just (sadly) listened to the rest of her diatribe about all the other things she was doing to try to help the dog including not letting the dog go anywhere grassy (as she felt that was a high-risk allergen area) and limiting the dog’s exposure to other dogs… just in case.

Do your own dog a favor and put him or her on a Paleo diet now… before some sort of sickness or ‘allergy’ manifests and you’ve then got to ‘fix’ rather than prevent.  

*Please note- don’t just ‘give your dog raw meat’; they do need more than that.   Check with your own vet, or refer to a great resource I learned about, Dr. Pitcairn’s New Complete Guide to Natural Health for Dogs and Cats.

 

(Incidentally, I wonder if it’s really an allergy if it’s in the context of eating something that we’re not meant to be eating in the first place?  For example, would it be fair to say I’m allergic to eating plastic?  Just sayin’…)