Spooky's story when I realized that his illness was caused by dog  food allergies.

Dog allergies and what I learned about them.

Above you see a picture of Spooky at about 10 weeks old. We had just brought him home.  3 days later he was sick.

I want to share with you the trials and tribulations that my dog Spooky  went through.  I didn't know it at the time but my little dog (3 months old) was going to cost a whole lot of grief and suffering on his part.

 

Great information if you are allergic to your dog!

 My dog would throw up every morning.  It was pet food allergies and it was awful!

Pet food can cause dog allergies. As I said before the first vet visit was well over $1200.00 dollars in examination, x-rays and drugs.

So right away they said "it must be a food allergy because we can't find anything in the blood tests, x-rays or stool tests, but "we've got just the thing to cure your dog and make us rich!  Our newest and best, tested and retested coolest dog food on the market."  And!  It will only cost you about $150.00 per month.  Well, actually I added it up the costs and it did total that much for their "special" food.

We kept him on the anti-allergy pet food formula but added bran to his diet. He improved and started eating more pet food, gained weight and looked happier.

West Highland White Terriers with food allergy like these are all too common. We hope we can give you some hints on how to keep your West Highland White Terriers or any other pet with food allergies in tip top form.

It may surprise you that there are so many chemicals and known carcinogens in pet food. Most of our family pets are just that, family. We wouldn't feed unhealthy food to our family. So why do we buy into this multi-million dollar industry that produces extruded, rancid grease encrusted meat byproducts for our best friends?

Yes, I've spent literally thousands of dollars to keep him well during the past 10 years and it was worth it, but I want you to know that you don't have to go through all we have been through to get your dog in a happier place.

My dog Spooky was finally playing again.  He doesn't wake up in the morning retching and vomiting the moment he wakes up.  He wakes up and does his yoga stretches (down dog pose then into cobra) and eats his breakfast and then wants to play.

It's been so long since I've seen him play I forgot what he was like.  He steals my female Westie toys and is just a monster.  LOL  But he's the joy of my life and Elle's best friend.

Elle is my female Westie and she gets very upset if Spooky whines when at the Vet's.  So I guess what I'm saying is that my two dogs have a relationship that is so different than the relationship with me.

Thank goodness Elle doesn't have dog food allergies but Spooky does and it's something we live with everyday.

I have given up on manufactured dog food because of all the additives in it.  Any of which, Spooky is allergic to.  But when he eats home cooked meals, he has no allergies.  Imagine how better, we as humans, would feel if all our food came from our garden, we knew where our meat came from (without BHT and antibiotics) and knew that the grains we used were not grown with an insecticide that was poison in our dogs systems and would cause liver failure.

Dog food and digestive problems.

About two years ago my West Highland White Terrier started getting his old symptoms back and then in October (2006) he almost bled to death.

It took about three months to get it under control with blood tests done every month and Prednisone, given every day.

Then the pet food recall made headlines. Everything fit! Was the Vet Food killing him?

I immediately took him off the Vet Food for allergic dogs and took back the Bench and Fields dog food because by now even my super healthy female West Highland White Terrier was vomiting. She had been eating the vet food but was changed over to Bench and Field. Was it non vet approved dog food?

Spooky was very weak when I brought him home. He was on medication 24 hours a day. I had 5 different medications I was instructed to give him every few hours. So I got up at all hours of the night to give him his medication and to feed him. It was exhausting.

I did this for an entire month all the while taking him in to the vet for blood tests. At this time I was feeding him a mixture of chicken and rice. His appetite was enormous because he was on the Prednisone. This steroid made him very hungry and thirsty.

The second month I was told to taper the medication down so he was only getting about half of the Spooky's. As I tapered the Prednisone Spooky's appetite also tapered off.

I experimented with my own recipes to find one he liked. Since I was now cooking for two dogs, I started making all my pet food. I didn't want them to have anything out of a can, pouch or bag. I didn't care what manufacturer it was or how much they claimed their dog food was "natural" or "organic" or "pure". No way, not after almost losing him.

That's how I came up with the recipes you see on this site. 

It is now a little over three years  since the day he almost died. I still feed him my recipes and he continues to thrive.

I really believe it took a full year for him to recover from the toxins that were in commercial dog food.

Good luck to you and your best friend.

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Any information contained on this site relating to various medical, health, and fitness conditions of Westies and their treatment is for informational purposes only and is not meant to be a substitute for the advice provided by your own veterinarian. You should not use the information contained herein for diagnosing dog allergies - you should always consult your own veterinarian.

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