Smash's Skin problems return

Poor Smash was almost healed up from his skin troubles when the lesion returned with a vengeance. We quickly found that the Sprotsman brand of dog food we had recently bought form our local hardware store was the cause of his severe allergies.

It was supposed to be a quality dog food and came highly recommended by the store but it did not sit well with Smash even though he liked the taste. I had just bough a new bag when we made the connection. Instead of throwing it out I set it aside in case it turned out not to be the culprit. I was planning to donate it to someone whose dog could tolerate it.

While Janice was in the hospital, our son unknowingly fed Smash the wrong food. We did not know this for several days and we we puzzled why the skin irritation had returned.

We think the offending ingredient is brewers rice. Even when we went back to the normal brand of dog food his skin did not completely clear up as we had changed
flavors. The one we bought had brown rice on the main label but in the ingredient list it said brewers rice. Of course we did not notice until the skin problems failed to clear up. The normal flavor we buy for him also says brown rice on the label and the ingredient list.

This week I have been making his food from scratch and feeding him very little of his normal commercial food. I have also tried giving him a little aloe in his water to help clear out his tummy.

Hopefully he will be back to normal soon. And we have learned to be very careful when reading the food labels.