Ear trouble caused by food?

[maude]

Hi,
Blazie, my 1yr old male boxer has been having issues with his ears, itching, he has been scratching them to the point of making a sore on the outside of his ear. I have had him to the vet many times , He has been on antibiotics and even on pred. which made him pee like crazy, but we are still having problems. I also have ear cleaner and swimmers ear solution to put in his ears. He has been eating Canidae all life stages since he has been on dry dog food. I thought I was feeding him good food, any suggestions for a new food. My female boxer has no problems, Just the male. I have been reading all the post I can find on this site.
Thanks

 

[gmacleod]

Canidae is a good food But that doesn't mean that he can't be allergic to something in it. It's also possible that he might have an environmental allergy - though with ear infections, food seems more often to be the culprit. Food is a lot easier to address also, so very much worth investigating first.

What you would need to do, in order to figure out if food is the problem, is to start an elimination trial. That basically means switching foods to something that is made from ingredients he has never consumed before. He's been eating Canidae - so therefore the new food must not contain chicken, turkey, lamb, rice or any of the other ingredients in that food. And preferably nothing he's ever had before at any time. For logical reasons, a simple food made from just a few ingredients is the best.

So, you switch to such a food. And don't give him anything else but that to eat (no treats, nothing). IF food allergies were his problem, then you should start to see improvement in his symptoms fairly quickly - though you may not see complete dissipation for up to 12 weeks. Assuming everything clears up, then you've proven that (a) he has a food allergy; and (b) that the allergy is to something or more than one thing in Canidae. You should then go through a testing process of reintroducing those things one at a time to find out exactly what is the problem (so that you know what items, not just what brand, to avoid in the future).

If the new food does not help his symptoms, then you have proven that it is not a food allergy at all. More likely then would be environmental allergies. And in that case, allergy testing is probably required to find out what the problematic things are.

 

[maude]

Thanks so much for all the information, He has been on the canidae since he was able to eat the dry food, I also let him have milk bones for a treat, I am cutting that out as of today and am going to search for a different food to try with him. Thanks again!
DaNita