CSI: Canine

Let me start by saying that we used to feed our dogs a raw diet.  If you aren't familiar with what this, it means that instead of putting a scoop of processed grain and meat by-products (dry dog food) into our dog bowls we give them a ratio of raw bone, meat and fat (chicken necks) and organ meat (chicken gizzards and beef liver).  We supplement that with "Force", a dehydrated mix of human grade ingredients, tripe, and a doggie multivitamin.  Sounds expensive right?  Well it sorta is, but it's not as much as you think.  It more closely mimics the natural diet of a canine and the dogs absolutely love it.  They have wonderful coats and their poop turns to dust in a few days (TMI?).  So many healthy benefits to feeding the dogs this way.

Despite all these benefits we actually stopped our raw feeding last summer and started feeding the dogs dry food...a change they were reluctant to make but the time involved in the raw feeding combined with the cost was just too much for us at the time. Fast Forward 9 months to week before last.

We decided to go back to raw feeding.  Remly, our newest dog, had never eaten raw before since we got him after we made the switch.

Thats my sweet boy right after we got him.  Anyway, so we started feeding raw again.  Remly was quite a food-monger before the switch but now he will stalk me anytime i go to the kitchen...He LOVES the new diet.  Everything went fine for a week, the dogs ate well and they looked great.

And then last Sunday, 30 minutes after his evening meal, he broke out in hives.  He totally freaked me out (I'm really overprotective of him after losing Sybil last year).  I started giving him Benadryl, called Heather, and called my mom.  After his third dose of Benadryl he started to look a little better.

I went outside to check the backyard to see if there was anything out there he got in that could have caused an allergic reaction...I found nothing.  I came to the conclusion that it had to have been something in the food.  So I decided to try and narrow it down.  The next morning I gave him only chicken necks and chicken gizzards, no beef and no force.  After breakfast I put him in the backyard as usual to take care of his personal business.  Fifteen minutes later I checked on him, he seemed to be doing fine, so we took off together for the disc golf course.  No sooner did we arrive than I noticed him covered in hives again...Race back home, administer Benadryl, allergy found - he's allergic to the chicken!  Called heather, called mom, relieved to have figured it out but a little stumped as to how I was going to continue his raw food diet without chicken.

That evening he was all cleared up so I put him in the backyard to play for a bit while.  When I let him back in an hour later...you guessed it...covered in hives again, and he hadn't even eaten yet. WTF!  Ok so everything rewound in my head, feeding, activities, ect.  If it wasn't the food, what was it?  So, determined to solve this case I head out to the backyard.  Search everywhere. Find nothing.  Disgruntled and defeated I started to leave the backyard and head back inside...and I see the only thing that has changed in our backyard in the past few days.  Two chairs I put back there a couple days before.  Could he be allergic to the chairs? After a few more testing attempts with the chairs removed, having been fed chicken, the case had been solved.

Remly was allergic to the damn chairs!

Now the only other thing you need to keep in mind to get the full picture:  I was hobbling around while doing all this investigation because of the SI mess.  I'm feeling much better, Remly is doing well, and he is stalking me for more raw food as I'm typing this final sentence.