Animal Allergies

[CrystlMidnight]

We have a German Shepherd whom we've had for almost three years now and for most of the time she's been having tons of skin problems. We've taken her to the vet countless times and are starting to believe that they are of no use now from the purchased vetrinary food to the blood tests and skin tests.

She has had an ear infection in her left ear and hair loss around her eyes. Some swelling and hair loss has been occuring around her jaw and mouth.

She has also had an extreme problem on her stomach where the skin is very warm to the touch, red with a dark almost black color instead of a healthy peach like color and basically irritated. Her anal area is also red with hair loss as well.

We've tried different types of store bought foods from Eukanuba (sp?), One and the Scientific Diet. From the vets we've tried IAMS with Kangaroo and Oats.

Any suggestions as to what can be done? I love this dog more than anything but she's beginning to cost us quite a bit. So please I need some help.

[Shorthair Lover]

Hi, I know exaxtly what you are going through. I have two German Shorthaired Pointers, a brother and sister. I spent thousands and thousands and tried every prescription diet and ended up donating all of it to the buddy foundation because they all made my dogs so sick. I even had a homecooked diet created by CA Davis's nutrition department that did not work. What is wrong with your dog, in my opinion is a nutritional imbalance. It's a really long story so I won't write it but I can prove all that I'm going to tell you to do. It works every time. What your dog is deficient in is iron, copper and magnesium. If you are home cooking, do not use anything stainless steel to cook with. Do not feed or water out of stainless steel bowls. Use peeled, cubed small sized, microwaved russet potatoes or baked with the skins removed and only use a 100% grass fed meat. I used Tallgrassbeef roasts and microwaved them, cut into small pieces. If you want to stay with a dog food, then get Eukanuba Natural Lamb and Rice. They make countless foods to choose from but only this one will work. You must not use anything with glucosamine/condroitin or flax in it. What has happened to your dog is the same thing that has happened to countless people in the US. It is overaccumulation of the metal nickel -found in stainless steel and extreemly high in all soy fed meat, whole grains and SOY. Nickel was just named the allergin of 2008 since it's incidence has increased 40% in the last 5 years.
When you are low in iron, you accumulate nickel. Once you have too much nickel, 18% goes into you skin. It makes you itch and have sores. It is stored in the sebacous glands. It also accumulates in the thyroid, bones and can destroy the kidneys. Your dog probably drinks endless amounts of water and if you check the urine, it is dark yellow or orange. His stools are probably also orange. If you leave the stools in the sun, they will turn a forest green. That is the nickel salts his body is giving off. The dark urine is the constant breakdown of RBC's (bilirubin) that nickel has made. They are weak walled and break easily, but since the body can use nickel to make more, it just keeps on doing that until the animals are low in copper, B2, B6 and B12 which are also needed to make RBC. You will never see a low RBC count because nickel causes the body to actually make an excess of them. This is probably because nickel has no oxygen carrying capacity. After a period, the body will use the nickel in place of these nutrients also, however, other body functions that need these are deficient. The fur prematurally greys and looses it's dark coloring. Your dog is probably hyper also. Nickel causes adreheline rushes, especially when under stress, you release even more nickel.

Cook the grass fed meat, preferably venison or buffalo, both are very high in iron. Add it to your dogs food. Start with only a small amount because as you add the iron he needs back into his diet, it will cause the nickel to be removed. Since the nickel causes so many bad problems, you don't want to remove it to quickly. Very slowly increase the amount of meat you feed your dog. Try to feed only 2 bowls of dog food, one in the am and one in the pm. Also feed just the meat one or two other times a day. Use about 1/8 to 1/4th cup cut up at each feeding. Also make the potatoes. Potatoes are very high in copper. Fed lots of them, plain, no salt all by themselves. As for the magnesium, purchase a pill from any drug store. Dogs need 8.2 mg/kg of body weight. Start by calculating his totaly daily requirement. Divide it by two. Now start with half that dose added to each of his bowls of dog food, not the meat or potato meals. Magnesium also helps remove nickel and also blocks it's absorption. All dog foods are manufactured in high heat temperatures in stainless steel. I had several tested and they all contain over 100 mcg of nickel per 100 gram serving. That is very hard on your dog at the moment, as he already contains too much nickel.
One other thing you can do is purchase a trace mineral called molybdenum. It chelates nickel from the body and also increases the effectiveness of iron to create hemoglobin. I purchased mine from Water Oz. It is made in reverse osmosis water. Start your dog on 1/2 tsp/day in one of the meat only meals. Work up to 1 or 2 Tablespoons per day for about a month. That will also remove the excess nickel. Work up slowly, as again, you don't want to remove nickel too quickly. You also want the body to have time to absorb the iron so it can make new RBC's without nickel . You don't want to cause anemia by removing all the nickel when the iron has not been replaced. It may take as long as 6 months for the iron levels to be restored to normal. You may also want to purchase a B50 complex vitamin, cut it into 8ths, grind it to a powder and add 1/4 of the 8th to each of the dog food meals. All this will help. Our local pet store sells the molybdenum because it has helped so many dogs and cats.
If you don't believe me, contact a veterinarian called [moderator note: contact information has been removed]. He doesn't know about the nickel, but he is very good at determining the nutritional imbalances it causes. He has you do several blood tests with your regular vet and a hair analysis done by Doctors Data Inc in St. Charles, IL to show what nutrients are deficient. (You can also have your regular vet call Doctors Data and request the envelope to put the hair samples in. Just send it in and the lab explains all the results for your vet. Cost about 109 dollars and takes about 1 week) He will then make up a custom nutrition supplement for you and your dog will also get better. However, this will cost you around 1000 dollars.