Do dog allergies cause ear infections?

When Vance was about a year old, he started getting really bad dog ear infections. Even though I cleaned his ears once a week just like the vet told me to, he still seemed to get an infection once a quarter or so. It was awful (and expensive!). I worried that he was in pain or that his hearing would be damaged, and I *hated* putting the medicine into his ears as he’d whimper in that heart-wrenching way where you know they’re in pain but they’re trying to be stoic.

And besides, the medicine didn’t seem to work very well at all as the dog ear infections were lasting longer each time.

So I did a bunch of research online and took what I found to our vet. I asked her if it was possible that dog food allergies were causing the ear infections. She said Nope–that dog allergies are *not* related to ear infections and moreover the dog food couldn’t cause allergies at all.

I’m a pretty holistically-minded gal–a bit of a skeptic about some natural remedies and medicines, but on balance I believe that our bodies are a great big complicated machine in which NOTHING doesn’t affect everything else, at least to some minor degree, so to me it was a no brainer: of course the dog food allergies could exacerbate any sensitivities he might have and of course that could make his ear infections worse (or at least keep his body from being able to heal them properly).

Fortunately, I found some new research on vets and how often they discount diet in diagnosing problems, and so I took in what I’d uncovered (about the dog food-dog allergy-ear infection connection) and let my vet look it over. And then we talked diet and she conceeded that the science in the articles I’d found seemed reasonable and that it did make sense to try a new food for Vance.

And I spent the next two years researching and trying new healthy dog food. First, he went from Iams to Nutro Max and he did pretty well on the Nutro dog food. But then there was the dog food recall and while the specific food he ate wasn’t on the list, I decided it was time to switch brands again. First stop was Flint River dog food which he didn’t like, plus he still had his dog allergies including itchy paws immediately after eating and ear infections, and, let’s face it, that stuff is expensive! (I don’t mind paying extra for top quality dog food that keeps my dog healthy, but it doesn’t make sense to me to pay more for dog food that he was allergic to.)

And that’s when I found Canidae dog food. The thing about Canidae food is that, aside from being impossible to pronounce ;-), it’s almost perfect. It’s a great price (by far the cheapest of the “premium” dog foods) and costs us about $5/week.

It comes in several formulas but not several *hundred* formulas like so many other foods these days so it’s easy to pick one type and stick with it (Vance loves the lamb, but they’re all right around the same price). Vance all but refuses to eat the chicken (he eats it, but only after leaving it in his bowl all day waiting for me to dress it up for him), though, so try out the small bags before you commit yourself to a 40 pounder. It typically tops nutrition lists of dog foods right alongside Flint River, and Blue Buffalo, but it’s a fraction of the cost.

Vance’s coat has never been shinier, he’s got the energy of a two-year-old (he’s almost six), his teeth are healthy, and he gobbles the stuff down.

In addition to the tricky pronunciation, the other drawback of feeding Candiae is that it can be hard to find. I get it online because when I was single I *hated* hauling big bags of dog food out of the store, so even though I have a big strong hubby (hi hon ;-)) to carry them for me now, it’s become second nature to just order online every two months. The closest place that sells it locally is almost 40 minutes away, so it’s nice to be able to just click and check out instead of fighting traffic, standing on line, and carrying the heavy bags to the car. (Now if only we’d get a grocery delivery service around here!)

And the ear infections and dog allergies? Gone. Completely ever since we started feeding Vance Canidae dog food. So, it seems that it was definitely a case of dog allergies either caused or exacerbated by dog food leading to the infections.

What’s been your experience with dog allergies? Have they affected your life with your dog at all?