Has anyone else Had this happen?

[JennyJames]

Recently, since my dog is very old now (hes 17) my dad decided to slowly put him onto a special food that was more "healty" for him. After introducing it slowly, and having him on this food for about a week, we found that the dog may actually be allergic to it. His fur became extremely oily, as well as he began to chew the fur off the backs of his legs (in some cases causing his legs to bleed which led to scabs.) We took him off the food as soon as we saw this happen and it looks as if the fur is slowly growing back... but I dont know if this is common or not. I have heard that dogs with arthritis may do this, but this was the first time he has ever done it. I called my vet and they simply said that since it doesnt look infected at all to put polysporin on it, wrap it in gauze and spray a tiny bit of something called bitter apple on it so he doesnt chew the gauze off.... does this seem reasonible to everyone? When I touch his legs he doesnt seem to have any pain, he just moves his leg and then looks at me as if asking "what Im doing". Im really worried about my dog... Ive had him all my life and love him a lot, I would hate for him to be in any pain...

[HappyDancer]

when we took Puppers to a different vet she said he needed a special food for old dogs, it had fish oil in it or something, and he had a really bad reaction, he was so itchy and his hair fell out and he vomited, we took him off it and took him to my regular vet and she tested him and hes allergic to fish. she told us that alot of older dogs that have never had fish develope a reaction to it, she had us put him on avoderm chicken and rice for seniors with joint meds in it.

I hope your dog gets well soon, and I would take him to the vet to make sure its a food allergy or something else.

[kathydip]

After the food scares I switched both the dogs and cats to Newman's Own brand food. The dogs did fine but my cat Tyler lost the hair on his stomach and was chewing his stomach raw. Luckily I realized that the food was the only change and switched him back to Purina brand and he has been fine ever since. I guess sometimes even the best food can cause allergies. I did think it was odd because Newman's Own is organic. I didn't expect any problems. Maybe Tyler is so used to chemicals he needs them now!