To medicate or not to medicate, that is the question.
I have a one-year old Cockapoo and for the first 6 months I feel like we were in and out of the vet every other day. We noticed he was starting to lose patches of hair, had constant diarrhea and would throw up all the time. We felt so bad for our little man. Some vets said he had alopecia, some said allergies to a million different things and another vet wanted to put a skirt around him because they thought he was picking at his hair from anxiety. Hans would never go for wearing a skirt. He wasn’t sleeping and would lick his paws all night.
Should we medicate our dog?
After countless vets and visits which had our pup filled with more anxiety then ever, we found a vet in our area who we loved. First he went on Apoquel (allergy medicine), which helped his hair loss but not his tummy issues. We kept him on Apoquel for about 6 months, but it is very expensive and we didn’t find it stopped his licking or digestive issues. Our vet suggested to take him off the medication and trying to change up his food. We put him on Hills science diet sensitive stomach and skin dry food and Hills prescription diet digestive care chicken and vegetable stew. Hans is only 17 pounds, so his servings are one cup dry two tablespoons wet.
Since changing his food and being strict with his diet, he has shown an incredible improvement on his allergies and digestive issues. He sleeps through the night and does not lose his hair. He finally has normal bowl movements and hasn’t thrown up in months.
This food was hard to find and I didn’t want to keep purchasing it from the vet because it was costing a lot of money. Luckily, I went on chewy.com and they carry the same food and it gets delivered right to our door.
Disclaimer: We aren’t against medication, and Apoquel helps so many dogs from all different breads. Our vet said it is one of the top brands for allergies and helps his own dogs dramatically. I am just thankful Hans doesn’t have to rely on medication his whole life.
Cost saving tip – sometimes we skip the wet food because it can get pricey depending on how fast he goes through it. I found this bone broth at petsmart for $5 and add it to his Hills dry food. He is obsessed with the broth and would eat anything thats coated in it. This allows us to save some money by giving him more dry food.
The bag of Hills dry food costs around $14 – $17 per bag at Petsmart. Keep in mind, Petsmart has the 4lb bag. If you want to buy in bulk you can order off Chewy for the 15lb bag, but it is $37.99. The cans of wet food come in a container of 16 cans and can cost around $40, which in retrospect is only $2.50 per can.
Click here for the bulk bag from chewy.
Click here for the 5lb bag from Petsmart.
Click here for the wet food from Chewy.
Click here for the bone broth from Petsmart
If your puppy is having similar problems, definitely ask your vet about changing his food to Hills. They have food for bigger breads as well as smaller breads. Also, ask your vet about Apoquel.
