<\/span> Believe it or not, Avery had these ear problems, off and on, for years.<\/p>\n\n<\/p>
That was a long time ago, before people talked very much about food allergies in dogs. <\/span> The very idea that dogs could be allergic to regular dog food? <\/span> Preposterous! <\/span> But now we know that it not only happens, but it\u2019s actually not uncommon at all. <\/span> And one of the signs of food allergies is recurring ear infections.<\/p>\n\n<\/p>
Your dog\u2019s ears provide a warm, moist, dark environment \u2014 perfect for things to grow. <\/span> When your dog\u2019s immune system is healthy his body (and his ears) can regulate all of the proteins, carbohydrates, starches and other nutrients in his diet. <\/span> If your dog\u2019s immune system is out of whack because his body is having a reaction to his food, that reaction can manifest itself in an ear infection \u2014 or in hives, itchy skin or other allergic reactions.<\/p>\n\n<\/p>
Changing food often helps your dog\u2019s ears, especially if you are upgrading the food to one that\u2019s higher quality. <\/span> Animal protein is usually a better choice than vegetable proteins, such as corn, since it\u2019s easier for your dog to digest and produces less waste in his system. <\/span> Corn and wheat, found in many dog foods today, have been linked to many allergies.<\/p>\n\n<\/p>
There are lots of dog foods on the market today which offer \u201cnovel\u201d or \u201cexotic\u201d proteins. <\/span> You should be careful about feeding your dog a diet that is based completely on yak meat or making him crave emu burgers. <\/span> (That\u2019s not very far-fetched.) <\/span> If your dog does have allergies you should try to use a food with an easily-available meat protein. <\/span> Save the extremely exotic meat proteins in case the more common proteins don\u2019t work for your dog. <\/span> Whether your dog has allergies or not, you always want to have some options for him in the future. <\/span> If you feed him the most exotic foods when you don\u2019t have to, you won\u2019t have anything available that he can eat if he develops an allergy to those foods.<\/p>\n\n<\/p>
If changing your dog\u2019s food doesn\u2019t completely clear your dog\u2019s ears up you can also try adding some supplements to his diet. <\/span> Acidophilus tablets, echinacea, and Ester C can all help improve your dog\u2019s ear problems due to allergies. <\/span> Acidophilus works to improve digestion. <\/span> It has active live cultures, similar to yogurt, and can restore any imbalances in your dog\u2019s gastrointestinal tract. <\/span> Echinacea, in particular, can give a <\/span> boost to your dog\u2019s immune system.<\/p>\n\n<\/p>
I wish I\u2019d known about many of these solutions when I still had my Avery. <\/span> We battled his ear problem all his life. <\/span> I tried one topical solution after another but the ear problems always returned. <\/span> There was one terrible time when I tried a potion with blue gentian in it. <\/span> Avery jerked just as I was pouring the concoction in his ear and my poor boy had purple ears for a few weeks. <\/span> I tried to keep my friends and family from laughing at him but they laughed anyway. <\/span> Poor Avery! <\/span> It was bad enough to have ear infections. <\/span> Now he had purple ears and people were laughing at him.<\/p>\n\n<\/p>
At least now we know much more about dogs and food allergies. <\/span> We can do so much more to eliminate these ear problems by attacking the cause. <\/span> If your dog has ear problems that seem to keep coming back after every treatment, look at his diet! <\/span> He may have food allergies.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/body>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Carlotta Cooper Ear problems? Could be food allergies Years ago my sweet dog Avery started having inflamed ears when he was just a puppy. I couldn\u2019t figure out what the problem was. I cleaned his ears as often as I cleaned my other dogs\u2019 ears. I kept the hair around his long ears trimmed. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[219],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ears"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itchydogsolutions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itchydogsolutions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itchydogsolutions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itchydogsolutions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itchydogsolutions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=272"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.itchydogsolutions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itchydogsolutions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itchydogsolutions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itchydogsolutions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}