Best Dog Foods for Itchy Skin

If you notice you can see your dog sometimes scratch themselves. However, if this condition happens excessively, it may be a very itchy skin. It’s time to take your pet to your vet for a diagnosis.

If needed, you may have to switch your dog to different dog foods. In this article, we will talk about the best dog foods for itchy skin. First, let’s learn about some common skin conditions.

Common Skin Problems

Different breeds of dog can suffer from certain skin conditions such as dandruff, allergies, and scabies. These conditions may be caused by ticks, fleas, or other insects.

Skin conditions in dogs are mostly the result of environmental factors, including low humidity and environmental allergens such as pollen and dust. Besides affecting your dog’s skin, these conditions can make your dog’s fur dry. Your furry friend can get dandruff and develop a habit of scratching excessively.

In addition, there are also some different common skin conditions in dogs. They can lead to itchy skin such as ringworm, bacterial dermatitis, and seborrhea.

In some situations, a change in your dog’s diet can improve his condition. In fact, your dog can get allergies because of a certain ingredient in his food. If you have any question about this, it’s best to take him to a vet for a diagnosis.

If your dog is suffering from dry, itchy skin, you should bathe him with a moisturizing shampoo. Sometimes, you may need something a little more significant. Your vet will give you recommendations for injections, medications, and changes to his diet depending on his condition.

Causes of Allergies in Dogs

Actually, allergies in dogs are his immune response to a particular substance. Once you give him a particular substance as dangerous, his immune system will act to fight it. Your dog can get allergies from inhaling or ingest allergens.

Or even, he may get allergies because of his skin contacts with allergens. As a result, you can see a wide range of problems related to his skin, his respiratory system, as well as his digestive tract.

The fact is that different allergens can lead to different responses. However, there are some common symptoms of allergies. They include increase scratching because of itchy skin, inflamed skin, areas of redness, sneezing or wheezing, areas of scabbed skin, vomiting or diarrhea, inflammation and itching of the area, chewing the paws, and excessive licking of the skin.

Besides these above symptoms, dogs with allergies may suffer from secondary bacterial or yeast-related skin infections. They can lead to skin-related symptoms like hair loss.

Supplements for Dogs with Itchy Skin

Switch to a Species Appropriate Raw Diet

As a dog owner, you can try transiting your dog to a raw food diet. Then, you can see a huge difference in your dog skin and coat health. Feeding your dog with a diet of fresh food, it can promote his coat health, decrease allergy symptoms, and boost the immune system.

Omega 3 Fatty Acids for Dogs

Sometimes, you will get a recommendation to add flaxseed to your dog’s diet because this is a great source of Omega 3 fatty acids. Today, it’s an important task to add a quality source of Omega 3 fatty acids to a dog’s diet. There are many benefits your dog can get from this as below:

• Develop your dog brain as well as his cognitive health.
• Support his skin and coat health.
• Support your dog’s heart health.
• Reduce inflammation in dogs to support their joint health.

In addition, adding Omega 3 fatty acids to your dog’s diet can help to protect against autoimmune diseases as well as cancer. There is a wide range of food and supplements you should consider in your dog’s diet such as raw mackerel, raw sardines, Bonnie & Clyde fish oil, Mr. Ros Phytoplankton, and Carp burgers.

Digestive Enzymes for Dogs

If your dog’s immune system isn’t healthy, it can’t do the job of keeping him healthy. That’s why Rodrigo’s allergy systems can return and become worse than the last.

There are some supplements you should add to your dog’s diet such as fermented vegetables and seeds, raw goat’s milk and kefir, Full bucket daily canine powder, and fermented fish stock.

Types of Dog Foods for Itchy Skin

In general, there are four main types of dog foods for dogs with skin allergies. They include Hydrolysed diets, Novel protein diets, skin care diets, and fish-based diets.

Hydrolyzed Diets

This diet is the gold standard for an elimination diet trial. With this diet trial, pet owners can determine if their pets have a true food allergy. In some cases, you may have to give your dog a hydrolyzed diet for the long term if he is overly sensitive. These diets can give your dog relief.

Protein is found in Hydrolysed diets to break down into the component amino acids. These diets are normally recommended by your veterinarian.

Top Hydrolysed Diets for Allergies

1. Royal Canin Anallergenic: this formula uses a hydrolyzed feather protein source. It’s a good choice for diagnosing and managing food allergies.
2. Royal Canin Hypoallergenic: this diet is great for large breed dogs. It’s perfect for diagnosing and managing food allergies like the Royal Canin Anallergenic.
3. Hill’s Prescription Diet: this diet is great for elimination trials. The diet is made with essential fatty acids as well as clinically proven antioxidants.
4. Royal Canin Sensitivity Control: this diet is a good combination of a hydrolyzed protein and a novel protein. Therefore, it’s a great option for sensitive skin or stomach.

Skin Care Diets

These diets are great for dogs to get extra skin support. In general, you can consider them as everyday diets. They are added with skin care nutrients. These diets are good solutions for dogs with skin conditions such as seasonal allergies, dry skin, and allergies of unknown cause.

Top Skin Care Diets for Itchy Dogs

1. Royal Canin Dermacomfort Range: this diet can be fed to mini, medium, and maxi dogs. This option can help to support your dog’s skin. It’s made with an exclusive nutrient complex. Your dog can get omega 3 and 6 fatty acids from it.
2. Hills Science Diet Sensitive Skin and Stomach: this formula comes with beneficial antioxidants and omega fatty acids. So, it’s a good choice to support the skin. It’s easy to digest. So, you can choose this diet for dogs with sensitive digestion.
3. Advance Sensitive Skin: this food is made especially for Aussie pets. It comes with fish as the main source of protein. Also, it contains vitamins and antioxidants. They help to support your dog’s skin.
4. Eukanuba Sensitive Skin and Stomach: this diet is built up with fish. So, it provides your dog with omega fatty acids. In addition, it provides him with potato instead of wheat or grains.

Novel Protein Diets

Similarly to the Hydrolysed Diets mentioned previously, you can consider feeding your dog a novel protein diet. This is a new source of protein for your pet.

According to the theory, your dog won’t be allergic to it if he hasn’t encountered this diet before. This diet is made of protein sourced from venison, bison, fish, rabbit, and kangaroo.

Some pet owners try a novel protein source in place of a hydrolyzed diet for an elimination trial. This diet may be cheaper than a hydrolyzed diet. However, this diet isn’t the gold standard for elimination trials.

When looking for a novel protein diet, you need to check that the recipe is made of what type of protein. In fact, some dog foods may be made of chicken or poultry byproducts, while they are labeled as a novel protein.

Top Novel Protein Diets for Dogs

1. Holistic Select Rabbit and Lamb Dry Food: the main sources of protein include rabbit and lamb. Therefore, this is a good choice for dogs with allergies to some proteins as beef, grain, and chicken. Also, this diet is free of grain. Instead, it’s packed with lentils, chickpeas, and peas.
2. Ziwi Peak Wet Dog Food Venison: if you want to give your dog a diet that is perfect for dogs of all life stages and sizes, consider this diet. Its main source of protein is venison. It can support your pet’s joint because of no wheat, grain, and soy in the ingredients. It offers your pet the carbohydrate from chickpeas.
3. K9 Natural Lamb Feast: this diet is great dry food with cage-free eggs as well as New Zealand Green Lipped Mussel in ingredients. It doesn’t contain rice, wheat, gluten, soy, and artificial additives.
4. Savour life Kangaroo: this dog food is packed with lean and nutritious kangaroo meat listed as the only source of protein. It’s grain-free.

Fish-Based Diets

This diet offers a double-whammy benefit. It can support your dog’s skin due to nutrients from the natural fish oil.

That’s why it’s a perfect option for not only dogs with allergies but also ones with general dry skin or unknown allergies. In addition, this diet prevents you from worrying about a grain allergy because it’s grain-free.

Many dog owners have positive reviews of a fish-based diet after they switch their dog to this diet. Actually, this diet is the first recommendations for dogs with itchy skin. This diet is considered as a skin care diet because of high levels of natural fish oil. It means that the diet can help you to handle any type of skin allergy.

Top Fish-Based Diets for Dogs

1. Billy and Margot Salmon and Superfood Blend: this diet is one of the few diets built with either raw or fresh fish on the market today.
2. Canidae Grain Free Pure Sea: this diet is grain-free. The only source of protein is fish. This formula receives very good reviews from dog owners with itchy dogs.
3. Savour life Salmon Grain-Free: the only source of protein is salmon. Like the previous mentioning, it contains no grain in ingredients.
4. Ivory Coat Grain-free Ocean Fish: this is good dry dog food for dogs with skin issues. It’s free of grain. Sure, your pet will love it because of its high palatability.

A Home-Cooked Diet

It seems to be a good idea to prepare your dog’s food at home. Sure, your dog will get many benefits from this. Indeed, you can know exactly you aren’t feeding your furry friend with additives or any other harmful sources of protein.

However, sometimes you still need to get the help of a veterinary nutritionist. This diet is not great for growing animals as well as pregnant females. Once you want to give your dog home cook food, remember to discuss with your vet about some balanced recipes.

Conclusion

Though switching your dog’s food may not be the cure to itchy skin problems, this surely makes a difference. So, don’t forget to switch him to a different dog food if he suffers from itchy skin.

However, you still need a visit to your veterinarian to know if your dog’s symptoms are sourced from an underlying condition. Then, you can give him the right treatment.