Expert: Silva Mirovics - 6/20/2009

Question
HEllO
my name is kathy and I have a bichon frise and a cavachon
the bichon is having a lot of problems chewing her feet till they bleed, dragging her self across the room and scratching her ears. the vet thinks it might be a food allergy. is there anything i can do? right now she eats brown rice, chicken breasts and natural balance allery food.
and it doesn't seem to be working.. any suggestions.. the cavachon scratches some but not like her sister

Answer
Hi Kathy
It most likely could be a food allergy and that means getting your dogs back onto an all-natural, all-raw diet, with NO commercial dog food at all.  Try something like the BARF patties - www.barfworld.com

This type of food is brilliant and is the real way that they should be eating.
I would also cut out the rice.  Even though it is brown, it is still a grain and dogs are not really designed to eat grains regularly.  

Part of the problem could also be a behavior pattern that she has now established.  Make sure that the home environment is always calm and supportive for her.  You may also want to look at getting her some Dr Bach's Rescue Remedy to put in her water bowl daily as this may help with any stress she is feeling.

So, try her on the real food and add the Rescue Remedy to her daily fresh water bowl (about 5 drops will be plenty).  It is also perfectly safe for the other dog to drink it.  Give all of this a go for about 4 weeks and see if you notice any changes.  If she is still chewing and rubbing etc... then I would look at getting the Nervous Rehabilitation Tonic from www.herbal-treatments.com
But before you spend money on this, just try the food and Rescue Remedy and see how it goes.

Take care,
Silva.
www.roxysworld.com.au