english labrador with flowers

Are All Labradors Plagued With Allergies?

I’ve had a lot of people ask me to write more about allergies in labs… so here it is!  One should not have to EXPECT allergy issues with their lab, however, there are many triggers of these skin issues in the breed.  The number one influence you can have control over is the dog’s nutrition.

Riggs- Endless Mt. Labradors

Many times by simply changing your dog’s food, you can rid yourself of the dry, itchy skin and other symptoms that are most often reactions to the many preservatives in most commercial dog foods.  We strongly recommend trying Life’s Abundance Dog Food to help fight these ailments. We have always recently heard of some labs having an allergy to potatoes, so be cautious in some potato based foods. Not always bad, just for some dogs!

Some dogs develop an intolerance to all kibbles.  And why should we be surprised at this?? After all didn’t they have kibble trees to eat from in the wild??? Anyways, enough sarcasm… In this case, or if you want to skip right to this step, I recommend going to a raw diet for your dog.  You can get already made patties complete with bone meal, herbs, the whole nine yards, shipped right to your door.  Just thaw and serve!  If you’re dog does do well on kibble but you still want them to experience the benefits on raw food, you can supplement their diet with the raw patties, cutting down on how much kibble you feed.

Fish oils such as Salmon oil are other good additions to your dog’s diet that will help soothe the dry, itchy skin!  Just douse it right over top of their food.  They’ll love you for it and give you fishy kisses!  You can order the Wild Alaskan Salmon Oil from the BARF World website, as well.

You should also be sure to not over bathe… dogs do not need to be bathed very often, for the most part they are self cleaners.  (As I’m sure they display for you in the middle of your living room floor!)  Using a natural or tear-free baby shampoo is just fine for them.  Be watchful of some of the ingredients in commercial pet shampoos as well!  Anything having something-alcohol in it is likely to dry out your pup’s skin.

For allergies that are environmental, and not nutritional, we have formulated our own essential oil blends that help soothe and relieve itchy skin from allergies.  For more information on these formulas, click here!

Tanner- Endless Mt. Labradors

For more on skin, allergies, and the like… check out this older post–>

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