# Confused about Royal Canin Hypoallergenic



## ToysHaveMyHeart (May 9, 2007)

My friend's golden was put on this food by his vet without testing for what caused her allergic reactions. I am confused because I would assume that the hypoallergenic formula should not contain anything that the dog may have had before.....royal canin's vet formula contains chicken fat and beet pulp~which happens to be two very common ingredients. Can someone please explain to me how these ingredients can be in a hypoallergic food? ((personally I wish that he would try California Natural ))


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## briteday (Feb 10, 2007)

Depends on what the golden's previous food contained. Our dog displayed allergy symptoms on Nutro lamb and rice. So I just avoided anything with lamb and/or rice. However, I discovered that naythin with grains causes her to itch. And commercial kibbles with red meat were a disaster as well. We ended up on DVP fish and sweet potato. However, we transitioned to raw abouth one month ago and she is doing marvelous, even with beef in her diet.


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## Wimble Woof (Jan 16, 2007)

Science diet hypoallergenic ( or any other prescription food) is a crock and a legal scam that is good to make unsuspecting and/or not knowlegable owners fork out $100's of dollars per bag for thier "baby" it is made with exotic meats and some low grade ingredients. 
Seriously, Kangaroo meat??? Come on, many of the better pet food companies make a far supiror food with less exotic meats. What ever happened to feeding duck? Its a good protien for dogs with allergies, 
"somebody" is making a killing on breed specific and prescription foods. ( the vets wont say its them, but I wonder why they push it so much then)

To get the best reaction in the world from your vet, when they are trying to push one of Science Diets foods baffle them with questions on the ingredients, and then ask why you cant just go with "X" or "Y" brand and explain to them why you think the dog will be better off on that food. They dont know what to say ( most of them anyways)
I was almost pressured to put one of mine on a food for his arthritis, prescription of course, and I said. "Nope! I'll just add glucosamine and Condroitin myself thanks, and keep feeding what he is currently eating." That was the end of that conversation.


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## sweetardnas1885 (May 10, 2007)

Normally, a hypoallergetic food is hypoallergetic to dogs who have never consumed any of the proteins that particular food contains. For example, a dog that has been eating a chicken based food it's entire life, develops an allergy. Your vet thinks it may be a food allergy (often times food allergies manifest with skin isues or ear issues). The vet then tells you to switch to another food that contains absolutley no proteins that the previous foods had. The most popular ingredients in dog food today seem to be chicken, lamb, and some beef. You have to find a food with none of these. Royal Canin offers a venison and potato blend because not many dogs were fed venison. With so many dog foods coming out, vets are finding it harder and harder to find foods for dogs who have food allergies. You have so many brands that now include 4 to 5 different proteins like bison, chicken, salmon. A dog who is fed a food that contains so many "common" ingredients has to go to a food with "exotic" ingredients like Austrailian venison or Amazonian platypus (I'm joking here). My point here is that the "testing" part is placing to dog on another food to help pin point what ingredient the dog is actually allergic to.

Hope this helped.


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## Ginny01OT (Dec 3, 2006)

For the most part "hypoallergenic" foods sold by a vets office are not warranted. Most vets get very little training in the area of pet nutrition. I believe the vets get a "kick back" for any dog food they sell thru their office. If you truly believe food is the culprit or any allergies your dog may be suffering, as it was in my case, I would go to a raw diet, which is what I did--all allergies ceased. If this is not possible for you, I would try a grain-free kibble and especially one without dried beet pulp and brewer's yeast. If this fails, I would see a dog nutritionalist or allergist. Good luck and keep us informed.


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## spottydog (Mar 14, 2007)

ToysHaveMyHeart said:


> My friend's golden was put on this food by his vet without testing for what caused her allergic reactions. I am confused because I would assume that the hypoallergenic formula should not contain anything that the dog may have had before.....royal canin's vet formula contains chicken fat and beet pulp~which happens to be two very common ingredients. Can someone please explain to me how these ingredients can be in a hypoallergic food? ((personally I wish that he would try California Natural ))


I went for a seminar in Seattle sometime last year and there was this Australian vet who was talking about allergies. Its usually the protein that causes the allergies. In order to find out what your dog is allergic to, its best to put him on an exclusion diet. This diet should not include common allergenic proteins like chicken, beef or lamb. And if the allergies clear up, it can be confirmed that your dog did indeed have a food allergy. There are many other types of allergies and they can be ruled out by the exclusion diet. He even recommended this vegetarian exclusion diet from Addiction. Its called Zen Vegetarian. You might want to try it out. They have an online store!


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## Halophonic (Mar 19, 2009)

I adopted a cocker a couple of years ago and the rescue had him on Flint River Ranch fish and chips formula and he was scarfing it down and gaining weight nicely on it. I put our other dog on it and his skin allergies cleared up on it. I can't speak highly enough about Flint river! All was fine and dandy for about a year, but then the cocker started having major problems. He would vomit his food, often bringing up blood. After running hundreds and hundreds of dollars of tests and xrays, it was determined it was indeed food allergies. I tried pretty much every allergy-friendly natural food and pretty much every type of protein imaginable trying to isolate it. He simply can't tolerate regular proteins of any sort. As such, the only thing I can feed this furbaby is the Royal Canin hypoallergenic dry food. While the hypoallergenic food may not be the answer for most allergy cases, it is for some, such as my rescue cocker.


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## Kathyy (Jun 15, 2008)

The script allergy food has hydrolyzed protein. It is supposed to be broken down so far the system doesn't recognize it as an allergen. After the system has calmed down then start the novel protein diet. If the system is still irritated a novel protein could possibly become an allergen just because of the irritated bowel. 

It all starts way back before the forever home can do anything about it. A prematurely weaned puppy's system can be messed up forever according to Dr. Strombeck. 

Halophonic, not even home cooked food? Hope the stuff keeps on working for him, poor thing.


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## Xie (Feb 5, 2009)

Kathyy said:


> The script allergy food has hydrolyzed protein. It is supposed to be broken down so far the system doesn't recognize it as an allergen. After the system has calmed down then start the novel protein diet. If the system is still irritated a novel protein could possibly become an allergen just because of the irritated bowel.
> 
> It all starts way back before the forever home can do anything about it. A prematurely weaned puppy's system can be messed up forever according to Dr. Strombeck.
> 
> Halophonic, not even home cooked food? Hope the stuff keeps on working for him, poor thing.


I'm glad to see the hydrolyzed protein brought up. I think a lot of people don't realize that it's not just the ingredients in the script foods, it's what they do to the actual protein molecules.

As for the royal canin they have the hypoallergenic food with hydrolyzed proteins and they also have script LID foods (limited ingredient diet). I can't remember the combos off the top of my head but I know that the proteins are venison, duck, and rabbit. Each type is one protein to one carb (like duck and potato). As Kathyy said those come in after calming down the system with the hydrolyzed proteins. Just for an FYI that's how the Hill's Z/D works as well, though I don't think Hill's has an equivalent LID to royal canin.

Frankly, I get a little tired of some of the ignorant food bashing. Complain away about regular science diet and royal canin (I won't feed or recommend it either) but some of their script stuff is actually worth it. Oh, and I don't know of any vets getting a monetary kick back from recommending the food. The best we get is once a year they buy us lunch and go over the different script foods and what they are for. Somehow that doesn't seem a huge incentive to recommend a food. Heck, Bayer does it also but it doesn't make us use Baytril in instances where it isn't appropriate.


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## pawcurious (Mar 14, 2009)

Xie said:


> Frankly, I get a little tired of some of the ignorant food bashing. Complain away about regular science diet and royal canin (I won't feed or recommend it either) but some of their script stuff is actually worth it. Oh, and I don't know of any vets getting a monetary kick back from recommending the food. The best we get is once a year they buy us lunch and go over the different script foods and what they are for. Somehow that doesn't seem a huge incentive to recommend a food. Heck, Bayer does it also but it doesn't make us use Baytril in instances where it isn't appropriate.


You guys don't get trips to Hawaii?


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## jesirose (Mar 27, 2008)

Xie said:


> Oh, and I don't know of any vets getting a monetary kick back from recommending the food.


Perhaps not, but many vets SELL it at a markup. If your vet always recommends the one food they happen to sell, it's suspicious. They are profiting from it and while I think everyone needs to make a living, caring for people's pets should be about the pets first, money second.


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## Kathyy (Jun 15, 2008)

One of the problems with the special script foods is that some of them are meant to be used short term but that gets 'overlooked' by either the vet selling food for a profit or the pet owner who is so happy the pet is doing better.


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## cjac&mac (Feb 12, 2007)

ToysHaveMyHeart said:


> My friend's golden was put on this food by his vet without testing for what caused her allergic reactions. I am confused because I would assume that the hypoallergenic formula should not contain anything that the dog may have had before.....royal canin's vet formula contains chicken fat and beet pulp~which happens to be two very common ingredients. Can someone please explain to me how these ingredients can be in a hypoallergic food? ((personally I wish that he would try California Natural ))


The vet formula (Medical Hypoallergenic) goes on the assumption that in most traditional dog foods Chicken and rice are the most common fed ingredients, thus they elimainate them from the diet. That is why you see duck meal at the fourth or fifth ingredient and corn as the first few. It is only a hypoallergenic formula if the dog is allergic to chicken or rice, not if he is allergic to corn or duck. And as for the chicken fat... even if a dog is allergic to chicken it cannot be allergic to the chicken fat. Chicken fat lacks any antigens... therefor they cannot be allergic to something.


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## sfeldner (May 8, 2010)

jesirose said:


> Perhaps not, but many vets SELL it at a markup. If your vet always recommends the one food they happen to sell, it's suspicious. They are profiting from it and while I think everyone needs to make a living, caring for people's pets should be about the pets first, money second.


And I supposed PETCO and PetSmart make no profit on the food that they sell. Might a vet recommends the brand they have had good luck with? Wouldn't a vet be able to sell any brand they wanted - or several brands - in order to improve their "markup". If that's what you think of your vet, maybe you need a change.

My dogs (Shar-Peis), past and present, have a veterinary allergy and dermatology doctor who TEACHES at the University or Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine, one of the top schools is the country. He supplied us with IVD Limited Diets Duck and Potato and Duck and Venison PRESCRIPTION food before it was available at any retail store. It is now Royal Canin, it is still prescription and he still sells it at the same price that PetSmart does. He also has a thick book of copies of the labels off of every bag of dog food you could imagine and he show his patient's owners which foods have the limited protein/carbohydrate ingredients that an allergic dog needs to eat. There are some retail brands that have an acceptable mix but very few - and "organic" brands are the worst because of the grains they use. He encourages his patients to try some of the brands that "score" well in his book and begs for feedback so he can add their experiences to that book.

Bottom line, if you don't like a dog food or its price, then don't buy it. Don't bad mouth things the you don't understand or of which you have no knowledge.


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## HersheyPup (May 22, 2008)

One of my dogs has allergies, both food and environmental. My Vet recommended Hill's Z/D Ultra for 12 weeks, I followed her instructions and it did help. I wasn't too happy with how my dogs coat was looking on this food, though. She was dull and and had dandruff and was turning gray! She is a black dog! 

I then tried her on California Natural, which she loved, of course! But within a week she started up with her allergy symptoms. I asked my Vet if I could try a different brand of Hypoallergenic Rx food and she gave me a prescription for Royal Canin HP 19. I am very happy with how my dog is doing on this food! She loves it, she has no allergy symptoms and it has enough protein and fat in it to keep her coat in good condition. Plus, her poops are tiny, I mean tiny! I have never seen such mini sized poop, lol.


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