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My berner began having diarrhea issues at around 6 months. I was feeding him Iams so I switched to a grain-free diet of Nature's Recipe. That worked for a while, but his skin started getting really dry and he began shedding terribly. So I switched again, this time to Taste of the Wild Pacific Stream. This food has been fabulous for him. I was supplementing the food with omega-3 fish oil and vitamin E, but when I ran out I just stopped giving him the supplements. Even without them, his skin and coat look great and he hasn't had diarrhea in many months. My vet told me that dogs allergies can kind of switch from one thing to another and that a protein allergy is very common in dogs. She made it a point to tell me to limit the food to one protein (in other words I don't give him salmon AND duck, I just stick to salmon). My first vet had told me that she wanted to send him in for an endoscopy at $500 plus and my second vet wanted to give him the supplements that add flora and all this other stuff. I just opted to switch the food on my own, I put about 1-2 tablespoons of pumpkin in his food and 1-2 tablespoons of yogurt in his food each day. Doing so had the same effects as if I would've spent all that money at the vet and it was so much cheaper and really easy. My best advice is to try some different things, ask a lot of questions, and don't let your vet let you think that there his way is the only way. I had spent several hundred dollars that should've never left my pocket and in the end I figured out the problem anyway. My current vet is a life-saver in the way that she will tell me cheaper options that do the same thing as the more expensive products.
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