dogs, skin problems and chicken

[didds]

Caveat : I am not a vet!

We have a rescue dog - black labrador bitch.
she is lovely.

but... she has health issues.

She has a huge gluten intolerance - empirical evidence etc.

She has a huge skin condition... bare skin, that she worries, ears, chin/neck area under the jaw, paws, "elbows and knees". When not glutened she is very sparkey and happy and (labrador!) loves her food (we have to make sure there's no bloody cereal/gluten etc in it!).

We get special food from the per shop for her - it comes in a 500g plastic tub and is frozen, and its typically "meant" and tripe ie beef, chicken, turkey, duck whatever. its not the cheapest of food without being ridiculously excessive.

Looking to cheapen her food intake we had thought about cheap chicken to supplement the "and tripe" stuff [ I also have access at times to unwanted cockerels etc which woud be sueful here too). But.,.. a friend told us that dogs with skin conditions should;t neat chicken. fair does. But... I can;t find any evidence to back our friend's claim up. I'm not calling them out., I'm not dissing their advice... I would rather just see some evidence.

i've tried googling - but all I find is multiple hits about how dogs can be allergic to chicken. or beef. Or fowl. or lamb. Or just about anything. Which if course is no help whatsoever.

So ...

1) is chicken bad for dogs with skin issues (forget allergies - see 3) )?
2) given the pet shop (independent, sensible people, been in this town "for ever") seem OK with suggesting chicken and tripe, is there really an issue with just plain chicken?
3) given she eats chicken in the chicken and tripe stuff and shows no ill effects presumably the allergy thing is't likely anyway.

[bionichamster]

can't really answer your questions, I suspect this is an issue just as complicated as human food intolerances.

Just for info

Sister in law's older dog had loads of food intolerances and had to be fed on chicken and rice and some special hypo-allgenic dog foods. Chicken and rice seems to be a favorite for dogs with digestive/intolerance issues.

Our own dog is fine eating chicken, he usually gets thighs, BUT we are fairly convinced that the skin gives him the squits so we take it off after cooking. Whenever we let him have some he seems to get the runs.

bh

[swill453]

There was the bloke on TMF who swore by the BARF diet - Bones And Raw Food. Mainly raw chicken wings from the butcher, fed bones and all.

I thought the idea had merit but didn't try it, my retriever was perfectly fine with the cheapest dry "working dog" food.

Scott.