bumps on skin and weight lost

Question
Hi Jannie,

I'm very concern with my boxer.  His name is Cassius, he's 15 months old and he wights 50lbs!!!!

Since June, hes being having an allergic reaction to something.  The vet thinks he might be allergic to chicken, lamb or meat.  These breakouts happened when one night he saw his left eye swollen-brought him to the emergency room and they said it might have been a bee or something (it was June) they gave him benadryl and steroid shot. Everything was fine then maybe not even a month later he woke up (6am) with the same thing so the vet thought it might have been a spider.  The bumps showed up at both times!.  Now he just gets bumps.  We changed his food to Venison and potato as prescribed by the vet.  They took blood test - all good (no heart worms, etc).  But now he looks REALLY skinny!!!! You can see all his ribs and his hip bones! I don't know what to do!! Please let me know if there's something we can do.

Thank you!

Answer
I haven't heard of a food allergy causing swelling of eyes, just break outs.

However, if the food he is eating now has stopped the break outs and the swelling, yet he is loosing weight, feed him more, and feed him more often.

I recommend the "self-feed" method.

Keep his food bowl full at all times with fresh water at all times. Let him eat whenever he wants to.

That is the best for a Boxer because they tend to eat little bits periodically, like "grazing" and later at nighttime.

If you are self-feeding, then I recommend talking to your vet about his ribs and hip bones protruding on this food, and also get a thyroid test done. Immediately.

If he is that bad, he obviously needs more calories.

I could tell you all day long how to fatten him, however, since he might have allergies, it could harm him.

The vet needs to rule out thyroid disorder and adjust his diet to a higher calorie diet-- try another food that is higher calorie and protein. But ask your vet.