They both are really good foods. Even though, I always thought that Innova was the better one. Don’t quote me on that. How long has she been on the food? Did you cut out all of the treats and things like that? Have you treated her for the ear infections too and made sure that she has gotten rid of them before you stopped treating them? Sometimes you don’t get it all the 1st round of treatment and could stand to go a little bit longer on treating them. Just to make sure that she is completely healed of it.

It isn’t uncommon for dogs to have food allergies that cause them to have chronic ear infections. If you are going to change her food, you have to make sure that she has nothing extra in her diet that could cause her to have a problem. That means that you can only feed the food and have to cut out the treats, rawhides, etc… that aren’t made of only what is in that food.

Other than that, it could be the Innova, but it could be something else too. Have you tried looking into Wellness? They have a few different hypoallergenic foods. That food sounds really good quality too. If you and when you switch, you have to make sure to try the food for at least 3 months b4 determining it not to be working. That is a what a food trial consist of. (If I remember my time frame correctly).

I buy my dog Nutro.

Its a rice blend instead of the standard corn blend that can lend to so many hot spots on dogs,

I’ve attached their website

http://www.nutro.co.uk/

California Natural foods are rated as 4 star foods (that’s out of 6). They’re good quality food and especially recommended for dogs with sensitive stomachs or allergy problems. The Innova foods are all rated either 5 star of 6 (for the EVO).

At this point in time, I choose to make my dogs food. IT’s a lot easier than I thought it would be and I make it for a week at a time. I’d make two weeks supply but have little freezer space.
I use fresh ingredients and know what the chickens, beef or other meat source was fed as it’s human grade, whole foods organic. Some people feed raw diet. I did for four mos. but it was harder to keep up with since I had to grind the raw meaty bones for one of my dogs.
Most of my dog’s diet is meat, then oatmeal then sides to their dinner. (like small amt of mixed veggies and starch like white potatoes, yam, rice) I add cranberry, fresh, slightly steamed and then mashed- three times a week.
raw egg three times a week and Norwegian Cod liver oil.
A few times a week I give them organic cheerios with yogurt (with acidophilis)
When I give them the egg, I rinse and dry the shells then grind them and add that to their food too.
If you were going to consider raw feeding here is a good site:
http://www.rawdogranch.com/
There is no way to know what is in any of the foods, even the most “premium” of the premium. Many of those are using import stuff and the FDA has no idea what all is contaminated and they aren’t doing enough about it yet.
http://www.howl911.com/
http://www.itchmo.com/

Talk about deja vu!

We’re going through the same thing right now. Our 2 yr old golden has never eaten anything but Innova EVO, which I trust implicitly. However, he also gets chronic ear infections.

Yesterday our vet suggested it might be a food allergy (she suspects chicken, which both Innova and EVO have). We had his blood drawn and will receive comprehensive results in about 2 weeks.

If it is chicken, we’ll be switching him over to Innova EVO Red Meat formula. I want to stay with a manufacturer I trust, where I don’t have to worry about recalls, and a product which only uses human grade quality food.

If you think your shih tzu has a food allergy, you want to try eliminating the foods which might be causing the problem. If you think it could be poultry, don’t subsitute another food which contains chicken or turkey. California Natural is a great food, and has significantly fewer ingredients and so could help you narrow down the list of possible food allergies. But if it’s an ingredient in both Innova and CN (such as chicken or chicken “meal”, the change won’t help. To really be certain, you’ll have to do allergy testing.

You can go to the Natura web site ( http://www.naturapet.com ) and get a complete listing of ingredients for any of their products (Innova, Innova EVO, Innova EVO RM, or California Natural). When you click on the ingredient, it will tell you exactly what the ingredient consists of. Also, under tools & resources, in the FAQs, they have a section on pet food ingredients. This area will also explain what chicken meal is, as opposed to chicken.

Good luck to you and your pup in solving this problem. Note: If you email me, I can let you know what our allergy results are — it may help you a bit in eliminating possibiities.

Hi,
They are many dangerous dog foods today , at a look at http://www.dogfood.co.nr , take a look at this site has a great guide for dog food.
Hope this helps you with your dog

Hello,
I just saw this post online. Are you all in the UK. I just moved here with my black lab. I feed him California Natural Herring and sweet potato formula. Can I buy this food in the UK? I live in London. Any help with this would be much appreciated. Thank you!