Hi all, I am sure this has been done to death so will not go into great detail except to say that my westie having turned 5 suddenly started with allergies. The vets tests seem to say housemites. We have tried everything (Atopica vomits) . At the moment he has very sore feet and is on prednisolone and antibiotics. We are now going to change his diet to something approximate to barf and my question is what sort of quantities of raw chicken should we be aiming to feed him together with rice and veg in a day. We do not live mainland UK and do not have access to many of the prepared frozen diets. Any advice would be appreciated, he has no hair loss but his paws break down and he cannot walk on them !
As a newbie many thanks.

Paul.

Have you tried Sudocrem? Its the only cream/medication I use on skin irritation now, and then a bit of aloe vera gel when it has healed. Might be worth giving doreen paige grooming a ring as they do a brilliant range of shampoos for problem skin.
Diet wise....make sure the chicken is balanced with meat:bone. Minced chicken wings or carcasses are ideal, and most butchers can provide this. Ratio wise it really does depend on the dog. You need to make sure the diet varied enough including tripe offal and other muscle meat. Id be tempted to ditch the rice and cut out the grains all together. Might be worth reading one of Dr Ian Billinghursts books to give you a general idea, although I think he is a bit excessive with supplements etc it will give you a rough idea.

Sorry if thats a bit babbled. Long day!
HTH

You're right that this needs to be treated from the inside.  Raw diet seems to make the best improvements, followed by home cooked food. 
If that doesn't suit, can you get Wafcol complete foods?  Salmon & Potato or the vegetarian variety have both helped many Westies with skin problems.

My gsd bitch is allergic to HDM.  Before treatment got underway, we switched to Raw feeding and saw a huge improvement in general condition in a matter of day.  Never owning a small dog, I wouldn't know how much to feed - just guess amounts and watch, its easy to up it or down it according to her weight, as long as its varied enought the quantities can be tweaked.