Hills z/d - feed for up to a year initially?

[JonahAndTheSnail]

We've just inherited a GSD with food allergies. She was being fed Hills z/d kibble and cans when we got her. I was just reading one of the cans and it said to only feed for up to one year. I have a feeling she will have been fed this food for several years now. Does anyone know why they would recommend it as just being a short term diet? I will get her registered with our vets next week and ask them, but I'm just curious in the meantime.

There is a free Hills helpline. Number is on the packaging, so I'd give them a ring to discuss this.

I have this question on my list for next vet visit! My young dog (14 months) has been on it since Jan and is SO much better on it. I've tried a couple of transitions back to normal food but loose stools both times once we got to more than 25% normal food (have tried pork & fish based, I know for sure chicken is no-go)

@brawhen it's strange as this GSD had allergy testing done a few years back and chicken was listed as being an allergen. I was surprised to see the vet had recommended this food, as when you look at the ingredients in z/d, chicken liver hydrolysate is listed. Our greyhound used to have stomach issues with grains in food and he did much better on the Wolf of the Wilderness kibble, as they use potatoes as the carb and do a single protein range. I'll probably look to try slowly transitioning the GSD over to this once we run low on the Hills food.

The hydrolysed protein essentially means it is pre-digested so that the dog's system does not 'recognise' it as chicken.

Our dog is fine on both pure pork and salmon as training treats - I've used leftovers from family dinners so know exactly what was in them - but the kibble not great, so I'm also wondering if it is partly the carb used. I've been trying Burns as they also have a single protein/single carb - am going to try pork & potato next.

BTW if you stay with the hills, shop around as it is quite variable on price. You can also save a bit by getting a subscription.

Ah, that makes sense. The food panel results also showed allergy to maize which is also in Hills, I'm guessing maybe they process that in some way as well. I've never used the prescription diets with pets in the past, so it's new territory for me.

I'm not sure we'll continue with the Hills long term unless the vet advises us to. She does seem to poo a lot, so I'm thinking there may be some low level digestive issues still going on. From what I've been reading, it sounds like z/d is intended to be used to sort of briefly detox the system before reintroducing a single protein elimination diet. DH has mentioned getting her onto raw diet as that's what we feed our greyhound now and he seems well on it. The GSD is much less of a dustbin though, and I'm not sure she'll recognise raw meat as food!

Z/d is a fully hydrolysed diet so all the proteins and carbohydrates are broken down to a low molecular weight that can not cause an allergic reaction.
Food allergy panels are actually quite unreliable and most internal medicine specialists don't recommend them instead doing a diet trial.
The food can be fed long term under veterinary advice, I have had one of my own cats on a hydrolysed diet for 7 years now to control her IBD and skin allergies.