After 2 years of itching and vet bills, we finally figured out it was chicken all along

My yellow lab Cooper has been scratching, licking his paws, and rubbing his face since he was about 18 months old. We spent probably $3,000+ over two years - vet visits, allergy panels, medicated shampoos, antihistamines, a short stint on Cytopoint. The allergy panel came back showing environmental allergies which made sense given the timing around spring, so we chased that for a year with limited results.

Our new vet (we moved) suggested doing a proper food elimination trial before anything else. 12 weeks of single protein novel food - duck and sweet potato, nothing else, and i mean nothing. No treats i hadn't specifically approved, no table scraps, no flavored chews. I thought we'd done this before but apparently what we'd done wasn't actually a real elimination diet, just switching proteins within the same category.

Week 8 i noticed the paw licking was happening less. Week 10 he stopped rubbing his face. By week 12 i barely recognized him - calm skin, normal energy, just... not itching constantly. We did a chicken challenge and within 4 days he was back to his old miserable self. It was chicken. The most common protein in basically every dog food we'd ever fed him, the thing in every treat, the thing in the "sensitive stomach" kibble we tried. Two years and it was chicken the whole time.

If your dog has been itchy for a long time and you haven't done a true elimination diet under vet supervision, this is your sign. Not a protein switch. An actual 12-week novel protein trial with zero exceptions.