Ollie Made a Huge Difference in My Dog’s Allergies. I Would Never Go Back to Anything Else.

Poppy is a 5-year-old red and white basset hound living in Brooklyn, NY. She came from a small town–having been born and lived her first two years in Mount Olive, a rural Illinois. I got her as a puppy when I was a senior in college, and my dad helped raise her while I was finishing up school.

Poppy had always been a Purina girl. When I adopted her, she was sent home with Purina puppy chow, so that’s just what I used. But eventually she developed some sporadic stomach issues, where she wouldn’t eat for a day or two, and then throw up bile due to an empty stomach. Then she would return to normal, and we wouldn’t give it another thought, besides mentioning it to the vet in passing.

When her “hunger strikes” and recurring vomiting became more frequent, I switched her to Purina Pro Plan Sensitive Systems, which helped. However, that food introduced a new problem: allergies and skin issues. When I graduated college, I decided to move to New York, which made these problems worse. I believe the increased pollution in the urban environment made her allergies more severe and frequent. She ended up developing a serious yeast infection, a few ear infections, and overall red, itchy skin. Within a few months of living in New York, she had to be put on allergy medication, and I started using medicated wipes and shampoo to help manage her symptoms.

On top of those challenges, mealtime has always been second priority to Poppy. I was hopeful that I could help her skin issues through her diet, but she never really ate much at all, or showed any excitement around food. She was always a skinny puppy, because she’d get distracted from eating. And even if she did eat, it’s been hard to measure proportions of what I was feeding her to know if I was even making a real difference.

I read that Ollie was particularly good at helping reduce itchy skin in dogs, so I decided to try it. Since she has always eaten dry dog food, I was excited to learn Ollie offered both dry options (the baked recipes) and fresh ones. As someone who lives in an apartment, dry dog food can be easier to store. Additionally, when my friends watch Poppy, it’s easier to send the bag of dry food rather than the fresh package. Apartment fridge space is sacred! I got Ollie’s Baked Chicken with Carrot recipe, and true to her unbothered-food-self, Poppy gobbled it right up.

After tiptoeing into the dry food, I finally gave the fresh food a try, starting with the Fresh Beef with Sweet Potatoes recipe. She put her paws up on the counter the first time to inspect what I took out of the fridge, and was licking her lips furiously.

I knew she would like her new food, but I still expected her to eat slowly, get distracted, and go back and forth between her bowl and other activities. I was totally wrong. Poppy was immediately obsessed in a way I’ve only ever seen her when I’m cooking chicken. With Ollie, she gobbled up the food faster than I’d ever seen her, and licked her bowl completely clean in one sitting. I have never seen her like any food so much.

Beyond her love for the food itself, the most significant proof of Ollie’s impact was the noticeable improvement in her skin. I had been visiting my mom, and my friend was feeding her Ollie fresh food but we skipped her medication while I was out. Still, even without the medication, her stomach was less red and itchy than it was before I left.

This is a huge deal for us. I was skeptical that her allergies would show much improvement. Not only because they had been a pervasive part of her life for years, but also because we were off of her normal allergy maintenance routine with all the supplements. I would have never dreamed that a single product could make such a difference.

I should point out: I tried everything. In the past few months, I traded pumpkin puree on top of her food (used to help her constipation) for salmon oil. I added Benadryl along with her Apoqel allergy medicine and researched topical active ingredients. All of these remedies helped barely keep the allergies at bay, but nothing ever seemed to fully suppress them.

Switching to Ollie has been massive for me and Poppy. Seeing her happier, healthier, and more comfortable in her own skin has been such a relief. Not only is she eagerly finishing her meals, but her skin is looking so much better. Poppy is more relieved from the intensity of her allergies for the first time in years. It’s not a full proof solution and she still has some redness, but she’s also only been eating it for about two weeks, and I am eager to see how she will feel in another few weeks from now when combined with her medicine for a few weeks. I cannot recommend Ollie enough to people whose dogs have skin allergies, or react poorly to their new, urban environments. I just can’t imagine Poppy going back to eating anything else.