Specific COD Skin Function Support review

Ingredients, as declared: Wheat, rice, fish meal, maize protein, fish oil, egg powder, pork fat, potato protein, animal protein hydrolysate, minerals, Antarctic krill, vitamins and trace elements (including chelated trace elements), yeast (including source of ß-1.3/1.6-glucans), cellulose powder, borage oil, psyllium husk, taurine, L-carnitine, rosemary extract. With natural antioxidants (tocopherols and vitamin C).

Wheat opens the list, rice follows and fish meal comes third, so the food is built on cereal with a concentrated fish protein behind it. Neither the fish meal nor the animal protein hydrolysate further down names its species, which means the label will not tell you which fish or which animal they were made from.

The rest of the animal side is egg powder, pork fat and Antarctic krill. Chicken and beef never appear in print, while pork, fish and egg all do, and the unnamed hydrolysate keeps a further animal source in the recipe without saying what it is. Anyone running an exclusion trial should know that spread before the first bowl goes down.

The oils are where the skin work sits. Fish oil comes high on the list and borage oil lower down, borage being a plant source of gamma-linolenic acid that makers reach for in coat formulas. Krill brings marine oil of its own, and the label puts the yeast down for beta-glucans. Taurine and L-carnitine are named as separate additions, though no inclusion figure is printed for any of them.

The fibre comes from cellulose powder and psyllium husk, while rosemary extract and a tocopherol and vitamin C pairing hold the fats steady in the bag. Crude fibre is declared at just 1.5%. Fibre is a light touch in this recipe, not a bulking device.

Protein is 26.0% as fed and fat 19.0%, with energy at 413 kcal per 100g and moisture 8.5%. Fat sitting that high is the whole point of a diet organised around oils and not an oversight. The energy density is what keeps the daily ration short: 135 grams at 10kg, 230 grams at 20kg and 650 grams at 80kg. What your own dog should get, and whether this is the diet for the skin problem being treated, sits with the vet who put your dog on it.

It is sold as a 2 kg bag and a 7 kg bag, with multipacks holding three 2 kg bags or three 4 kg bags.