Can anyone make some other suggestions?

Thank you for reading and all advice.

We had tried many other formulas from all price ranges, but for whatever reason that one worked for her. DH and I use to go to the store and just read ingredients labels trying to find something where the first several ingredients were different enough from anything she had tried (and had problems with) before.

With allergies, the body senses an "invader" (the food protein or carbohydrate or something else like artificial colors, flavors, or preservatives) and decides to destroy the "invader." The body then sends histamine and leukotrienes to do their job, which causes itching, ear infections, and such. The hydrolyzed foods (Purina HA or Science Diet Z/D) are made such that the body doesn't recognize the food as an invader(the proteins are cut up very very short), so no allergic reaction. At least, that's the way it works in theory. I've seen dogs react to those foods.

Nature's Recipe: No wheat, corn or beef. I know for certain the Venison flavor has no soy as well (I just checked the bag in my closet) though is does have chicken fat. Wide variety of flavors and formulas including sensitive skin and sensitive stomach. The large breed formula is chicken based. Preserved with rosemary oil instead of BHA which is now believed to have cancer-causing properties. Where I get mine, NR is the most cost efficient on average of anything I'd give my dog.

Blue Buffalo: Also Wheat, Corn free. I read the ingredients on the large breed chicken and brown rice flavor. It has no beef and no soy. Preserved with rosemary oil. Also has an organics line. Processes the protien and veggies/vitamin separately so that the vitamins are not broken down in high heat. You'll see two different colored kibble. Made by the same people that started SoBe.

By Nature: No corn, no wheat, no soy. Some of their wet dog food has beef, but I don't think any of the dry does. Preserved with rosemary extract. All of the flavors have tiny kibble. I thought they had a large breed formula, but I don't see it on the website. Also has an organics line. My pug used to be on this, and now we use it as treats because he loved it so much (slurped it down too fast, though... silly puggy).

I've heard good things about Avoderm, Science Diet Nature's best (not regular SD), and Nutro Ultra. I'm not as familiar with them, though so your online research would be as good as mine.

I work at Petsmart, so I know they carry all of these. I hear Petco has some good ones (Wellness and Dick Van Patten are requested a lot), but I've never had a chance to look at the bag. I'd probably trust something from Old Mother Hubbard or Newman's Own as long as the ingredients were acceptable.

As far as other allergens, testing is good. It seems that intradermal testing works better than blood testing by a little bit. But I wouldn't recommend allergy testing unless you were willing to go for immunotherapy shots too. Otherwise you just get a list of things your pet is allergic to and no way to avoid them.

Its primarily a venison, buffalo, sweet potato mixture. And its still pricey, but its less expensive that the allergy diet from the vets.

It is expensive. However, it has done wonders for my Mocha. I no longer feed that food, but it truly helped with his allergies to identify the problems.

We had to take her off of everything, no biscuits,, no treats for three months and put her on a Fish based dog food and we chose the Purina Pro Plan, Salmon and Rice. It says for sensitive stomachs. Then I could after the three months introduce one thing at a time back to her. Turns out if she has beef based products,, her ears break out. She can have a bit,, but not too much. We have kept her on the fish based food with no problems now. Hope this helps. It is certainly worth the try.

A raw natural diet would probably be the safest to eliminate odd, unknown allergens.

Worked for my dog, as far as we know it wasn't allegies, we're not sure what it was - but she improved on raw and is in perfect health.

Well I am eating my own words. I tried switching foods this last year again... and guess what? It's back to Cali natural for us. Mocha's hotspots are acting up again (the others are healthy as horses, i swear I could feed them cake and onions every day and they'd be fine). We've decided to switch back to Cali because his constant thumping and itching is driving both us and him crazy. I can't stand to watch or hear it. I think the "3 ingredients" are what helps him. He has allergies and we have to live with that fact.. forever.