Dog Food Allergies

Dog food allergies are the third most common type of canine allergy following flea bite allergies and inhalant allergies.  Food allergies present a difficult problem for a couple of reasons.

For starters the symptoms are much the same as other allergies so it’s hard to diagnose without eliminating the others first.  This can take some time and cost some bucks.  The second problem is not much is truly known about how these allergies work.  There really is no cure and identification and avoidance are the best treatments.

So how do you know if your dog is allergic to a particular food?

The first thing to look for are the symptoms.  While there are many that mimic symptoms of other allergies, the real give away signs are:

• Recurrent ear infections, particularly yeast infections.  Dogs with food allergies develop ear infections that respond to antibiotics but which return immediately after stopping the antibiotics.
• More frequent bowel movements.  Typically a healthy dog will average 1.5 bowel movements a day while a dog with food allergies will go 3 times.
• Lastly if you have a very young dog that has moderate to severe skin irritation that’s usually a sign that he’s allergic to a food.

Other symptoms include itchy skin affecting the face, feet, forelegs and ears.  Hot spots are also common among dogs with food allergies.  Unfortunately, there are a raft of other ailments that cause the very same symptoms so it’s going to be a process of elimination to determine just what the cause is.

Once you’ve eliminated the other possible causes, and that will probably take a couple of trips to the veterinarian, and you are certain that it is a food allergy, it’s time to determine just which food or foods that are causing the problem. 

Interestingly enough, the common culprits are also the common ingredients in commercial dog food including beef, dairy products, chicken, lamb, eggs, corn, wheat and soy.

The Twelve Week Trial Diet 

Treatment consists of eliminating any trace of the offending food in your dog’s body by going on a strict non-allergenic feeding program for 12 weeks.  At the end of that trial, you’ll start to add one ingredient to the dog’s food and then see if there is a reaction.  After a couple of weeks if there is no reaction, replace the added ingredient with another and keep this practice up until you discover the food that your pal is allergic to.

It’s extremely important that your dog eats nothing else except the prescribed diet.  That means no treats, scraps, rawhide bones or any other food.  You want to carefully monitor his movement as well to insure he doesn’t stumble across some tasty trash in a neighbor’s yard.  If you are using a canned diet you can take little chunks and freeze them or bake little squares and use them as treats for your dog.

The trial diet should include one source of protein and one source of carbohydrates that the dog has never eaten before like venison and rice or rabbit and potatoes.  There are commercial foods that you can use although many people make it themselves so they can better control the ingredients.

If you have more than one pet in the house it would be a good idea to feed them the same diet to prevent the allergic dog from snatching some of the healthy dog’s regular chow.

It’s a long process but it really is the only way to effectively treat a dog with food allergies.  Remember, he’s not cured; he’s still allergic so you’ll have to carefully watch just what he eats.

You may find during this process that home made dog food is the best route to go.  Not only are you controlling the contents but you will also save big bucks compared to commercial brands.