Everybody probably knows that people can get food allergies, but our dogs can be allergic to different foods as well. I know this firsthand. My son is allergic to bananas, all tree nuts, and even eggs, cooked or not cooked. I know how frustrating it can be if we have to deal with an actual food allergy. I've seen it over the past 15 to 20 years of practicing, noticing how many patients have food allergies. Most of the time, if a dog is going to have food allergies, we see some signs showing up early on, even within that first year of being born. If they're not showing them by then, it may be a little bit later, even around five or six years old, when we start seeing some issues with food allergies.
How can a veterinarian know if my dog has food allergies?
It takes a while for us to figure it out for certain, but you may notice your dog seeming itchy, not really associated with the seasons. It's not just that there's a bunch of pollens and pine tree stuff outside causing it. Maybe it's an underlying itch happening all year. Perhaps your dog gets more ear infections than most of your friends' pets. Maybe they're licking their paws a lot more. They might have some GI signs, like flatulence, or they're more gassy than other dogs. All these could be signs of food allergies.
If you think that's a possibility, come in to see us at one of our clinics. Let the front desk know you're coming in and would like to speak with a veterinarian about some skin issues. We'll ensure you get seen, and we can go over all these issues.
If we think it is a food allergy, a lot of times the things the dogs are allergic to are the major proteins in their food. Beef, chicken, and dairy are the top culprits when we worry about food allergies. Way less common, we can see some wheat allergies, sometimes lamb, sometimes pork, that seem similar to the other proteins. Most of the time, it's beef and chicken, then less likely dairy, and even less likely some of our wheats, lambs, and porks.
If we do think your pet has a food allergy, what are we going to do about it?
We're going to recommend something called an elimination diet trial. Elimination means eliminating what they're potentially allergic to. Our best way to do that is with some prescription food options, and we have two different approaches: a novel protein or a hydrolyzed protein.
A novel protein means it's a protein they've never been exposed to before. If you haven't been exposed to something, you can't be allergic to it. That's how allergies work. People who get bitten by a bee, it's not the first time that's the problem; it's the subsequent times when the body has seen it before and has an overactive response. That's what we see with foods too. It's something they may have eaten their whole life, but over time, the body builds up this abnormal reaction, worsening as they get older. We can get them on a prescription diet we know for sure has none of those proteins in it. If we're doing a novel protein, we may use something like kangaroo, sweet potato, or duck. There are many different ones out there. Unfortunately, a lot of dogs have seen some of these, like buffalo, rabbit, and duck, in boutique brands of foods. We figure out if there is one they've never had before and try that.
The other option I like is hydrolyzed proteins. Hydrolyzed means they break the protein into tiny pieces, so small that the body doesn't recognize it as something to be allergic to anymore. That's what they do in infants who are allergic to milk. They break down the protein in the formula to such a small size that the body doesn't react to it. Those are our prescription options. If a prescription diet doesn't seem right for you, we can recommend some over-the-counter ones. Over-the-counter options, however, don't guarantee 100% certainty of the ingredients. The regulations for packaging pet foods are different from human foods. Human food products will say if they're made in a facility that also had eggs, tree nuts, bananas, etc., but pets don't require that statement. So, there's a possibility of contamination. That's why I prefer prescription options first, but if we can't, we can try one of those with you.
We'll typically try it for about eight weeks to ensure they're feeling better. If they're better, we can challenge them back on the old food to see if those signs return. That's how we can be 100% certain it was the food causing it. Then we know we must keep them on a different diet for life, avoiding these allergens. When you first come in, if there's an ear or skin infection, we'll probably use medications to get that under control first.
Once we get the food out of their system, they'll start feeling better over time. If you think that's a problem you're dealing with, come in to see us.
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