What food to avoid for dogs with allergies

How to Tell if Your Dog Has Food Allergies

Food allergies in dogs can be tricky to identify. The symptoms arent what many pet parents expect, and there are a lot of myths out there about food allergies in dogs. True food allergies are not that common in dogs, for one.

Heres how you can figure out if your dog has food allergies and what you can do about them.

Reasons to Suspect Dog Food Allergies

When people think about pet food allergies, they often jump to gastrointestinal issues. However, food allergies in dogs may or may not come with an upset stomach.

The most common symptoms of food allergies in dogs actually show up as reactions in their skin.

Skin and Ear Problems in Dogs With Food Allergies

Skin problems are common in dogs with food allergies. At first glance, this seems kind of odd, but it makes more sense when you think about how people react to food allergies.

Dogs with unchecked food allergies may also have trouble with their ears.

Some of the most common health issues associated with legitimate dog food allergies are:

Similar symptoms may be caused by environmental allergies to triggers like pollen, mold, and house mites, but these, at least to start with, are often seasonal.

For this reason, its important to track whether your dogs symptoms ebb and flow with the changing of the seasons.

When Do Dog Food Allergies Develop?

Its important to remember that food allergies can develop at any time. A food your dog has consumed for years with no troubles may suddenly cause an allergic reaction, or symptoms may develop soon after you change your dogs diet.

How Are Dog Food Allergies Diagnosed?

Diagnosing food allergies in dogs isnt always a straightforward process. Its not like theres a simple test that can instantly tell what your dog is allergic to or, if indeed, he has food allergies at all.

You have to start at the beginning, with the help of your veterinarian, to know for sure whether your dogs skin or ear issues are caused by food allergies.

Rule Out Other Health Issues

Your veterinarian will take a full history on your pet and do a general exam.

Next, they will likely run tests to rule out conditions with similar symptoms like mange, ringworm, yeast infections, bacterial infections, flea infestations, and environmental allergies.

Ruling out those conditions comes first because true food allergies are relatively uncommon.

If there is no other apparent cause for your dogs symptoms, your veterinarian may begin to suspect that food allergies are behind your dogs itchy skin or ear infections.

Even if your vet finds a reason for your dogs skin problems, they may still suspect that an adverse food reaction is at least partially responsible since, for example, yeast infections can develop as a result of food allergies.

Once a diagnosis of food allergies seems to be a reasonable possibility, your vet will recommend a food trial.

Starting a Food Trial

Starting your dog on a food trial means your pet will eat a prescription diet and absolutely nothing else for a couple of months to see if symptoms resolve.

If they do, some veterinarians will suggest going back to the dogs old diet to see if symptoms return to ensure that the dog is truly allergic to one or more ingredients in their regular diet.

Evaluating a Food Trial: Food Allergies vs. Food Intolerance

Seeing results from the food trial are not a guarantee that your pet has food allergies. In some cases, you may find out that your dog has a food intolerance.

Food Allergies

Food allergies occur when the immune system responds inappropriately to something (usually a protein) found in the diet.

Instead of treating this perfectly innocuous substance as it should, the immune system treats it as a threatan invader of sorts.

Food Intolerance

A food intolerance is different from an allergy in that the symptoms are not caused by an immune reaction.

In dogs, food intolerances typically cause tummy troubles; they may vomit or have diarrhea, be seriously gassy, or have a poor appetite.

Treating Food Allergies in Dogs

The only effective way to treat a food allergy in dogs is to change their diet.

While grain-free foods are often touted as good for food allergies, science tells us that protein sources are more likely to be the culprit. According to a study published in 2016, the top three most common causes of food allergies in dogs are beef, dairy, and chicken.

Diets for Dog Food Allergies

Here are a couple of different approaches to treating food allergies in dogs.

Novel Proteins

This approach involves feeding proteins that your dog has likely never been exposed to in an effort to avoid an allergic reaction. Rabbit, venison, and other novel ingredients are used in place of more common protein sources. Allergy-friendly foods must be completely free of your dogs triggers.

Hydrolyzed Proteins

Rather than changing which proteins are used, hydrolyzed protein prescription diets break proteins down so that the immune system no longer recognizes them as a threat.

Treating Itchy Skin and Ear Issues Caused by Food Allergies

The only way to treat a food allergy is to remove the offending food from the dogs diet, but there are options for temporarily treating the symptoms caused by food allergies.

Oral and topical medications are sometimes prescribed to help minimize itching. Any secondary problems, like skin or ear infections, will also have to be addressed.

If youre concerned about any symptoms your dog is experiencing, or youre simply wondering whether the food youre offering is the best choice for your pet, speak with your veterinarian.

By: Jennifer Coates, DVM

Featured Image: iStock.com/monkeybusinessimages

Food allergies in dogs

Treatment

If the food trial confirms that your dog has a food allergy, your vet might recommend feeding your dog their new diet for life, as long as its a complete food that contains all the necessary nutrients. Your dog shouldnt have any other food or treats at all. Keep all human food and other pet food safely out of reach.

Once your dog is settled without symptoms on their special diet, you can try adding ingredients back into their food (one at a time) to try and find out what they are allergic to. If your dog doesnt show any symptoms, this is a safe food. Alternatively, if your dogs symptoms come back after eating a certain food, its likely they are allergic to it. This will help you select a dog food that only contains safe foods. If you want to do this you should follow your vets advice.

Some dogs with a food allergy will also have allergies to things in the environment, this may cause atopic dermatitis (allergic skin disease). In this case, they might improve a bit on a special diet but they may need other treatments as well to help keep their skin symptoms controlled.

Food Allergies in Dogs: What to Know

Your dog is scratching and licking, keeping you awake, ruining their show coat, and giving themself a handy excuse for breaking that stay. Its driving you crazyimagine how they must feel.

While your first instinct may be to assume that your dog is suffering from a food allergy, true food allergies arent as common as you might think. Confusing food allergies with food sensitivities is a common mistake, not only among dog owners but also among veterinarians.

Food Allergies vs. Sensitivities

True food allergies are much less frequent than food sensitivities and reflect a more immediate immunological response. A classic example of a food allergy is anaphylactic shock, which could occur after ingesting peanuts or being stung by bees. As soon as the person or animal comes in contact with the allergen, their airway closes and they cant breathe. This response is rapid, as the antigen triggers an immediate and sometimes life-threatening reaction due to hypotension and shock.

A less severe but still serious form of allergic reaction is accompanied by the development of dermatologic signs, such as hives, facial swelling, or itchiness. These can be accompanied by gastrointestinal signs, such as acute vomiting or diarrhea. These signs occur fairly rapidly but less than in the anaphylactic reaction.

Food sensitivity, on the other hand, is usually a chronic condition and often doesnt involve an immunological response. Its usually a cumulative response to an offending agent. Although theyre generally not life-threatening, food sensitivities can affect many different aspects of the dogs physical wellbeing. Common signs of food sensitivity include diarrhea with or without vomiting, poor skin or itchy coat, and chronic ear or foot infections.

Symptoms of Food Allergies in Dogs

We most often associate allergies with sneezing and respiratory problems in people, but in dogs, allergies are most often associated with the skin and gastrointestinal (GI) tract. About 10% to 15% of dogs with food allergies will have both skin and GI signs, and about 20% to 30% of dogs with food allergies will also have itchy skin from other non-food allergies.

GI signs are most often seen as loose stools, with an average of three a day, or vomiting and belching. A skin sign is usually itchiness, and it appears the same as itchiness due to other allergies.

According to one recent study, nearly 8% of dogs presented to a referral dermatology practice had food allergies. This represented about a third of all the dogs presented there with allergic skin disease.

Some people use the phrase ears and rears to refer to the characteristic location of itchiness. But its typically a bit more widespread than just those regions. In one study, dogs with food allergies suffered from itchy ears in 80% of the cases (and in fact, only the ear was affected in a quarter of all cases); itchy feet in 61%; itchy groin region in 53%; and itchy armpits, anterior foreleg, or eye regions in about 35% of cases.

Secondary ear and skin infections often arise from self-inflicted trauma from scratching and chewing. Along with removing the offending food, you must seek treatment for these infections in your dog.

Does My Dog Have Food Allergies?

Allergies can appear at any age, but most dogs eat an offending food for two years before symptoms appear. Some dogs can develop symptoms as early as two months of eating the offending food. Allergic reactions arent something that normally appear immediately after introducing a new food. But once symptoms appear, their onset is often sudden and serious.

Most dogs react to one or two allergens and about 20% react to more. Theres a greater chance that dogs react to animal products from the same species or from related species (cattle, sheep, and deer, for example).

Some breeds, such as Cocker Spaniels, Labrador Retrievers, Golden Retrievers, German Shepherd Dogs, Poodles, and Chinese Shar-Pei, may be at greater risk for food allergies, though they can appear in any breed.

Diet trials are inconvenient and tedious. But compared to your dogs discomfort, theyre a small price to pay to identify the culprit. Unfortunately, there is no cure for food allergiesexcept to avoid the offending foods.

Dog Allergies: What You Need to Know

Allergies are quite common in dogs of all breeds and backgrounds. They occur when a dogs immune system has a hyper-reaction to a foreign substance, such as pollen, flea saliva, vaccines, spider bites, bee stings, or even certain foods that normally would cause little or no reaction in most dogs.

We suspect certain dog allergies, such as atopy or allergies to pollens and plants, are primarily hereditary in basis. Most of these dogs begin to show allergic signs between 1-3 years of age, often after they have previously been exposed to the underlying cause. While most allergies cant be cured, the goal is to manage them with treatments that can help relieve or control a dogs allergic symptoms.

Signs That Your Pet Might Have Dog Allergies

The signs of allergies vary depending on the type of allergic reaction a dog is experiencing and can vary from dog to dog. Most allergic signs in are dermatologic, which can range from itching and inflammation of the skin, feet and ears, to hives and possibly swelling of the face. Some allergic dogs can have clear watery eyes and nose, as well as sneezing.

Gastrointestinal signs can also occur such as vomiting and/or diarrhea with or without blood. In rarer cases, a much more severe and different allergic reaction called an anaphylactic reaction can occur. This is an immediate type of hypersensitivity and leads to a potentially life-threatening situation where a dog can acutely collapse due to shock and a severe drop in blood pressure.

Types Of Allergies Your Dog Might Have

There are several common types of allergies in dogs, including:

• Fleas: Reaction to the protein in flea saliva, not the actual fleas. Therefore, a dog with only one flea can still have an extensive systemic allergic reaction due to their bodys reaction to just that one fleas saliva.
• Canine Atopic Dermatitis: Also known as atopy or atopic dermatitis (AD), this is a very common canine allergy. This is usually an inherited predisposition to develop allergic symptoms after exposure to relatively common substances or allergens in the air such as pollens, grasses, weeds, molds, or fungi. Common signs of atopy are itching and inflammation in a dog often seen in the underarms, groin, face and feet. Atopy is often seasonal.
• Food Allergies: Allergies to food can manifest with a chronic skin condition such as flaky, itching skin, chronic licking or biting of the paws, or chronic ear infections (often with secondary opportunistic bacterial or yeast infections). Dogs can develop allergies to a food or substance over a period of time, even if they may have had no previous issues with that food substance or protein.
• Contact Allergies: Contact allergies are found when a dog has direct contact with a caustic surface or chemical, causing severe irritation to the skin. Household cleaners, carpet cleaners, fertilizers, topical medication, and essential oils may all potentially cause a contact allergy.
• Bacterial Hypersensitivity: Bacterial hypersensitivity occurs when a dogs immune system overreacts to the normal bacterial flora on their skin. This often occurs when other health conditions are present, such as hypothyroidism, inhalant allergy, and/or flea allergy.

Diagnosis And Treatment of Your Dogs Allergies

The best method of controlling allergies is to know what the allergen is and to avoid it or control it. Your veterinarian can perform an extensive examination with history to try to help determine the most likely cause and formulate a practical treatment plan. The gold standard for diagnosing allergies in dogs is immunotherapy or allergy testing to determine the actual cause of the allergic response and to tailor an allergen-specific immunotherapy (ASIT).

There are several options for treating your dogs allergies, including:

• Flea Prevention: Flea prevention is obvious, relatively easy, and will help dogs who suffer from allergies to fleas. Flea eradication through an extensive anti-parasitic protocol may be necessary to improve the allergy sufferer.
• Antihistamines: This treatment is generally inexpensive and safe with few side effects, but different types can have variable effects and dont work on all dogs.
• Medications: Cortisone products have been commonly used in the past with good effects on allergy sufferers, but these types of medications are not without side effects, so they need to be used judiciously and only for shorter periods of time. Newer medications such as cyclosporines (Atopica), Apoquel (an immunomodulatory), and Cytopoint (an immunotherapeutic) are currently being used extensively by clinicians with good results to minimalize the severe itching response the dog gets from allergies.
• Dietary Changes/Hypoallergenic Diets: Dairy, beef, and wheat can be responsible for up to 80% of food allergies in dogs. Hypoallergenic diets utilize one novel protein (or only one new protein in a diet) as the protein source. Most pets with food allergies respond well when switched to a store-bought hypoallergenic diet, but occasionally an animal suffers from such extreme allergies that a homemade diet is the only option. In this case, the diet should be customized with the aid of a veterinarian, veterinary dermatologist, or veterinary nutritionist.
• Environmental and External Aids: Air purifiers can help reduce certain molds. Dust and pollens are best controlled by using an air cleaner with a high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filter. Air conditioning can also reduce circulating amounts of airborne allergens because windows are then kept closed.
• Medicated Baths and Supplements: Many medicated dog shampoos have compounds in them that are aimed at soothing the injured skin and skin barrier and calming inflammation. In addition, frequent bathing (weekly to every other week) can remove allergens from the coat, which may contribute to skin allergy flare-ups. These shampoos are often prescribed by your veterinarian, and directions for use should always be read completely and followed explicitly.
• Supplements: Omega-3 and Omega-6 essential fatty acid supplements can be considered by your veterinarian. These fatty acids are naturally anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidative agents.
• Antibiotics and Antifungal Medications: Antibiotics are frequently needed to treat secondary skin infections. Anti-fungal medications are frequently needed to treat secondary yeast infections.

Each possible allergy treatment has its advantages and drawbacks. Finding the source of your dogs allergy and discussing a specific treatment plan with your veterinarian is recommended.