Any experiences with food allergies in dogs?

[MissB]

My dog has apparently developed one. I don't even want to talk about the vet bill. It crept up slowly, but it sure as heck happened.

Any advice?

[mike_c]

1. I get hives and asthma everytime...

...I eat poodles. Funny thing is that it doesn't happen with other dogs, not even bichon frises. Go figure.

Oh, you meant the dog having the reaction! Nevermind.

[MissB]

4. .

:P

[InvisibleTouch]

2. Just mild ones.

One of my dogs has had digestive problems from oatmeal (and with commercial foods containing oats), and they both have problems from pasta noodles. So it was a matter of just eliminating those foods. (My dogs are largely on a raw/homecooked diet.) If you're feeding a commercial diet, your vet might recommend a lamb-and-rice brand, which avoids some of the common pet food allergens - but you'll still have to do your own trial and error to see how your dog tolerates it. If you have any idea which ingredient is causing the problem, switch food brands to something that doesn't contain it. Artificial colors and preservatives are big culprits, so the more natural you can go, the better. Avoid foods that list a grain or a meat meal or meat byproduct as their first ingredient; the first ingredient should be a whole meat. Sadly, a lot of the "premium" pet foods are still full of questionable ingredients, so read labels. Raw/homecooked is still best, IMO, but different individual dogs will tolerate different ingredients, like mine do.

[MissB]

3. She was on lamb and rice pretty much from the time we adopted her

nearly 7 years ago. I guess the theory is that she has developed an allergy to the lamb and rice food.

She has been put on a white fish and potato diet, which is some sort of a veterinary dog food. I'm not sure I'd want to do the homecooked route of that one. :P I have done a homecooked food for her in the past. I can't recall the exact recipe, but there was ground turkey, brown rice or oatmeal, carrots and some bone meal and another supplement I can't recall at this point. I'm not sure I want to mess with it at this moment in time - at least until her allergy symptoms are wayyyy under control (because they are wayyyy out of control right now :( )

As I said, the allergy just sort of crept up on me. Until this week, I didn't really connect the symptoms. It sort of all slammed home a few days ago.

[InvisibleTouch]

5. See how she does on the new diet.

You can always try something else later, but give her a couple of weeks on the new diet and see if there's an improvement.

What are her symptoms? Digestive upset? Itchy skin?

[MissB]

6. Itchy skin on her belly.

Chewing a spot on her front legs.

She also had a yeast infection in her ears. My only defense on that is she has floppy, furry ears. She started shaking her head a few days ago, so I turned the flaps up and looked.

[InvisibleTouch]

7. Not sure what to suggest for the ears, but...

...try an oatmeal rinse for the itchy skin. If it gets really bad, the vet may want to give her a cortisone shot, but try to keep that as a last resort.

There's a great Pets group among the DU Groups, where people might have additional suggestions.

Good luck with her!

[uppityperson]

8. Allergic to rice, soy, corn, skin problems, several yrs

Food allergies are very common to dogs because of the cheap ingredients in most dogfood, and environmental stressors.

Our rotten retriever (rott/retriever mix) started getting hot spots, chewing himself, stinking several yrs ago so we got him a couple shots of cortisone. He was good for the first couple wks, then would get skin problems again. We bathed him with HeadandShoulders (tm) which would help for a little bit again.

Finally we paid to have a blood test done to tell us what he was allergic to. This cost about $100 and I can't figure out how it was possible to tell specific allergies from a blood test but trusted out vet. Anyway, we got a list that showed rice, soy and corn allergies, along with carrots, peas, other such cheap carbs and veggies. He had no meat allergies, and potatoes, oats, wheat are ok.

We visited several pet stores, reading labels on dog food to find the most common carbs were corn and soy, with rice in all the "allergy" dogfoods. Back to the vet who told us he could order several kinds, including kangaroo and oats (hopping oatmeal?). Off to the local good pet store in our small town to find 1 kind, Pinnacle chicken and oats ($40/30lb bag), which had few allergens in it (small amounts of veggies). He has done well on this for 3 yrs, needing a shot only when there is another large stressor (got a new kitten, went on a wk long trip).

They now carry Pinnacle trout and sweet potato ($45/30 lb bag)which we're trying because we don't want him to eat the same thing too long and get allergic to it. The stuff is expensive compared to store brand dog food, but it is keeping him healthy and happy.

He's our loved dog, but not our baby. Paying $100 to get him tested has saved due to not getting cortisone shots (when I do get them I can pick up the med and give him the shot at home, saving a vet visit). It was worth it to get him tested and on decent food because he has a much better quality of life and is very much happier too.

www.breeders-choice.com is on the bag.

[housewolf]

9. My dog tested postive on SOOOO many things -

he can't have beef, chicken, turkey, duck, or pork, wheat, corn, potatoes, etc, etc.

The good news is that he can eat lamb & rice dog food, plus he can have eggs and diary. For treats he eats pieces of apples or carrots, cheese if he's real lucky. Or peanut butter. But almost no commercial dog treats.

It's worth it, though - he used to just scratch and lick be totally miserable - made me miserable too. The test was expensive but he's SO much better now...

Did you get a list from you vet of dog foods containing okay foods? It's amazing, all the different varieties of dog foods available now - turkey/rice, turkey/barley, venison, duck/potato ... all kinds of combinations.

Good luck, hope your dog gets on a good track soon.

[Lorien]

10. Commercial pet foods are usually the culprit

try a holistic food from www.waggintails.com (check out their "allergies" link)

what you should know about commercial pet foods:
Poisons in Pet Food from Alternative Medicine Magazine, May 1998

A homeopath of our acquaintance, who specializes in animal health, recently reported that nearly all of her new cases are dogs and cats with cancer. This is a most unusual and alarming trend, she told us.

One of the reasons American dogs and cats are getting very sick can be found in the pet foods they eat every day. The realities of animal health aren't much different than human health: if you consume a diet of toxins, eventually you will get terribly sick.

Don't expect the food label to be any true guide to the product's contents. The list of ingredients on that bag of dry pet food or can of "meat" can mask the toxic horrors behind innocuous-sounding phrases such as "meat meal," "bone meal," and "meat by-products." It's the substances you don't know about in that can of pet food that may sicken or even kill your pet.

The list of materials that go into the rendering process is extensive and horrific. When cattle, sheep and poultry are slaughtered for human consumption, the parts deemed unsuitable for eating, heads (including growth hormone implants in cattle), skin, fat containing pesticide residues, toenails, hair or feathers, joints, hooves, stomach and bowels are rendered.

Other animal parts sent to rendering plants include cancerous tissues, worm-infested organs, contaminated blood and blood clots. Compounding these toxins, slaughterhouses add carbolic acid and fuel oil to these remnants as a way of marking these foods as unfit for human consumption.

Meat and poultry by-products, another major category of pet food ingredients, are the unrendered parts of the animal left over after slaughter, everything deemed unfit for human consumption. In cattle and sheep, this includes the brain, liver, kidneys, spleen, lungs, blood, bones, fatty tissue, stomachs and intestines. The items on this list that would normally be consumed by humans, such as the liver, would have to be diseased or contaminated before they could be designated for pet food. Poultry by-products include heads, feet, intestines, undeveloped eggs, chicken feathers and egg shells.

The primary ingredient in many dry commercial pet foods is not protein but cereal. Corn and wheat are the most common grains used but, as with the meat sources, the nutritious parts of the grain are generally present only in trace amounts. The corn gluten meal or wheat middlings added to pet foods are the leftovers after the grain has been processed for human use, containing little nutritional value.

Or they may be grain that is too moldy for humans to eat, so it's incorporated into pet food.

Mycotoxins, potentially deadly fungal toxins that multiply in moldy grains, have been found in pet foods in recent years. In 1995, Nature's Recipe recalled tons of their dog food after dogs became ill from eating it. The food was found to contain vomitoxin, a mycotoxin.

Harmful chemicals and preservatives are added to both wet and dry food. For example, sodium nitrite, a coloring agent and preservative and potential carcinogen, is a common additive. Other preservatives include ethoxyquin (an insecticide that has been linked to liver cancer) and BHA and BHT, chemicals also suspected of causing cancer. The average dog can consume as much as 26 pounds of preservatives every year from eating commercial dog foods.

Recent studies have shown processed foods to be a factor in increasing numbers of pets suffering from cancer, arthritis, obesity, dental disease and heart disease. Dull or unhealthy coats are a common problem with cats and dogs and poor diet is usually the cause, according to many veterinarians and breeders. The AAFCO nutrient profiles may play a role here, in the balanced" nutritional levels they recommend may be inadequate for an individual animal.

It is estimated that up to two million companion animals suffer from food allergies.

Dr. Plechner believes that the commercial pet foods are a primary cause and can contribute to a host of health problems.

"Among pets, there is a widespread intolerance of commercial foods," he states. "This rejection can show up either as violent sickness or chronic health problems. It often triggers a hypersensitivity and overreaction to flea and insect bites, pollens, soaps, sprays and environmental contaminants."

Feline Urological Syndrome, a chronic condition similar to cystitis in humans (characterized by frequent urination with blood in the urine), is an increasingly common and potentially fatal illness in cats. It has been linked to elevated levels of ash and phosphorus, two substances commonly found in commercial pet foods. High iodine levels are seen as a contributing factor for thyroid tumors in cats. "New diseases are being discovered that are linked to '100% complete' diets," states Dr Wysong. These include Polymyopathy (a muscle disorder) from low potassium levels, dilated Cardiomyopathy (heart muscle disorder) from low taurine levels, arthritic and skin diseases from acid/base and zinc malnutrition and chronic eczema from essential fatty acid malnutrition," he reports.

Given the high possibility that your favorite pet foods may be slowly poisoning your cat or dog, it's crucial that you find brands you can trust to be animal friendly.


Some additional articles: http://www.frrhealthypet.com/id35.html


For the record; once I switched to human grade brands (Organix, Artemis, Wellness, etc.) my 16 year old cat lost half of his extra pounds, stopped vomiting daily, no longer has diarrhea, moves with greater ease, is friendlier and plays like he's three years old!