Dog food allergy: symptoms, therapy and diet

A food allergy in a pet causes redness and itching in about one in five cases. It can occur with equal probability and frequency in animals of different sexes, those who have undergone castration or have not undergone this procedure.

Fact! An allergic reaction occurs most often in pets, whose age ranges from 5 months to 12 years.

Most often, dogs experience contact and aerogenic (fragments of dirt and pollen present in the air) allergies. There is no connection between what the breed of an animal is and how it reacts to certain foods.

It is also required to distinguish between food-type allergies and the likelihood of intolerance to any food. Food allergy has specific manifestations, manifested by scabies, rashes, and other skin problems.

With regard to intolerance to any food, this malaise turns into diarrhea or vomiting, but does not manifest itself as a standard allergic reaction. Intolerance is more comparable to gastrointestinal disorders in people who have eaten spicy, fatty or fried foods.

What to do if a pet has a food allergy

Initially, it is important to note: it makes no sense to engage in dog food allergy therapy. It will only be necessary to ensure that products that contain an allergen are eliminated from the diet, and all manifestations of the disease instantly disappear. The immunity of the dog's body will return to normal, and the ailments will disappear like a nightmare.

But in order to do this, it is necessary to determine the source of the allergen.

Products that are under suspicion
According to certain studies, a number of ingredients and foods are much more likely, unlike others, to turn into food allergies. Most common are the following allergens that may be present in dog food:

• beef meat;
• milk, cottage cheese, cheese;
• chicken meat;
• mutton;
• fish products;
• wheat;
• chicken eggs;
• corn.

As you can see, often the allergen contains the most common ingredients of ready-made dry food, and this is hardly a coincidence. Of course, some of the proteins are more allergenic, but usually they are similar in shape.

Nutritionists are of the opinion that the occurrence of an allergic response to food depends on the continued use of the same foods.

The clinical picture of food allergies

Food-type allergy is symptomatically extremely reminiscent of the usual. First, skin irritations occur on the ears, muzzle, forelegs, armpits and around the perimeter of the anus.

In addition, infections in the ears often occur - acute or chronic, the coat begins to fall out, the dog constantly itches, suffers from infection of the skin and redness of the skin. All the symptoms of food allergies are successfully stopped thanks to the use of antibacterial medications, but after the course is canceled they reappear.

Studies confirm that dogs exposed to food allergies have more frequent stools. It was noted that animals that do not have allergic reactions to food defecate about 1-2 times during the day, and pets suffering from food allergies are three times more likely.

Paying attention only to the physiological manifestations and symptoms of food allergies, it is difficult to differentiate it from other reactions.

The following symptoms are common:

1. Candidiasis, as well as other problems associated with the ears.
2. The manifestation of skin diseases at a young or teenage age in a dog.
3. Also, we can conclude that there is an allergy to food if the animal suffers from the disease year-round or especially in winter (when the immune system weakens).
4. The pet has severe irritation of the skin, and hormonal drugs do not bring relief.
5. Unpleasant odors from dog hair and skin.
6. Wetting some areas of the skin.
7. In rare cases, digestive tract disorders.

How is the diagnosis

Diagnosing food allergies is relatively simple. The only problem is that many other diseases can also appear externally in the same way, and the dog often suffers from a number of concomitant diseases.

That is why before making a diagnosis and, moreover, prescribing a course of treatment, it will be necessary to pay attention to the fact that other diseases are timely identified and eliminated. Ordinary allergies caused by bites of blood-sucking insects, hypersensitivity due to the presence of parasites in the digestive tract, scabies or candidiasis, infections - all these diseases can be clinically manifested in the same way as an allergy to food in dogs.

Elimination diet

As soon as any probable causes of the disease have been eliminated, an experiment using unusual food for the dog will be required. Its essence is to offer the pet a new feed in about the next twelve weeks. Such food must contain those proteins or carbohydrates that the dog had not received before.

The difficulty that accompanies the process of identifying the desired allergen is that food allergies in a pet almost never occur immediately after contact with an allergen. Food allergic reaction is a kind of "cumulative". In other words, for 20-30 days, the animal can eat food that does not suit her, and only then does an allergy to food begin to manifest itself. The same can happen in the opposite situation, when the allergen is already excluded from the diet, but the symptoms have not disappeared.

For example, such foods include rabbit meat and rice groats, potatoes and deer meat - there are a lot of such dog foods. In addition, you can find special food for dogs, where trace elements are so small in molecular size that they simply can not turn into allergic manifestations.

You can also offer animals and homemade food, but you will need to strictly monitor the amount of ingredients. Regardless of which diet is ultimately used, the source of protein being tested should turn into the only pet food in the next three months.

From the diet you need to eliminate:

• various goodies;
• pig’s ears
• plastic toys with a smell;
• any food when the dog is offered medicine;
• rawhide;
• aromatic medicines and toothpastes;
• hooves of a cow.

In other words, the pet is forbidden to take everything except the food that the owner chose, and water. It is advisable to transfer other pets, if any, to the exact same diet. If this is not possible, you will need to appoint them another feeding place so that the dog cannot touch someone else's food.

When people eat in the house, it is important to take the animal to another room. If she tries a piece of food that has fallen on the floor, or quietly licks a dirty plate, then the experiment will need to start from scratch.When little kids (if there are kids in the family) ate, it is important to immediately wash their hands and face.

Do not allow the pet to move freely along the street while walking, keep the dog on a leash. It is also recommended to start a notebook where the date and the food that the dog could secretly or accidentally eat are recorded.

Experts note that 14-21 days after a strict diet was introduced, it is possible to carefully include sour-milk products in small quantities in the diet. It is important to carefully monitor the condition of the pet, and use the products as fresh and of high quality as possible, where there are almost no preservatives and various additives. It is advisable to use something like biokefir and ryazhenka. Then such food will not only beneficially affect the digestive processes, but will also resist allergic intestinal dysbiosis.

Hypoallergenic nutrition

Also one of the good and effective options is to use dog food, which is hypoallergenic. This kind of food includes nutrients, vitamin complexes and fatty acids, which are necessary for the dog to remain healthy. In the list of main ingredients of such dishes - dry and wet - as usual, there is rice, as well as lamb meat.

Another convenience is that you can switch from a normal diet to a hypoallergenic food without a smooth change in diet. The current feed is simply ruled out and hypoallergenic feed is immediately offered.

Testing time

In previous times, veterinary medicine doctors suggested using a special diet, the duration of which was three weeks. But recent studies have made it clear that only a quarter of all dogs allergic to food have symptoms earlier than 21 days. One way or another, almost all animals showed an allergic response within twelve weeks. Therefore, it is important that the pet follows a diet for three months.

If the pet has become noticeable reduction or even the disappearance of any allergic manifestations, you can return the dog to his usual diet. This process is called "provocative testing", and is of tremendous importance for the accurate determination of the diagnosis.

Lab tests

It should be understood that at present there is no evidence that a blood test allows you to determine with sufficient probability the presence of food allergies. Allergological analyzes of the intradermal type easily allow you to diagnose aerogenic allergies, but they are low in cases where the issue affects the diagnosis of food allergies. The only reliable way to determine an allergy to food in a dog is to use an elimination diet, which was described above.

Video: food allergies in cats and dogs