Anyone who suffers from an allergy knows how much itching can affect the quality of life. This is no different in a dog with a food allergy. But where does such an allergy actually come from, how do I recognize it and can hypoallergenic dog food really help my four-legged friend?
Symptoms of a food allergy
A food allergy is an excessive reaction of your dog’s immune system to a so-called allergen. In the vast majority of cases, this is a protein from the feed he has received up until now. The most common allergies in dogs are to beef, lamb, chicken, eggs, milk and milk products, wheat, soy, pork and corn.
In order to develop an allergy, your four-legged friend must have repeatedly come into contact with this protein. This means that the more often you feed your dog beef, for example, the higher the probability that it will develop a feed allergy to the beef protein years later.
You can tell this by the fact that your darling shows increased itching. Reddening of the skin can occur, which eventually becomes inflamed by intensively nibbling on the affected areas.
Or there are always digestive problems. Diarrhea, vomiting and the frequent occurrence of very unpleasant-smelling flatulence can also be an indication of a food allergy.
Some dogs only show one of the symptoms, others all.
The main difficulty is that all of these signs are not specific to an allergy. Both itching and digestive problems can also be an indication of a variety of other diseases.
Elimination diet to confirm the diagnosis
A food allergy is a difficult condition to diagnose. If your pet is exhibiting one or more of the above symptoms, your vet will first rule out a number of other possible conditions. For this, he can carry out blood tests or skin examinations. Unfortunately, there is not (yet) a really meaningful blood test to diagnose a food allergy. This is because some dogs produce antibodies against the allergens that can be detected, while others do not. A reliable diagnosis is only possible with a so-called “exclusion diet” (elimination diet).
This does not mean that your four-legged friend now gets less to eat. Rather, on an elimination diet, he is fed exclusively a single source of protein and a single source of carbohydrates for a period of 8 weeks. Ideally, he has never eaten either of them before in his life. Therefore, horses or kangaroos are often used as a source of protein and Jerusalem artichoke or potatoes as a source of carbohydrates. If the symptoms improve during the diet, there is a high probability that a component of the old food was responsible for the disease. After that, another protein is added to the feed for 1-2 weeks. A recurrence of the symptoms then proves the presence of the feed allergy to precisely this protein.
If there are still no symptoms, this protein can be added to the list of things that are safe to feed.
You can imagine that such an approach requires 100% consistency from you and everyone else living in your household, especially your children. As with humans, the biggest problem is the hidden allergens. Anyone allergic to hazelnuts can sing a song about how many foods can contain traces of nuts. And even traces of the allergen can trigger a new allergy flare. That’s why it’s so important to really only feed the dog this one source of protein and carbohydrates during this time and no other treats or leftovers!
Diagnosis of feed allergy – what now?
When you and your dog have gotten to the point where you know exactly what protein (or carbohydrate, which is less common) he’s allergic to, you’ve completed the hardest part. In fact, the diagnosis of a feed allergy is the biggest problem. Just as people with a hazelnut allergy can lead normal lives by consistently avoiding any foods that contain traces of nuts, so can your dog. Because you now know what you have to do without so that your four-legged friend is fine again.
If the allergen is a protein that is often used in ready-made dog foods such as beef or lamb, you will have to look for an alternative. In addition to the options of BARFING or cooking your own dog food to determine the contents of the feeding bowl, there are also food manufacturers who can be helpful. They now not only declare whether the feed is grain-free, but also exactly what protein or carbohydrate source it contains.
You can buy such hypoallergenic dog food at Rinderohr, for example. There you will find a large selection of different manufacturers of this same hypoallergenic or hyposensitive dog food, each of which only uses one species as a protein source. As a rule, with such feeds, the use of allergens that frequently trigger feed allergies, such as beef, lamb, wheat and soy, is avoided.
So you see, while it’s difficult to diagnose a food allergy, living with it doesn’t pose any particular limitations. Sure, you have to be a little more careful now about what your four-legged friend eats and also keep an eye on the treats. But since many manufacturers have adapted to the circumstances, the ingredients are now declared fairly well. After a period of getting used to it, your life will certainly no longer be affected.
