Allergy Spotlight: Food

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Food allergies are becoming a very popular topic in both animal and human health. Being such a hot conversation right now there is a lot of information available for pet owners. However it is important to be careful what you believe there is a lot of inaccurate information surrounding food allergies. Today I thought we would look a brief over view of this topic.

 

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Many times we will see food allergies develop in young animals, typically less than one year. However it is not uncommon to see older animals develop a food allergy even though they have been on the same food for their entire life. Signs of a food allergy can range from constantly itching to vomiting and diarrhea. This wide range of symptoms can make arriving at a diagnosis challenging. Many times food allergies will mimic other conditions so your veterinarian may recommend a full work body work up. One test that is typically not very useful in diagnosing food allergies are blood allergy testing. While some have found this to be helpful with environmental allergens, this test is currently not accurate when it comes to food allergies.

 

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There is a big movement recently to be grain free. Current marketing strategies from many pet food companies have lead consumers to believe grains are at the root of ALL food allergies. While this may be true for some animals it is not the case for the majority of dogs and cats. Most animals react to specific proteins in the food, some of the most common are beef and dairy products in dogs and certain fish products in cats. There are definitely animals that will have issues with wheat, corn, or even barley, however it does not seem to be as wide spread as the current advertisements would have you believe.

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Just like in people it is definitely possible to have multiple food allergies, so it is important to try and determine what the allergy is to and try to avoid it. The only accurate way to diagnose a food allergy is to do a prescription food trial with your veterinarian. This will involve feeding a very specific food for 12 weeks. Pets can have nothing else, no table scraps, no treats, no raw hides or other chewing items. Prescription allergy diets will typically have only one protein source and one carbohydrate source. This limits that amount of possible allergens your pet is exposed to during the trial. Another option is a prescription diet where the protein source has been hydrolyzed or broken down into such small units that the body will not notice it as foreign and therefore is unlikely to react.

 

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 While there are many over the counter foods that are labeled as hypoallergenic they will not work for every dog. Once the allergen is identified we can attempt to avoid these ingredients, which may mean a prescription diet for the rest of the pets life but sometimes can be controlled with an over the counter product. As always working with your veterinary can help determine what will be best for you pet. The following websites have great information on food allergies. They can be found here, here and here.