Food Allergy

A food allergy is a condition in which the body's immune system reacts adversely to a food or an ingredient in a food. Any food or food ingredient can cause an allergy . However, protein, usually from the meat source of the food , is the most likely offender. Proteins commonly found in dog foods are derived from beef, chicken, lamb, and horsemeat. Several years ago there were no dog foods on the commercial market that contained lamb. A manufacturer of prescription dog foods formulated a food from lamb that was suitable for allergy testing, which will be explained below.

Because of that situation, lamb-based dog food was considered "hypoallergenic".

Dogs are not likely to be born with food allergies. More commonly, they develop allergies to food products they have eaten for a long time. The allergy most frequently develops in response to the protein component of the food; for example, beef, pork, chicken, or turkey.

Clinical Signs

  Food allergy may produce any of the clinical signs previously discussed, including itching, digestive disorders, and respiratory distress. We recommend testing for food allergy when the clinical signs have been present for several months, when the dog has a poor response to steroids, or when a very young dog itches without other apparent causes of allergy.

Diagnosis

Testing is done with a special hypoallergenic diet. Because it takes at least 4 weeks for all other food products to get out of the system, the dog must eat the special diet exclusively for 4-8 weeks (or more). If positive response occurs, you will be instructed on how to proceed. If the diet is not fed exclusively, it will not be a meaningful test. We cannot over emphasise this. If any type of table food, treats or vitamins are given, these must be discontinued during the testing period.