Dog Food Allergy Symptoms Every Dog Owner Must Know
Is Your Dog Suffering from a Dog Food Allergy?
Most dog owners don't know that their dog is actually suffering from an allergic reaction and suspect that it is something much more serious. When a dog is typically brought into the veterinarians office, the first thing that the vet wants to do is to run several diagnostic tests to rule out serious illness and send you home with an over priced, unnecessary prescription medication asking you to return if the condition doesn't improve.
Dog food allergy symptoms can show up in dogs in many different ways. The best advice that I can give you is to watch your dog for subtle changes. Changes can occur in your dogs skin or coat and may even be behaviorally related. Often dogs that suffer from dog food allergy symptoms become lethargic.
If your dog starts to develop dry skin or if you notice minor skin inflammations, I would first check for fleas and if none were present, I would start to suspect that these changes are symptoms of dog food allergies.
So what can you do if you suspect that your dog is suffering from dog food allergies? If you would have asked me this a couple of months ago, I would have recommended a popular dog food that has since been recalled and a course of Vitamin E. Now, I whole heartily recommend that you treat symptoms of dog food allergies just as you would if it were your child that you were treating. Start with your dogs diet but you may also want to apply Vitamin E oil on your dogs irritated skin.
The first step would be to take your dog back to a basic, bland diet and gradually add to their diet. This is the best way to monitor your dogs diet and pin-point the dog food ingredient that is causing the dog food allergy symptoms in your dog. While it is not healthy to have your dog on a bland diet for an extended length of time, it is fine to start with the bland diet and gradually add ingredients back into the food.
Their are several online dog food recipes that are available for free but if you suspect that your dog is suffering from dog food allergies, I would highly recommend that you check out the dog food recipes written by John Miller.
Published by K. Taylor
I have been a stay at home mom for many years and have always loved to put pen to paper. I have had several articles published on working from home and issues related to telecommuting. View profile
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- Dry skin can be a symptom of dog food allergies.
- Look for subtle changes in your dogs behavior.
- Start your dog on a bland diet to eliminate the ingredient that your dog is allergic to.
5 Comments
Post a CommentMy dogs can only eat lamb and rice in hard food and soft food.I have a white dog and his skin started turnig colors and is still like that and my black one had analgland infection.So right now it is a little expensive to take care of them but I love my babies and I will do whatever is necessary.
Vitamin E generally comes from corn, so be cautious if the allergy is corn or grains in general.
My dog has had an allergy test as she has had recurring ear infections over several months.
The test results show she is allergic to OATS, POTATOES & LAMB.
I would prefer to cook her meals myself rather than buy the dog food which has been recommended by the Vet as this is very expensive and I am a pensioner.
Could anyone recommend a good balanced recipe which ommits the above ingerdients please?
Great suggestions, but a few things were left out. :) Most common food allergies are to wheat and corn, which are in the vast majority of dog foods on the market. Reoccurring ear infections and itchy feet are most likely due to allergies. Before anything I would try switching to a grain-free food.
Heh, people have a lot of food allergy or food intolerance symptoms too and don't even realize that's what causing their problems. Neither dogs nor humans evolved to eat grains. :