Pets With Allergies

Let's face it.  We all want what is best for our pets.  And that means giving them the highest quality food we can afford, and all the love One can possibly squeeze into the years we have with our beloved fur-babies.  Lately a lot of canine and feline diets are becoming gluten-free or grain-free.  And the manufacturers are touting that they are the best kind of diets for your pet.  It all seems simple - wild dogs and cats eat meat, thereby we need to give our pets meat.  Lots of meat.  All sorts of meat!  The truth is, many pet allergies are not caused by gluten or grains.  It is caused by the proteins in the meats we are providing.

Helpful Info

Signs of a pet who is suffering from food allergies is not always straightforward.  Chronic ear infections can be a sign of a food allergy, as can itchy skin and alopecia (loss of hair/bald spots).  Flea allergies usually manifest along the back of your pet and the base of the tail.  Seasonal allergies usually result in itchy, watery eyes and a swollen throat (which you will notice because Fido will start snoring).  Chewing on paws and swollen feet can also be a sign of allergies.  A more severe food allergy can cause vomiting and even diarrhea or a major gastrointestinal malfunction.  It all depends on how your individual pet reacts internally to the allergens present in meals.

It is vitally important to allow your pet's doctor to run tests to rule out other causes of the signs.  If there is hair loss, the vet will do skin scrapings to rule out lice and mites, and blood tests to check for metabolic problems such as Cushing's Disease.  For chronic ear infections, the vet will do ear cytologies (look at the ear gunk under a microscope) to see if the ear gook is primarily yeast or bacterial based.  If antibiotics and potentially steroids don't help, the vet will move on to blood work to see if there are other inflammatory processes going on.

With vomiting, diarrhea, and more severe GI issues (like protein-losing enteropathies), the main signs of a direct allergy from food, your vet will need to check for and rule out other underlying issues.  X-rays and blood work are the cornerstones of this diagnosis.  First, the vet will look at basic bloodwork to rule out pancreatitis, liver and kidney diseases, and other dysfunctions of the GI tract.  X-rays will rule out potential 'foreign bodies', which are things your pet may have ingested that are not digestable (socks, underwear, lightbulbs, rubber duckies...).  Usually, the vet will then put your pet on a bland diet.  This bland diet is quite literally chicken and rice and broth all blended into one pasty glop.  You can even make it at home, if you are so inclined.

The bland diet probably won't work if your pet has a nasty food allergy, however, because again, food allergies are frequently protein allergies.  At this point, the vet will likely recommend a hypoallergenic diet containing hydrolized proteins.  Hydrolized proteins are basically regular proteins that have been broken down already into their small amino acid componants.  This is intended to help the pet digest the food easier and not have such a reaction to the proteins. 

Diet changes can take a while to see results.  The GI tract can take a while to calm down after allergens piss it off because it won't get time to rest properly.  Nutrition is an important part of staying alive, and so the GI tract has to work through the pain.  So diets may take a week or more to start working for your pet.  If the hydrolized proteins don't make your pet feel better, or if your pet won't eat it, there are novel protein diets that can be prescribed.  These diets contain other types of meat proteins such as venison and duck along with potatoes and peas.  And if even these diets don't work, the University of Tennessee has a whole nutritional program that will formulate a diet specifically for your pet.  I knew a sweet little Maltese with a protein-losing enteropathy who was being fed mahi-mahi and greens every day - and it worked for her!

There is a way to test your pet for all sorts of allergies, much like the human serum and skin tests.  It is time and financially intensive, but it may be worth it.  Either your vet can send in a lot of blood to a pet allergy lab, or you can schedule an appointment with a pet dermatologist to have a dermal test run.  This is when the doctor and tech take known allergens and inject them into the skin layer and watch for a reaction.  In this case, your pet will be half naked for a month or so until the fur grows back, but it is worth it to know what to avoid.

Common medications for allergies, whether food or otherwise, include steroids, allergy medicine (Benadryl or other seasonal medications as per your vet), and GI protectants to help calm the inflammation.  Steroids are usually tapered off so as not to shock your pet's system into a disease called an Addisonian Crisis.  NEVER EVER discontinue steroids without consulting and approval by your vet.  It can literally kill your pet if steroids are abruptly stopped.

You can see there are lots of ways to help your pet live a better life, even if s/her has allergies.  And purchasing diets with more meat protein may not ultimately make your pet healthier.  Even wild cats and dogs munch on grasses to supplement their meals.  Pay attention to your fur-baby and if anything seems out of the ordinary, take your pet to the vet.  Believe it or not, that's what they're there for.