Dog Food Allergies can be a Serious Threat to Your Pet
Like humans, canines have allergies, the worst of which are probably dog food allergies. A dog may be allergic to many of the foods that we serve them in their dog food. In fact, of all allergies that dogs have overall, at least 10% are from food and a full 20% of those result in external symptoms like scratching and itching, effectively masking themselves as skin allergies or irritations.
Dog Food Allergies – A Symptom of the Symptom
There is one way to tell if your pet has dog food allergies, however and that is if your dog seems prone to ear problems. Constant scratching at their ear and turning their head side to side, as if trying to shake water off their face in slow motion are sure signs of dog food allergies symptoms and indicate that your dog may have a food allergy. It is more than likely to the food you serve. Dog food allergies are tricky to pin down. Obviously, you cannot just stop feeding your dog.
Dog Food Allergies or Illness
Unfortunately, Common dog food allergies and other forms of allergies, like skin allergies or allergies to smoke and air fresheners can have similar symptoms. The only way to tell if your dog’s allergy is a case of common dog food allergies is by conduction your own dog food trial and elimination test. If your dog’s symptoms are severe; however, take your dog to a licensed veterinarian.
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Other Possible Causes of Dog Food Allergies
A food trial is not a dog food allergies treatment, it is simply an attempt to eliminate certain food to find which foods, or the ingredients thereof are affecting your pet. In order to find a good dog food allergies treatment, conducting a food trial is not enough. You will need to take your dog to the veterinarian’s office and have your pet looked over to ensure that there is not another cause for your dog’s misery. Chronic ear problems could also be caused by an infection, a bacterium, or even a bug that has lodged itself deep inside the animal’s ear canal. Another cause could be a bug bite that the dog has scratched to infection.
What to Watch For
While dog food allergies symptoms can mask themselves as other problems, you can spot a possible dog food allergy by looking for the following signs.
- Those constant ear infections about which we just wrote. You have to check for other causes of dog food allergies symptoms
- If your dog is constantly licking its paws, chewing on its paw, or dewclaw, this could be a sign of dog food allergies.
- Watch for a dull, tacky coat and dry, irritated, or peeling skin under that coat that used to be, oh-so soft fur.
- If your dog cannot get enough grass and is eating it to the point of regurgitation, it is telling you that it has an upset tummy. This is a sure sign if a dog food allergy, as well as 20 other things.
The Hard To Catch Culprit
The majority of all dog food is filler. This is why most small dogs do not get enough nutrition from common dog food and cannot subsist on it alone. The other ingredients that make up your dog’s food could be causing the dog food allergies and will need to be eliminated from your dog’s diet. Ingredients like corn, wheat, dairy by-products, soy, and meat, like beef or lamb are all common dog food allergies culprits and can be determined by cu
tting them out of the diet one or two products at a time.
Time Consuming, but Also Well Worth It
The trick to tracking down your loyal friend’s dog food allergies is to eliminate each of those major ingredients from the diet by purchasing a brand that does not include that specific food. If there is no change within 6 weeks, move on to the next. If there is an improvement, continue to withhold the ingredient for three months. It will take approximately 12 weeks to be sure. Once you have found the culprit to your puppy’s common dog food allergies, you will once again have a happy, health pet.
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