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Food intolerance or allergy in dogs
Nutrition needs harmony – a balanced dog diet is vital for our four-legged friend. To stay healthy and vital, your animal needs:
- ingredients that are coordinated with each other
- in addition to muscle meat and offal, also plant food, animal and vegetable fat, minerals, trace elements and vitamins
A good dry and wet food covers these areas and provides your dog with optimal nutrition. But what should you do if your dog has the following symptoms despite a balanced diet: itching, flaky/inflamed skin, diarrhea or paw licking? These could be signs of an allergy or food intolerance. It is a challenge for you as a dog owner to interpret the signs correctly, because the symptoms can also occur with other diseases or parasite infestation.
In this article you will learn how to correctly interpret the symptoms, which tests you should perform and how you can help your animal.
Symptoms of a food intolerance or allergy
Food intolerance or allergies are the third most common causes of discomfort in dogs. They manifest themselves in the same way externally - these include:
- itching
- Scratch
- open skin areas
- inflammation of the skin
- Diarrhea, flatulence and abdominal cramps
- increased defecation
Most symptoms often do not appear until a few days later. These so-called delayed reactions make it difficult to determine what caused them.
Intolerance or food allergy: what is the difference?
Allergy and intolerance cannot be distinguished solely on the basis of clinical symptoms such as itching, diarrhea, skin inflammation, etc., as they manifest themselves symptomatically in the same way.
intolerances in dogs
Real food allergies occur less frequently in dogs than intolerances. A food intolerance or intolerance is a hypersensitivity reaction in which the dog's own immune system is not involved. The reasons can be of a different nature - for example, a lack of enzymes can trigger a hypersensitivity reaction. In this case, the organism is unable to digest certain components of the food (example: gluten intolerance). The symptoms become more severe the higher the dose of the substance.
Food Allergies in Dogs
A real food allergy is a violent reaction caused by the immune system to actually harmless components of the food. The organism forms antibodies to certain protein structures in the food. The veterinary clinic can detect these with a blood test. The reaction will then always occur when your dog comes into contact with this food. Even the smallest doses of the allergen are enough to provoke an immune response.
What is a cross allergy?
If a dog suffers from an allergy, the antibodies formed can recognize so-called epitopes - structures made of proteins and sugar compounds - on the allergen. If, for example, a fruit to which the dog is allergic contains a molecule that has similar epitopes to the actual allergen, the antibodies can also dock onto these similar epitopes and cause an allergic reaction. For example, "banana allergy sufferers" can have an allergic reaction if they eat a kiwi shortly afterwards.
Triggers for food allergies and intolerances in dogs
Food allergies or intolerances are triggered by proteins of plant or animal origin, i.e. protein components in the food. In rare cases, a carbohydrate source can also be the cause. Any protein in the food has the potential to trigger an allergic reaction, a subsequent cross-allergy or an intolerance.
The following ingredients are most commonly found in conventional food and are therefore the most consumed food components. This is why they are at the top of the list of the most common triggers for food allergies in dogs:
- Chicken
- beef
- Grain
- rice
Recognizing and dealing with intolerances and food allergies – the exclusion diet
The best treatment for a food allergy or intolerance in dogs is to avoid the food ingredients that trigger the allergy. But which ingredients are these and how can you identify them? The exclusion diet is the best method to help your pet: All foods that have already been fed to your dog must be removed from the menu for the time being. Sounds simple? In practice, many owners find this difficult to implement. We'll show you how it's done.
Important: The veterinary clinic must rule out other forms of allergy such as flea bite allergy, environmental allergy, infections, parasite infestation or a specific deficiency (e.g. zinc deficiency) as the cause of the symptoms. If this is the case, the veterinarian will recommend an exclusion diet.
Important factors in the elimination diet:
- Choosing the right food: The animal is only offered one source of protein and one source of carbohydrates over a certain period of time. To achieve this, high-quality complete food for allergic dogs must be fed. Unfortunately, it is not enough to feed a dog food that is called "lamb and rice", for example. This is because it does not guarantee that such a food only contains lamb. Producing a good complete food is complex and it must meet certain quality standards. For example, the raw materials must be cleaned so that they are not contaminated with proteins that your dog cannot tolerate.
- Find the allergy-causing “culprit”: By gradually excluding ingredients, you can find out what your dog cannot tolerate.
- Be consistent: During the diet you should not feed any treats or anything "foreign". Dr.Clauder's has pure meat snacks: For example, the hyposensitive deer dry food can be wonderfully combined with deer snacks.
- Medical assessment: The effectiveness of the diet can only be determined after approximately 6-10 weeks. During this time, the veterinarian must rule out a re-infestation or infection.
3 Steps of the Elimination Diet
The exclusion diet is time-consuming, but it's worth it - because you can narrow down exactly which components of the food your dog reacts to. Here we show you how it works and which foods from Dr.Clauder's will help your dog.
3 Steps of the Elimination Diet
You should remember this
You should remember this
Dr.Clauder's for sensitive stomachs and allergy sufferers
Whether it's high-quality wet food with only one animal protein source, gluten-free or grain-free dry food - Dr.Clauder's offers the right food for your sensitive four-legged friend - and is ideal for feeding during an exclusion diet.
Food emergency? The nutrition hotline helps
If you have any questions about animal nutrition, we will be happy to help you. Call us during our service hours or send us an email with your request:
- Telephone: 0800 / 474 476 0
- Email: hotline@dr-clauder.com
These are our service times:
- Monday and Wednesday 3 - 9 pm
- Tuesday and Thursday 10 a.m. - 12 p.m.
- Friday 3 - 7 pm
- Sunday 3 - 5 pm (every 1st Sunday of the month)
Also take a look at the FAQs: Maybe the answer to your question is there?
