How To Reduce Food Allergy For Your Dog?

Sunday, October 25th, 2009 at 3:08 pm

There is no one definitive way to diagnose if your dog suffers from food allergy. There are few factors to observe in order to determine the causes of food allergy. Dogs are intolerant to certain foods may have physical problems such as diarrhea, vomiting, flatulence or bloating of the stomach.

Food allergies are caused by an incorrect immune response to the current food that is eaten. Dogs also suffer other symptoms of allergies rather than the actual intolerance. Itchy skin is the most common symptom of a dog that is allergic to the food he is currently eating.

This itching is usually found on the sides of the dog, tail, butt, legs, face and ears. The food allergy will relieve soon after setting or changing your dog’s diet. The removal of the recently new foods to your dog will solve this problem. Adding only one new food at one time over a period of several weeks will help to determine what foods your dog can tolerate.

It is difficult to find the cause of food allergies if the allergy starts after your dog is on the same food for many years, and no changes or new foods were introduced to his diet. This is because the immune system responds to a sudden sensitivity to the allergen, and is harder to figure out what is causing this problem. In this case, you will have to start from scratch to try and find out which dog food has caused the problem. Then, eliminate this dog food and the current diet should be stopped.

Next, put your dog on a diet of food he has never eaten. If he is fed on a chicken dog food, you can try different protein-based chunks. Try to avoid grain-based dog food as grains are the common ingredient that causing allergy for many dogs.

After starting a new diet, it may take several weeks for your dog to slowly relieve from allergy problem. Introduce a new diet consisting of a basic essential ingredient, but the food should nutritionally complete. There are many excellent high quality, chemical free, grain free dog food available and these foods are the only basic ingredients necessary for your dog optimal health.

There are also many other types of allergies are not food related, such as infection of parasites and fleas, environmental or seasonal allergies. These should be eliminated as the cause of the problems of your dog and be treated differently. It is not always a quick process, but if your dog can relieve discomfort, it is worth the time to investigate. Lastly, always consult a veterinarian if symptoms are sudden and severe.

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