If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Just like humans, dogs can have allergies to certain types of food. It may be an intolerance to individual ingredients such as wheat or corn, or a general complaint which is provoked my many types of food, such as colitis.

An animal with dog food allergies may experience any of the following symptoms: Vomiting bile or blood, poor appetite, diarrhea and blood in the stools, itching, dry coat and skin, chronic or recurrent ear infections, hair loss, excessive scratching, hot spots and skin infections, increased bowel movements and other unpleasant conditions.

If you suspect your dog is allergic or intolerant to a certain food, you will need to do some testing to ascertain that it is indeed food which is causing the problem, as other medical complaints can also cause similar symptoms, such as parasites & skin infections etc.

It might be necessary to adhere to a diet of home made dog food, so you can control the ingredients, feeding a simple balance of protein and carbohydrates.

The matter is further complicated because there are many additives in dog food, and it may be one of these which is causing the allergy rather than a certain kind of meat or grain.

Common allergy-causing foods for dogs are beef, dairy products, chicken, wheat, chicken eggs, corn, and soy. But these are the most common ingredients in dog foods!

Correct, and there is a correlation here. Just as many humans are lactose intolerant, over-exposure to these foodstuffs may be what has caused the problem.

An intolerance has not been built against lamb or rice, so many of the pet foods now are including these in their recipe varieties.

These might not treat the intolerance though, as many of these brands contain soy, egg etc., so check the ingredients.

Now that there are more dogs now than ever before with food allergies, the market is full of hypoallergenic dog foods to meet those needs of those dogs. The usefulness of these standards is limited by the unique constitution of each pet, but does provide some structure.

However, consider that many healthy dog foods may still cause allergies in your dog if they contain that specific ingredient he is allergic to, and even human grade dog food might still be causing your dog stomach problems, so be prepared to compare dog food brands until you find the one that works.

Like with people, an intolerance to wheat or dairy contained in dog food, regardless of quality, can cause the end result. Another signal that your dog may have an allergy is bad reaction on the skin.

Tags: Pets

Popularity: 6% [?]

Share This