Dog Food Allergies
Dog food allergies can show symptoms such as runny eyes and and itchy skin to vomiting and diahhea. If your dog has been eating a specific brand of dog food for a while, you will want to wean them off of it and onto a different food that they tolerate more easily. Food allergies can develop when a dog is fed the same thing for a long period of time. Some of the most common ingredients in dog food that causes allergies are corn, wheat, soy, chicken and beef. A lot of people just assume that dogs are carnivores and can therefore eat beef or chicken as a regular part of their diets and some dogs simply are allergic to these meats.
If you think dog food allergies are an issue for your pet, the best way to get things under control is to feed your dog home cooked meals. This may be a little bit of a hassle but your dogs health is at risk. It will be well worth the effort. Select a high quality protein source and a carbohydrate. This could be lamb and sweet potatoes. Lamb is usually well tolerated by most dogs. Sweet potatoes are a good source of carbohydrates and potassium. When your dogs allergies stop, you may want to vary the diet a bit to include other things. One by one you should add foods back into your dogs diet. You can add brown rice as an ingredient. If the allergies return, then permanently remove the ingredient that caused the allergies to start again, from your dogs diet.
Keep in mind that some commercial pet foods add chemicals to preserve foods and these can be harmful and cause allergic reactions in your pet. Do not feed your dog anything preserved with BHA(butylated hyidroxytolulene), propyl gallate or propyl glycol. These will not only cause dog food allergies, some of them are cancer causing. Dog food allergies can be caused by dyes that are added to foods to make them more attractive to dog owners. You may find green, red and yellow colors in commercial pet foods that are there to make you think that there are vegetables and other good things in the food. Do not feed your dog any foods with dyes in it. Whether or not they are allergic to the dyes, these things are very unhealthy for your pet. Meat by-products are a cheap source of protein that some dog food manufacturers add to their products. These include things like hoofs, chicken heads and beaks, feet, feathers and can even include cancerous tissues and spoiled meat. Fillers in many commercial products can cause dog food allergies. These include corn, corn meal and corn gluten. Beware!
Supplements that can help dogs with allergies:
- Omega 3 and Omega 6 fatty acids can definitely help with dog allergies. Fatty acids can help give a dog a shiny, healthier coat. These supplements can help relieve many health problems in dogs including inflammatory diseases (like canine arthritis), dog allergies, heart disease and even cancer. You can give a 40 pound dog 1000 mg of omega 3 fatty acids, per day. Fish oil is the best source of Omega 3. Salmon oil is a good source also. Another source of Omega 3 fatty acid is Flax Seed Oil. If you use this, you need to give it with a spoon full of cottage cheese. The sulfur in the cottage cheese helps the body use these fats.Omega 6 fatty acids will help protect your dogs heart as well as boost his/her immune system. This can be found in linoleic acid which is in corn oil, safflower oil and sunflower oil. It can also be found in primrose oil. Meat, poultry and kidneys contain another form of Omega 6 fatty acids.
- Probiotics: Probiotics can be used to help your dog's digestive system function properly. Just like with humans, if you are getting the proper nutrients from your food, you are less likely to develop allergies and other health problems.
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