Caring for a dog with food sensitivities brings up a wide range of emotions – fear, frustration, anxiety, and anger – even before you’ve determined a specific level of sensitivity. While understanding your dog’s symptoms and meal management may seem difficult at first, it will ultimately help you and your dog lead an easier and happier life.
Explanation of dog food sensitivities
Dogs with food sensitivities have negative reactions to specific food ingredients, and these reactions are on a spectrum. Unlike food allergies, food sensitivities are not related to the immune system but to the digestive system. Reactions to specific food ingredients have mild to moderate to severe symptoms. That said, allergies and food sensitivities often share many of the same symptoms.
Symptoms of food sensitivities in dogs
Watch for symptoms after eating. Signs that your dog may be suffering from food sensitivities include:
These symptoms manifest to varying degrees and usually appear within six to 24 hours of consuming the ingredient. Do not safely ignore foods your dog has previously consumed; Sensitivity can develop at any time, which can be really frustrating and confusing!
The most common ingredients and foods that cause sensitization in dogs include:
- Dairy products
- Beef
- Chicken
- Wheat
- soy bean
Test for dog food sensitivities
Unfortunately, veterinary professionals consider tests to identify and diagnose food sensitivities unreliable. These include saliva, serum (blood) and intradermal tests. However, additional tests can help rule out other problems with similar symptoms to food sensitivities.
These tests include:
- Skin test. External parasites and skin infections that cause rashes, itching, and hair loss often reflect symptoms of food sensitivities. Skin scraping and dressing preparation are easy and affordable tests to rule out ectoparasites, such as ticks. A skin culture is another noninvasive test that helps rule out a fungal infection, such as ringworm.
- stool test. Check your dog’s stool sample to rule out parasites in feces causing vomiting, diarrhea, stomach cramps, lack of energy, or weight loss. Common parasites in dogs include coccidia, hookworms, roundworms, and giardia.
- Environmental allergy testing. Many dogs with food sensitivities or allergies struggle with environmental allergies. Unlike food allergies, reliable testing for environmental allergies do Once diagnosed, environmental allergies can be well controlled with long-term treatments, such as immunotherapy. Managing your dog’s environmental allergies makes managing food sensitivities much easier!
Food sensitive dog food test
The most formal “diagnostic” method for food sensitivities and allergies is dietary testing of foods. The diet is a hypoallergenic diet that includes a new source of protein that your dog has never been exposed to before. Examples of these proteins are catfish, kangaroo and crocodile. Your dog stays on this diet for about 8 to 12 weeks. Other foods, treats, and supplements must be temporarily discontinued for accurate results. Choose from new over-the-counter or prescription protein diets, or prepare your own homemade diets under the guidance of a veterinary nutritionist.
Commercial diets, often highly processed, can feel daunting for all-round pet parents. They also tend to be very expensive. While diets can be used indefinitely, think of them as a temporary diagnostic tool, not a permanent solution.
After your dog has successfully maintained the diet within the defined time frame and if you see positive results, then you start a food challenge. A food challenge means that you introduce a single ingredient into your dog’s diet at a time. From there, you can gradually start reintroducing foods and work towards a more consistent and long-lasting diet for your puppy. This process can take several months.
Managing your dog’s food sensitivities
There is no one-size-fits-all approach. Focus on the following:
- As discussed, the most important aspect of managing food sensitivities is finding the root problem (food ingredients) your dog is responding to and eliminating these completely from the diet. eat theirs. This is easily the most time-consuming part of identifying and managing a puppy’s food sensitivities.
- Build your team. Identifying and managing food sensitivities takes a long time, so partner with resources. Add dermatologists, holistic veterinarians, and traditional veterinarians to your team. Many holistic veterinarians offer phone consultations and are highly skilled in assisting dogs with food sensitivities. Looking for a good overall match using “Find a Member” tab on the American Holistic Veterinary Medical Association (AHVMA) website This. Referring all team members at once can feel financially burdensome. Start with your dog’s primary veterinarian and expand from there.
- Intestinal healing protocol. Intestinal healing and chronic inflammation can take time, and some supplements help keep this process going.
Your dog’s gut healing process may include:
- Add quality probiotics to your dog’s daily diet. Probiotic rotation helps introduce new strains into the dog’s gut flora, increasing variety and benefits. Start with probiotics or make your own using fermented blueberries!
- slow cooking bond soups. Filled with healing nutrients, bone broth can be very gentle on a dog’s digestive tract. Pour your dog food or freeze it in an ice tray as a cool treat. Avoid broths that are high in fat or cooked with onions.
- Digestive enzymes. Digestive enzymes help speed up your dog’s digestion and improve vitamin and mineral absorption. Use a commercial digestive enzyme, such as, or feed whole foods that are naturally high in digestive enzymes, such as pumpkin, fermented foods, quinoa, or flaxseeds. Make sure these foods are not the source of your dog’s food sensitivities.
- Please keep the magazine. Both you and your dog will benefit from keeping a diary of your dog’s feeding journey. Journaling is not only a place to process your own feelings around pet parenting, but it is also very helpful in establishing timelines around symptoms, dietary adjustments, when you opening a new bag of food, a different treatment, or any other change that could mean a lot to you. veterinary team as they navigate the management of dog food sensitivities.
- Come up with a rescue plan. Stock up on home medical medications for your dog. Your vet will likely assist with this as well. These include anti-diarrheal, anti-nausea, and anti-itch medications. You’ll really thank yourself later if the “stuff” hits your fans!
Keep in mind that supplements can cause reactions in dogs with food sensitivities. Always start with one supplement at a time and monitor reactions, while working closely with your puppy’s veterinary team.
Identifying and managing your dog’s food sensitivities can be overwhelming. It takes time, patience and persistence. Working with a well-resourced team and open to a holistic approach will help alleviate some of these difficulties as you help your dog achieve optimal health. Some of the processes may involve things that aren’t right for you as a pet parent, such as feeding and removing high-value treats. Remember that these steps are often a temporary but important part of the process. You’ve got this!
