Food Allergies in Canines
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Allergies are defined as: An abnormal sensitivity to a specific substance or condition, which in like amounts, is harmless to others. Most of us with animals have heard the stories about the many food allergies pets, especially dogs have. As food allergies become the latest trend in canines, it has become increasingly important that the animal loving public be educated about what this means for our canine friends and us.
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Allergy Testing
A little known fact is, although many foods have been reported to cause allergies in dogs, few cases have been confirmed. Further, having more than one food allergy is extremely rare. Why, then, are so many of our animals exhibiting the classical signs for allergies?
Before we try to answer this question we need to examine the accuracy of "allergy testing". There are two forms of allergy testing. The first consists of two blood tests; the RAST test (radioallergosorbent) and ELSIA test (enzyme-linked immunosorbent- assay). The second form of allergy testing is intradermal skin testing.
The RAST test and the ELSIA test are done by extracting blood samples from the animal and having that blood tested for a reaction to allergens. Food allergies are very difficult to detect by this type of testing. Also, there is a dramatic flaw in the testing on canines. The test was created for humans and the circulating antibodies that canines have are different than those of humans. Therefore, the results are inaccurate and cause false positives. In other words, the tests will tell you that your animal is allergic to things that it is not allergic to. Although ELSIA testing is the more readily used of the two blood tests, neither test can be counted on to give accurate results on food allergies.
Intradermal skin testing is done by sedating the animal, shaving the animal's side down to the skin, and injecting a small amount of antigen into the skin. If the pet's skin reacts to the antigen entered into that spot, it could be identified. However, to read the results correctly is a shot in the dark. First it must be determined that there is, in fact, a reaction and secondly, if the reaction is strong enough to be the sign of a food allergy. It is obvious that clinical allergy testing is not dependable in detecting food allergies.
So how can you diagnose food allergies? The only way to accurately test your animal for food allergies is to first eliminate all other possibilities through a diagnostic workup. Closely related allergic diseases such as inhalant, flea, contact and bacterial hypersensivity, along with common causes of diarrhea should be eliminated. Then animals are placed on a diet of distilled water, and a hypoallergenic diet containing only whole, natural foods not commonly eaten by the animal for 12 weeks. All drugs should be eliminated during this testing period, as they may be the cause of the signs or mask the clinical response of the animal. After this time period, foods are then entered back into the animal's diet, one at a time. The foods must be of good quality, as animals could be reacting to chemicals and/or poor quality ingredients. If no allergic signs develop within three days, it can be assumed the animal is not allergic to that food. If, however, allergy symptoms appear, that food should be removed from the diet and a sufficient period of time allowed to elapse for the signs to disappear. Once the patient is free of signs, testing can be initiated again. I'll bet you can't wait to run out and try this method. Thank goodness it has been done for us and, amazingly, all the previous ingredients can usually be added back into the animals diet with no sign of allergy. Why is this?
The answer is simple. As the ingredients are added back into the diet, whole, natural, foods are used. This indicates that animals are not reacting to the foods themselves, but to the quality of the foods used in their current diet.
William Pollak DMV conducted a study of 505 dogs (comprising of 31 breeds) and 83 cats (comprising of 5 breeds). All animals showed classic symptoms of chronic skin disease. The initial problems included, but were not limited to, pruritis, alopecia, scaling, seborrhea, and hyperkeratosis, with and without chronic biting and licking. These animals were placed on a diet of fresh, natural raw and cooked whole foods and a high quality kibble for 12 months. All animals were taken off any medication used to treat allergy symptoms for at least 1 month prior to testing.
Amazingly of the 505 dogs 88% showed a cessation of 80% or more of their symptoms with in three months. The figure rose to 91% by the sixth month and 94% by the twelth month.
Of the cats treated 78% showed 70-80% healing response within six months, 80% within nine months, and 84% within twelve months.
The results of this clinical study suggest that 74.7% of common diseases in dogs and 63% of common disease in cats can be eliminated without medical intervention. Simply, by increasing the quality of their diet over a twelve month period of time. Any one of the symptoms exhibited by these animals could have been, and usually are, attributed to one food allergy or another. However, the results indicate that the animals did not have food allergies, but, rather were reacting to a poor and unbalanced diet.
It has been repeatedly proven that canines do not develop food allergies except in the most rare of cases. Unnecessary "allergy treatments" cost you financially and cost your animal physically by breaking down his/her system with unneeded medication or by denying your pet important foods which are needed for balanced health. This causes a domino effect. Eventually these "treatments" will cause other symptoms, because now the animal's health has been effectively reduced even further. These new symptoms will require more "treatment", and so it goes.
The way to break this cycle is to bring our animals back to a state of health. Only a food made with whole, natural, ingredients from human sources should be fed to our pets. Unfortunately, most foods on the market are not of this quality. For too long pet food manufacturers have put profit before quality and our animals have paid the price. It becomes our job, as animal parents, to study the differences with the foods currently on the market and make an educated decision on what to feed our beloved pets. Beowulf's Back to Basics is a product that is free of chemicals, by-products, fillers and uses only human grade ingredients. For more information on this and other important topics see www.beowulfs.com.
