The most common food allergies in dogs are to proteins, especially dairy, beef, chicken, chicken eggs, soy, or wheat gluten. Every time a pet eats food containing these substances, antibodies react with the antigen, and symptoms occur. However, virtually any food ingredient can cause allergies.
Food intolerance – While food allergy is the body’s immune system reacting to what it perceives as a threat, food intolerance has no immune involvement. Intolerance to a type of food is more likely to cause a gastrointestinal reaction than an allergy. Additional symptoms, such as changes in stool consistency or color and gurgling sounds from the digestive tract, are common with food intolerances.
Some Causes of Food Allergies in Dogs
All types of allergies are caused by an unusually strong defensive response to a protein that the immune system perceives as an offensive substance. And it’s estimated that about 60-70 percent of the cells in our immune system are actually in the digestive tract.The process of digestion is designed to break down our food into their smallest parts, known as amino acids.
Diagnosis of Food Allergies in Dogs
In many cases, it may even be an entire food family that your pet is reacting to, so switching from a chicken diet to a mammalian source like rabbit may have better results than switching to another bird species like duck. .
If symptoms are caused by a blood allergy, a properly implemented elimination diet should stop them. Once this occurs, additional ingredients will be gradually introduced into the diet until the allergen is identified. During this time, it is essential to ensure that your dog does not eat anything other than the food used for the elimination diet. A single treat with the allergen can cause the allergy to resurface