What Are Dog Food Allergy Symptoms?

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The most common dog food allergy symptoms are:

• constant itching and scratching of the skin
• pawing at the mouth area
• swollen mouth
• licking at paws constantly
• hot spots
• diarrhea
• gas
• recurring ear infections

But some of these are also common symptoms for other types of allergies also – such as seasonal allergies from pollens and grasses (just like humans), chemical allergies from insecticides and household cleaners, and even flea allergies.

What To Do About A Dog Food Allergy

If you believe your dog may have a dog food allergy, the best thing to do is trying feeding a diet that is wholesome, with simple ingredients and a minimal amount of grains.  Some options you might want to consider are:

• You may want to try feeding homemade dog food – where you will have complete control over the ingredients your dog gets. If so, I recommend the Canine Nutrition Guide to help ensure you provide adequate nutrition.
• Change to a super-premium or hypoallergenic dog food – sometimes it is just the inferior ingredients and a lot of grains used in many commercial dog foods that cause the allergy or intolerance. See my article on how to read your dog food ingredients label to figure out if your current dog food is any good and what would be the best dog food for allergies for your particular dog.
• If you are already feeding a good quality dog food, you may want to try adding digestive enzymes and probiotics to improve your dog’s gastrointestinal system.

Most Common Dog Food Allergy Triggers

The most common food allergens are listed below. But remember, your dog can develop an allergy or intolerance to any type of food – especially if it is the same food fed over a long period of time.

- beef and chicken

- dairy

- corn, wheat, soy

- artificial flavorings and colorings

- artificial preservatives

- antibiotics and hormones

The hardest thing about a dog food allergy is finding the offending culprit(s). Luckily, once you know what food triggers the allergy, there are many dog foods or homemade foods you can choose from to feed your dog. A dog food allergy is very uncomfortable for your dog and one that you can control very easily.

Do Different Dog Food Allergy Symptoms Indicate What Your Dog Is Allergic To?

There are a lot of questions about dog food allergies and dog food allergy symptoms. Does my dog have wheat allergies? Corn allergies? Chicken allergies? Unfortunately, there are no tell-tale signs of allergy symptoms that will indicate what exactly your dog is allergic to, or what your dog has an intolerance of. You do not get itchy skin from just soy or diarrhea from just dairy.

Dog food allergy symptoms are generally focused around skin issues, such as itchy skin and hot spots, recurring ear infections, and digestive issues such as gas or diarrhea/loose stools. One particular food is not more prone to producing intense itching or diarrhea. It is more just how your dog reacts.

Food Trial

The only true way to tell what ingredient your dog is allergic to is by using the elimination diet. This is where you feed only one protein and one carb to your dog for 12 weeks. After 12 weeks, you determine if your dog’s food allergy symptoms have subsided. If so, those two foods are OK. Now you add in one ingredient from their original dog food. And again, feed that for 12 weeks and determine if there any allergy symptoms. It is basically a very long trial-and-error experiment, with each trial lasting 12 weeks before you can decide whether an ingredient is a go or no-go. And once you’ve determined what the offending ingredient is, you need to add that back into the diet and the allergy symptoms should reappear.

Is It Important To Know The Exact Ingredient?

So, is it really that important to know the exact ingredient? If your dog has very severe allergies, this test may be worth while. However, it really should be done under the guidance of your vet or a canine nutritionist to ensure they are still getting all the nutrients on this very restricted diet.

If your dog has milder dog food allergy symptoms, then it might be good enough to know what dog food they can tolerate and what they can’t. To do this, cut out the list of dog food ingredients from your current dog food. Now find a good hypoallergenic dog food that has completely different ingredients (it is easiest to do all of this online). Once you have found one, feed it to your dog for 12 weeks. If you notice an improvement in dog food allergy symptoms, then one or more of the items in your original dog food is responsible.

If you really want to, you can go back to your old dog food and the symptoms should return. If they do not return after 12 weeks, then either your dog benefited from a more nutritional dog food and the allergy symptoms will probably come back if you keep feeding the original dog food, or dog food allergy was not your dog’s problem.

If the dog food allergy symptoms do come back, then you have pretty much pinpointed the problem to one or more of the ingredients in the original food. At this point you can either keep trying to narrow the list using a 12 week food trial per ingredient, or just keep the list of ingredients and not purchase a dog food with any of these ingredients.

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