Food Allergy Testing

How to Diagnosing a Canine Food Allergy

Food Allergy Testing - the only reliable way to diagnose a canine food allergy is to put your dog on an elimination diet.

The most widely used and recommended type of elimination diet is known as the novel food diet. Novel food diets are also known as novel protein diets because proteins are the most common form of food allergens. The term novel is used because you take your dog off all the foods he has been eating and put him on a food trial with totally new ingredients.

Food Trials

The key to an effective food trial is to make a list of every food item your dog has eaten in the past, that you know of, and then select a single meat source and a single carbohydrate (grain or starchy vegetable) source your dog has never eaten before.

All other foods, including treats and table scraps, must be eliminated if the food trial is to be successful.

Veterinarians used to recommend food trials of 4 weeks, but 6-8 weeks is now the most common recommendation, with some veterinarians recommending trials of 12-14 weeks. The reason for this is that some dogs, and some breeds in particular, simply take longer than others to respond to the removal of the offending allergen from their diet.

In one study involving 20 dogs, 19 experienced at least a partial cessation of symptoms after 3 weeks on a novel protein diet, but in another study, only 25% of dogs responded sufficiently to consider a food allergy diagnosis after 3 weeks, with the remaining dogs requiring 6-10 weeks for a full or partial recovery. In rare cases, it has taken as long as 13 weeks to see improvements of symptoms, but most dogs will show some improvement within 6 weeks.

Why the discrepancy?

A known factor affecting food trial response time is the type of allergy symptoms a dog experiences. Dogs with gastrointestinal symptoms usually respond to an elimination diet within 2-4 weeks, while dermatological symptoms typically take longer to subside. It has also been suggested that some breeds take longer to respond than others. Labrador Retrievers and Cocker Spaniels, for instance, are said to often require 10 weeks before showing improvements, although the evidence for breed-specific variances is largely anecdotal.

Once the dog is asymptomatic, the dog food suspected of triggering an allergic response is reintroduced.

If symptoms recur within two weeks, a food allergy can be diagnosed. In order to test for allergies to specific ingredients, potential allergens are added to the elimination diet one at a time. Ideally, there should be a two week period before the next ingredient is introduced.

Needless to say, diagnosing food allergies and food allergy testing to specific ingredients is a time-consuming process.

Time-consuming and inconvenient though they may be, elimination diet food trials are the only way to determine whether a food allergy is the cause of your dog's health problems.

Or you can use a hypoallergenic/hydrolyzed diet as an aleternative in food allergy testing.