How to "Treat" your Pooch"s food intolerance ...

I’ve read somewhere that dogs often imitate their owners. I can completely agree with this. My dog, Jax, a Lakeland Terrier, has assumed a quirky personality not unlike myself. Another common trait? He seems to have some mild food intolerances/sensitivities that we are still trying to iron out. He was having some gastro issues and was regularly having ear infections in addition to gnawing on his front paws a lot …. things that may be an indication of a food intolerance (so Google researching has told me). I’ve definitely noticed a big improvement since we stopped giving him store bought treats and making natural treats from scratch. We also give him a hypoallergenic kibble, which originally was supposed to be a short term thing while we ironed out what his sensitivity was, but he seemed to be happy enough with it, and I enjoyed the fact that it contained no wheat, so we continued with this particular kibble.

When we first made the switch, we struggled with what to do in terms of rewarding him with a treat. Our vet suggested making treats out of the wet food version of the hypoallergenic kibble. We scoop out small spoonfuls of the wet food onto a parchment lined baking sheet and bake at 375 deg° F for about an hour. We store them in the fridge and use them within a week of being baked. Jax absolutely loves them!

While Christmas shopping this past Fall, my guy discovered this:

Knowing how much I enjoy accommodating dietary restrictions and trying to use organic ingredients where possible, he picked this up so that I could make organic, allergen-friendly treats for Jax. I enjoy that the recipes are wheat-, corn- and soy-free. The recipes seem to have a base of oat flour (I blended gluten-free oats to make it into a flour), brown rice flour, an egg and water, while the individual recipes dictate the additional ingredients.  The first few pages are explanatory and even give substitutions if your dog has an egg allergy.

Tonight, I had some leftover pumpkin from making some Pumpkin Corn Muffins, so I used the leftovers to make “The Great Pumpkin” treats for Jax. One of our friends who was visiting at the time said that the dog biscuits smelled amazing.

I think Jax thought so too!

Want to make your own organic allergen friendly dog treats? You can purchase online from Chapters: http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/books/Snoopys-Organic-Dog-Biscuit-Kit-Snoopy-Snoopy-Bubba-Rose-Biscuit-Company/9781604332896-item.html

Do you have a pet with food allergies/intolerances? If so, how do you deal with them?

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Allergy or Intolerance?

Sometimes in food-allergy circles you will hear someone snort, often dismissively, about “intolerances.” Martyrs love their martyrdom, you know?

The difference between the two isn’t always obvious, even when you’re doing due research diligence. Take this quote from a piece in the Whole Dog Journal:

“Food allergy or intolerance can cause intermittent to frequent vomiting, diarrhea, weight loss, loss of appetite, itchy skin or ears, eosiniphilic plaques, and a number of less common disorders.” (Susan Weistein, Whole Dog Journal, Oct. 2006 Linked article probably behind paywall).

Note that all symptoms, both digestive and otherwise (itchy skin, etc) are under that “allergy or intolerance” lead in. But that isn’t entirely true. Let’s look to humans for some illumination:

The “intolerance” we most often hear about in humans is lactose intolerance. A lactose intolerant person who drinks a glass of milk will experience some stomach upset. While that stomach upset can be fairly severe, there aren’t non-digestive symptoms.

A true food allergy, on the other hand, can be life-threatening. Many schools have gone “peanut free,” because even incidental exposure might cause anaphylaxis in highly allergic children. Not every food allergy is so dramatic, though. The Mayo Clinic lists a group of minor symptoms for even peanut allergies, like itching.

The grey area is in the overlap between the two. In that same list of peanut allergy symptoms, you’ll see digestive problems. This overlap also exists for dogs. Both allergies and intolerances can cause stomach problems. For dogs the situation can be somewhat murkier than for people, though, because severe human food allergies seem to cause a wider range of symptoms. I’ve never read of an allergic dog having difficulty breathing, for instance. (There are other differences, so be aware that the analog only works so far. To give an example, in humans food allergies are a childhood problem, often lessening or entirely disappearing in adulthood. In dogs, they are almost always adult onset.)

An allergy, by definition, involves an inappropriate immune system response. In dogs with food allergies that response usually manifests as itching and/or ear problems. Given typical dog responses to itching and/or ear problems, you’ll probably see an array of secondary issues, like recurrent skin infections. There is some debate about the necessity of obvious GI problems to indicate a food allergy. It may take weeks for food allergy symptoms to subside once the culprit is removed. A food intolerance, on the other hand, confines itself to the digestive tract and resolves itself basically as soon as that food has been digested.

The additional complicating factor can be seasonal allergies. Dogs have inhalant allergies, just like people do. While itching, licking, chewing, and scratching can be caused by food allergies, they can also be caused by allergies to pollen, dust, dander, mites, and fleas.

Then, of course, if your life wasn’t hard enough, there is the sad fact: dogs who have one kind of allergy have an increased chance of having another kind of allergy. Inhalant allergies are somewhat more common than food allergies, but most food-allergic dogs I know also have inhalant allergies.

Pragmatically, the difference between food allergies and intolerances doesn’t matter very much. I suspect this is why they get casually grouped together. If your dog is intolerant of a protein, you might need to exercise less Constant! Vigilance! at every second, because the effects are more likely to be short-lived. You still don’t want to include that thing as part of your dog’s regular diet, though.

As for food allergies vs. inhalant allergies, you’ll have to use your own judgment. Watch for patterns of symptoms, from time of year to what body part your dog is scratching the most. For us, they look quite different, but it’s hard to guarantee a particular symptom dog to dog.

I hope that sheds some light on the wonderful world of “my dog’s a hypersensitive mess.” This is by no means a comprehensive look, but I’m hoping it answers some questions I’m seeing in my search engine traffic.

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Coeliac Disease and a Vegetarian Diet - Symptoms of Gluten Intolerance

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