Dog Food Allergy Symptoms: The Definite Guide

Identifying dog food allergy symptoms can be trickier than you think. First, food allergies and other allergy types can occur together. Then, food allergy symptoms can be far from what you would expect. For instance, many pet owners assume that dogs with food allergies should have gastrointestinal issues.

In reality, your dog may not develop an upset stomach. Instead, it might develop severe skin reactions or ear infections.

If you are a dog parent, you will find everything about food allergies in dogs in this article. We will discuss various dog food allergy symptoms and their causes, diagnosis, and dog skin allergy treatment.

Food Allergies in Dogs – What Are They?

A food allergy in a pet occurs when its immune system reacts to a given item in its meal. In most cases, the immune system reacts badly to the protein component of its diet. It leads to the inflammation of body organs, including the skin, eyes, gut, ears, and respiratory system.

Dog food allergy symptoms can vary. One dog may have skin issues, while the other might have ear infections.

How food allergy manifests in dogs can vary widely among them. Additionally, a dog with another allergy type might display the same signs.

Another crucial detail to note is that dog allergies related to food can occur anytime. A dog can become allergic to food it has eaten for years. Likewise, it can develop an allergy to newly-introduced dog food.

Popular Dog Food Allergy Symptoms

Dog food allergy symptoms can be mild or severe. The most crucial thing is to have the ability to associate those symptoms with dog food or something else. If you notice the following symptoms, the odds that your dog has a food allergy are high.

Skin Itch

Mild skin itch is okay in dogs and human beings. However, constant itching in dogs is a red flag. If your dog is scratching, biting, and licking its skin without stopping, it might have a food allergy.

Also, some dogs will sit down and glide their butts on the ground if they have an anal itch. Frequently, an anal itch occurs due to food allergies.

Skin Lesions

The constant itch may cause skin lesions and hives. Lesions appear in eighty percent of dogs with food allergies. Hypersensitivity from food allergy and damage to the skin when scratching can trigger lesions. Frequent licking can cause a Candida infection between the paws. Hence, the main dog skin allergy symptoms include itching and lesions.

Ear Infections

When some pets react badly to food, they develop ear infections. If your dog has non-ending ear infections, this is the right time to diagnose a potential food allergy. In some dogs, ear infections are the only indicator of an underlying food allergy.

If you treat ear infections more than twice yearly, the cause cannot be ear mites or fungus. Furthermore, your dog should not have a swimmer’s ear many times a year. A non-diagnosed food allergy could be the case. You should regularly check your dog’s ear in order to prevent external ear parasites as well.

Skin Hives

Food allergy in dogs can begin as hives. Shortly after eating its food, you may notice some raised red patches on its skin. These will be easy to see if your dog has a short coat. If it has a long coat, you might have to lift or part its hair with a comb or fingers to locate the hives.

A dog might have constant urges to scratch or bite its skin because of severe itching. If it breaks the hives, they may become wounds. If germs enter these wounds, you will have a more complicated skin issue to solve.

Stomach Problems

Among the top dog food allergy symptoms are gastrointestinal issues. If your dog has a severe reaction to food, it might have many signs of stomach problems. It might have diarrhea, vomiting, bloating, and nausea. This can lead to weight loss.

Chronic gastrointestinal dog food allergy symptoms can make your pet sick and uncomfortable. So, take your pet to the veterinarian at once. Sometimes stomach problem occurs due to food intolerance as well. This is different from food allergy.

Fatigue

Dogs with food allergies might suddenly lose interest in things they love to do. A tired dog might only want to sleep. As a caring dog parent, you will notice the weird behavior.

Swollen Eyes and Face

Dog food allergy symptoms may entail swelling of the face and eyes. A dog with food allergies might have red, swollen, watery eyes. It might sneeze often and appear sick.

What Triggers Dog Food Allergy Symptoms?

Many veterinarians caution that proteins are the top cause of dog food allergy symptoms. Surprisingly, dogs love eating meat and dairy products. So while feeding a dog you should maintain a guideline otherwise it can cause allergies.

There are a few food allergy cases that happen because of feeding your dog some carbohydrates or vitamins. Dog food allergy symptoms and skin issues might crop up within hours of consuming the allergen. In other pets, symptoms might emerge a few days later.

Hence, dog parents should identify the following foods as the causes of allergies:

• Chicken
• Beef
• Eggs
• Milk, cheese, and yogurt
• Pork
• Grains like rice, wheat, and corn
• Lamb
• Vegetables like sweet potatoes, potatoes, carrots, and yams
• Legumes such as beans, lentils, soy, and peas
• GMFs like Soy, beetroots, alfalfa, yellow squash, and canola.

Dogs hardly develop a food allergy to fish. Most cats do. However, do not assume a dog cannot develop a fish allergy. Dog bodies react differently to food.

Hence, your pet can have an allergic reaction to any protein, carbohydrate, or vitamin. Do not rule out a given dog food because your pet has eaten it safely for years.

It can turn into an allergen when you least expect it. A dog allergic to chicken symptoms will be similar to what we discussed earlier. Chicken is a form of protein food and might trigger itching, hives, lesions, and stomach troubles.

Diagnosing a Dog Food Allergy

Dog food allergy symptoms are not easy to diagnose. Thus, go to a veterinarian for assistance. A dog doctor will not assume that your pet reacts to food.

Instead, they will test for all types of allergies. A quick saliva test can reveal antibodies to various food allergens. It is a pain-free test used to detect food allergens.

They will also check if your dog could be reacting to pollen grains, pests, dust, or mold. Your vet will do an intradermal allergy test if they suspect an environmental trigger.

Alternatively, they may do a blood test. If the veterinarian finds nothing, they will point dog food allergy symptoms to diet.

Puppies under twelve months old do not suffer from environmental allergies. Hence, if you take a puppy to the veterinarian, they might suspect food allergies immediately. A popular way to establish that your dog has a food allergy entails the elimination of its current food. Here is how it works:

• Stop feeding your dog its current meal.
• If your dog uses a raw food diet and this results in some sort of allergies then give your dog a new protein and carbohydrate diet. Watch it for two months. For protein, you could choose rabbit or fish if your dog has been eating pork, chicken, lamb, or beef. As for the carbohydrate and protein combination, you may feed it fish and potato or pea and rabbit. The bottom line is to choose foods your dog has never eaten before.
• Be strict with your eight-week elimination diet. Do not serve the pet any other food or snack.
• Slowly introduce the foods your dog was eating before and watch it. If it develops the same dog food allergy symptoms, you will find your answers.

How to Treat Food Allergy in Dogs?

You can diagnose and treat dog food allergy symptoms at home in the following manner:

Ear Infections

Suppose your dog has an ear infection. These might occur due to ear mites, yeast, and regular swimming. To exclude these, make a homemade solution with fifty percent purified water and an equal amount of organic apple cider vinegar.

Use the solution to clean the dogs’ ears. Soak a cotton ball in witch hazel and use it to clean the inner parts of the ear. If this does not heal the ear issues, use the food elimination trick for eight weeks.

Skin Symptoms

Dog food allergy symptoms often attack the skin. However, you cannot treat your dog for a food allergy without finding out if it has a shampoo allergy. The constant itch can make the dog scratch its skin non-stop, which causes hair loss and wounds.

Does the skin under the hair look red or pink? Is it dry and inflamed? If yes, the dog might have environmental allergies. To know if your dog’s skin is reacting badly to its shampoo, bathe it thoroughly with a milder product.

Rinse it three times to remove all shampoo. Left-over shampoo can trigger contact dermatitis. If the irritation stops, you will know that the previous shampoo had artificial ingredients the dog could not withstand.

Pollen Allergy Symptoms

Perhaps one of the dog food allergy symptoms you have been seeing includes a stuffy nose and sneezing. To know if a dog has a grain allergy, wipe it with a cool and damp cloth each time it goes outside to remove pollen. If symptoms persist, try the food elimination test.

Flea Allergy or Food Allergy?

Perhaps you are not dealing with dog food allergy symptoms at all. It might be that your dog has flea allergy dermatitis. So, rule it out by applying an aloe vera gel to the irritated areas three times a day.

An alternative solution consists of one teaspoon of baking soda and a couple of tablespoons of water. Apply the paste to the inflamed skin. If dermatitis goes away, you do not have to do a food elimination test.

Eye Trauma

If your dog scratches its eyes severely, it might develop eye trauma. If the tear duct is clogged up, your pet might cry often. The whole process can strain its eyes. Still, dogs with food allergies can produce excess tears and have swollen eyes. So, dab the dog’s eyes with a warm and wet towel once daily.

Use homeopathic eye drops for humans to treat dog food allergy eye symptoms. If the problem stays, you probably have a food allergy test to do.

If you follow the above steps and verify that your dog has a food allergy, take it to the veterinarian. A veterinarian will prescribe the best dog food allergy treatment after their diagnosis. For instance, they can recommend using an antihistamine like Benadryl.

Some antihistamine drugs appear as topical shampoos and ointments. They can also recommend an antifungal or antibiotic medicine.

If a pet has severe gastrointestinal dog food allergy symptoms, it might stay under the veterinarian’s care for a few days. Dog food allergies and how long to clear up will depend on the severity of symptoms. 

Wrapping Up

Dog food allergies can be disturbing and frustrating both for your puppy and you. If you see some dog food allergy symptoms in your dog you should immediately consult a veterinarian.

However, after finding out the actual reason for the allergy you can very easily take steps about it from happening again.

By reading this complete guide you can very easily learn about all the necessary things that should be learned about dog food allergy.

FAQ

1.  What is the Most Common Food Allergy in Dogs?

The most prevalent dog food allergy symptoms come from proteins. Beef causes thirty-four percent of allergy cases while chicken triggers fifteen percent.

2.  How Long Does It Take for a Dog to Show Signs of Food Allergy?

Dogs have different bodies in terms of genes and other traits. Hence, some dogs are more sensitive to allergens than others. The most sensitive dogs will show dog food allergy symptoms like hives within hours of eating an allergenic meal.

3.  How Can I figure out What My Dog Is Allergic to?

We have discussed how to rule out other types of allergies at home. If dog food allergy symptoms persist, conduct a food elimination test to verify if your dog reacts to its meal.

4.  How Do You Know Your Dog Has a Grain Allergy?

Stop serving your dog its current grains. Carry out a food elimination test. After eight weeks, resume the regular grain diet. If you notice new dog food allergy symptoms, your pet had this problem in the first place.

5.  What Foods to Avoid for Dogs with Skin Allergies?

Buy dog food with a hypoallergenic label. Some companies include a limited ingredient sticker. These labels are marks of purity and safety.