Who knows their dog is allergic to a food item?

I agree with your point Kelly.  When I rescued Sassy, she had an ear infection.  She continued to have them regularly for about 2 years.  I was feeding her Kirkland Chicken & Rice, or Lamb & Rice.  When I made the switch to Natural Balance Duck & Potato, her ears cleared up and she has not had even one ear infection, or even dirty ears, since then.  I have no idea which ingredient it was, but I'm absolutely convinced it was food related.  For all I know she could do okay on a different formula of those proteins and/or carbs, but I'm not taking any chances.  Unfortunately, it didn't clear up all her other allergy problems, so I attribute those to environmental allergens.

My older dog is allergic to wheat barley and brewers yeast. I know that because I had him tested. He is sensitive to a few other things and "borderline" allergic to a few other things. Corn being one of them.

The way a vet dermatologist figures out if your dog has food allergies is to put it on a diet like NB Sweet Potato and Fish and that is all the dog can eat for a couple of months.  If the symptoms goe away, then by adding back one ingredient at a time you could narrow it down to the possible cause of  the allergy.  Most people just keep the dog on the food that causes no problems.  Natural Balance makes 3 of them.  

Kelly-
When JJ was at the rescue for the 7 months before I got him he was on Kirkland lamb and rice (before that he was on a SD prescription rice and chicken diet at his last owners house). When I got him I switched him to Canidae 2 meals a day and EVO or NV raw 1 meal a day (I was trying to cut down a bit on the grains due to his arthritis).  Shortly after we got him his feet starting turning pink, then blood red and he had insane licking and itching and so after calling his previous owner we found out about his grass allergies.
 
Even with NO contact from grass over an extended period of time we still noticed that something in his food seemed to effect his feet and it appeared to be worse when eating canidae and sometimes even with evo. He seemed to do better with NV raw or canned that were not poultry so we suspected that maybe poultry was the culprit.  We switched him to NB venison and rice and OMG[] …he had the absolute WORST reaction to that…we thought we were going to have to put him back on antibiotics again because of all the licking and biting he was doing to his poor feet.  We then narrowed it down to perhaps rice????
 
So we went with Pinnacle that uses Quinoa and alternate grains and his feet completely cleared up within 4-5 days.  They were a mess for MONTHS, and a diet change yielded unbelievable results in just a just a few days.  We would have stayed with this food but after 14 weeks of constant pudding poop, we knew we had to change, thus in come TWO.  We have not had a single reaction in the 3 months or more we have been on TWO non rice formulas.  SO last week we decided to pick up some lamb and apples formula that has rice and low and behold JJ is NOT reacting thus far.  Although he is ONLY one 1/3 of a cup of lamb formula per meal, there has been no change in his feet yet.
 
This leaves us TOTALLY perplexed…perhaps it isn#%92t the rice that was the problem, or maybe it is the type of rice, or maybe it is the combination of grass allergies going wild, and then eating rice diets at the same time that exacerbate it.  (I actually found a article linking grass and rice allergies a many moths ago).
 
SO the ONLY thing I am sure about is that SOMETHING in multiple foods I have tried DOES cause an allergic reaction or at least a sensitivity, but now I am clueless as to what that ingredient is.  This is one reason I refuse to take him off of TWO…and if he is doing fine I can#%92t see spending the money to do allergy testing to figure out what that “mystery” ingredient is![]

Romeo has food allergies. He started having trouble this summer, the perfect timing to be a seasonal environmental allergy. I'm a vet student, so I managed to weasel my way into getting a free Derm consult by bringing my pup to school with me on a slow day (we generally don't get free clinic care) and we determined he definately had a mixed bacterial and yeast infection. When I was still having trouble controlling it after a month, I caved and decided to get him tested. Intradermal testing, 40 common local allergens, board certified dermatologist, and guess what he was positive for.... NOTHING. I was so mad. You're right, young dogs generally aren't allergic to foods, but there are exceptions to every rule, and I seem to own all of them! Vet students are cursed, I swear....

So anyway, Romeo has now been on Eukaneuba Kangaroo and Oats formula for 3 weeks. I'm doing a true diet trial, with no treats, chews or hoovering in the kitchen, and plan on actually testing him with different foods to find out exactly what he is allergic to once the diet trial is over. His feet have improved greatly, and I'm curious to find out what he's allergic to.

The way a vet dermatologist figures out if your dog has food allergies is to put it on a diet like NB Sweet Potato and Fish and that is all the dog can eat for a couple of months. If the symptoms goe away, then by adding back one ingredient at a time you could narrow it down to the possible cause of the allergy. Most people just keep the dog on the food that causes no problems. Natural Balance makes 3 of them.

 
Bob, that's not actually true.  My derm vet had me do a true elimination diet last spring.  For 12 weeks I fed ONLY pork and buckwheat, which I homecooked.  I wasn't allowed to give a single other thing, even a carrot, which was a treat of choice.  I made doggie biscuits using the pork & buckwheat for treats.  In our case, it didn't appear that things improved or deteriorated, so we moved on to environmental allergy testing. 
 
I do feed the Natural Balance Duck & Potato and I'm happy with it, but it's not going to tell you what your dog is allergic to by feeding it.  There's too many additional ingredients.  For example, if you fed the Duck & Potato and still had problems, it wouldn't necessarily mean the dog was allergic to duck or patotoes.  Make sense?  I always suggest that folks give one of those formulas a try, but if they still have problems, then a true elimination diet is the only way to go.

I've never had Ben tested. It's my understanding that testing for food allergies in dogs produces inaccurate results. He seems to have the same reaction to most grains, tomatoes, and a few other things which escape me right now. He USED to react to venison, but not any longer for some reason (it is possible to gain a tolerance for trigger substances - I used to be violently allergic to dogs and now, not so much). He has recently (ie, about a year ago) developed the same reaction to chicken that he does to flea bites - serious illness combined with severe skin reactions - and also seasonal pollen. I think of these reactions as being associated with true allergies, particularly since they all respond to antihistamine, which many food sensitivities do not.

He also has a collection of what I feel are sensitivities rather than allergies. He gets slightly itchy and gassy when fed certain fish, beef sometimes (depends on the "part" and the source of the beef), and whole flax seed. All vegetable oils are also problematic. There's oodles of these which I can't remember right now, but mostly they cause minor stomach upset and minor itchiness, and general malaise or mental fog which is evident when training or trying to get something difficult done. [8|]

Honestly, given that neither a sensitive dog nor an allergic dog should be fed the food in question, I don't lose a lot of sleep trying to figure out whether I'm dealing with one or the other. It's a difference that makes no difference to Ben and me. []

We've always been able to determine it through food trial. One of my vets said not to do the blood test as it can show inaccurate results, so through the years I've always actually done it through trial. Although I understand that some people have had good success with the testing. I think there are pros and cons to both methods, but the bottom line is whatever works and helps us determine the allergens.

I've noted with my own dog results are often immediate, as in scratching the eyes, ears, mouth, feet and anal area within a few minutes of eating the food. These are all of the areas where mast cells are concentrated and mast cells are the ones that react with the histamine release to the allergen.Within a few more minutes tiny bumps may erupt around the mucous membranes of the eyes, and anal area (or on the torso or legs occasionally).

Other times the result has been vomiting right after eating the food or GI issues (bloody mucous poop) within 12-24 hours of eating the food.

I've found through trial and error that Gingerbread is very sensitive or allergic to wheat and brewer's yeast. I thought he was allergic to chicken until recently- I've given him chicken leftovers with no apparent problems. He's also recently eaten chicken canned food and all seems well. I think it might be because he originally ate treats (OMH) with both wheat and chicken. It's been at least 6 months since he's had any wheat, so maybe that has something to do with it. [8|]

I know that Emma is allergic to quite a few food items. I did not have her tested, but I did an elimination diet under the direction of a canine nutritionist, when she was a puppy.

Hives and throats closing are considered a "real" allergy. Of course, she has sensitivities, as well.

ORIGINAL: cakana

The way a vet dermatologist figures out if your dog has food allergies is to put it on a diet like NB Sweet Potato and Fish and that is all the dog can eat for a couple of months. If the symptoms goe away, then by adding back one ingredient at a time you could narrow it down to the possible cause of the allergy. Most people just keep the dog on the food that causes no problems. Natural Balance makes 3 of them.

Bob, that's not actually true.  My derm vet had me do a true elimination diet last spring.  For 12 weeks I fed ONLY pork and buckwheat, which I homecooked.  I wasn't allowed to give a single other thing, even a carrot, which was a treat of choice.  I made doggie biscuits using the pork & buckwheat for treats.  In our case, it didn't appear that things improved or deteriorated, so we moved on to environmental allergy testing. 

I do feed the Natural Balance Duck & Potato and I'm happy with it, but it's not going to tell you what your dog is allergic to by feeding it.  There's too many additional ingredients.  For example, if you fed the Duck & Potato and still had problems, it wouldn't necessarily mean the dog was allergic to duck or patotoes.  Make sense?  I always suggest that folks give one of those formulas a try, but if they still have problems, then a true elimination diet is the only way to go.

First of all, what they usually try to eliminate in food allergens are the most common ones.  The protein source and the carb source.  Grains cause many food allergies, so why you vet put your dog on pork and buckwheat is beyond me.  The foods that they usually recommend have an unusual protein source and that is why fish and duck and venison and rabbitt are typically used.  Potato is used for the carb source to eliminate grain allergies. As I said the easiest way is to start from the bottom up so to speak.  Find a food like Sweet Potato and Fish and if problems disappear, then you know it is something else causing the problem. That is an elimination diet that eliminates grains!!. 

ORIGINAL: sophia

We've always been able to determine it through food trial. One of my vets said not to do the blood test as it can show inaccurate results, so through the years I've always actually done it through trial. Although I understand that some people have had sgood uccess with the testing. I think there are pros and cons to both methods, but the bottom line is whatever works and helps us determine the allergens.

I've noted with my own dog results are often immediate, as in scratching the eyes, ears, mouth, feet and anal area within a few minutes of eating the food. These are all of the areas where mast cells are concentrated and mast cells are the ones that react with the histamine release to the allergen.Within a few more minutes tiny bumps may erupt around the mucous membranes of the eyes, and anal area (or on the torso or legs occasionally).

Other times the result has been vomiting right after eating the food or GI issues (bloody mucous poop) within 12-24 hours of eating the food.

My Vet dermatologist ( in fact 2 of them that I was talking to at the same time) did not recommend the blood test.  They said there were too many false results....

ORIGINAL: sooner

And how do you know?

There are so many people here who say their dogs are allergic to various things, so I'm wondering - have you had your dogs tested? How do you know that it is an allergy instead of a sensitivity? From what I've read true food allergies are rare, and even rarer in young dogs, but that doesn't seem to be the case with the majority of our dogs.

Personally I know that Boomer had several serious skin infections before he was a year old, but he hasn't had one since I cut chicken and sunflower oil out of his diet. I could say he's allergic to one or the other of those items, but he hasn't been tested and it would be unusual for him to be allergic that young. So maybe he's just sensitive?

 
I started noticing Dulce had a food allergy when she began to get MASSIVE hives all over her body. Her face would swell, almost closing her eye shut..and she paws at her face a lot.
 
I took her to the Animal Dermatologist, and instead of first testing, he had me do an elimination diet.
I was feeding Innova, and I've switched to Eukanuba ([:'(]) Fish & Potato Veterinary Diets.
Since I've switched her, she has NOT had any out breaks.
I've tested different treats with her, but I am very careful.
 
I also bathe her once a week, and apply her flea medicine every 2 weeks.
 
I would take your dog to a dermatologist just to be safe.
 
Does your dog have any symptoms?

Grains cause many food allergies, so why you vet put your dog on pork and buckwheat is beyond me.

Grains do NOT cause food allergies. Grains are often among the foods that a dog is allergic to, but they do not *cause* anything.

Dermatologists and nutritionists use a novel protein source and a novel carb, so if your dog has ever eaten rice, rice cannot be used.