So it has been another 5 weeks since I started the amended elimination diet with Maddie.

Today the vet and I had our call to evaluate the progress.

Note that I called her today for a few very specific reasons:

1. Venison roast at $10.99 a pound is not sustainable for this family’s budget
2. I have boiled and chopped enough potatoes to feed the National Army of Kazakhstan (pretty flag, no?)
3. Last night, for the 5th (or was it 50th) night in a row Maddie has awakened me licking and scratching her vulva and accompanying regions

The conversation went something like this:

Doc: How’s the scratching?

Me: On the margins somewhat better but she still wakes me up scratching.

Doc: Next step would be an allergy test.

Now at this point I am waiting for her to describe the scratch test. You know the one where they inject small amounts of the allergen and monitor the bumps that form.

But noooooooo……

Me: So the scratch test right?

Doc: No, they now have a blood test that looks at 40 different allergens and it is specific to Southern California (grasses, plants, etc.)

Me: How long have they had that test?

Doc: About 15 years.

What? Wait. WAIT! I have been doing the whole elimination diet thing as a way to try to figure out what is causing Maddie (and me) to be miserable and to save the $1800 plus dollars for allergy testing.

Me: So how much is the blood test?

Doc: $231.00

Me: WHAT? WHY DIDN’T YOU TELL ME THIS $231 TEST WAS AVAILABLE BEFORE I FED THE ENTIRE ARMY OF KAZAKSTAN POTATOES AND VENISON???!!!

Maddie went for her $231 allergy blood test today.

The results are back in two weeks.

My money on still on the fact she is allergic to the cat.

It’s been six weeks since I started Maddie on the elimination diet in the hopes of controlling her itching and scratching.

And for that six week period I have been diligently making the food mention in Dog Food Allergy Elimination Diet.

Maddie loved it.

Could not wait to eat.

Licked the design off the bowl!

Yesterday it was time for a chat with the vet to discuss the progress of the diet. It was during this discussion that she asked exactly what I was making.

As soon as I said ‘chicken’, she interrupted to inform me that chicken is the number one protein that causes allergic reactions in dogs.

What?

You mean that was six weeks of cooking dog food for no results?!

She went on to tell me that the true elimination diet had either duck, rabbit or venison as the source of protein.

And, no, chicken would not work.

Well I don’t know where you live but duck, rabbit and venison are not real prevalent in my local supermarket.

The vet suggested that Pinto beans are a great source of protein and that I could substitution a meat protein with Pinto’s.

Faithfully I remade the recipe mentioned above and replaced the chicken with Pinto beans. It was actually easier to make since there was no chicken to cook.

I dished out a batch to Maddie and instead of licking the bowl clean she looked at me with an expression that simply said “Really? You expect me to eat this?”

So there I am with a HUGE pot of potatoes, pumpkin, peas and Pinto beans with a dog that has no interest in eating any of it.

So I start to Google local meat markets to see if they had duck, rabbit, or venison.

Fortunately I found a shop up the steet that sells venison patties.

So I microwaved (sorry folks, that the method of cooking I’m left to after this fiasco) the patties, poured the juice into the pot, and crumbled in the venison.

Whoa! Home run!

She loved it.

Only 4 more weeks of this until the next vet discussion.

You watch. It will turn out that she isn’t allergic to any food – she’ll turn out to be allergic to the cat!

Previously I’ve shared the challenges of Maddie and her rather recent flair up of scratching.

Last week, while I was at the vet for the cat I asked the doctor about food allergies.

Mind you, I’m no rookie when it comes to dogs that can’t stop licking, scratching, creating hot spots, or otherwise making themselves, and me, miserable.

This time out the vet and I spoke about diets that would help to eliminate the causes of food allergies that Maddie might be experiencing.

In the past I was used to switching the overly aggressive scratcher, or a dog who was suffering from gastrointestinal issues, to a diet of only boiled chicken and whole grain rice.

The doctor explained that a true elimination diet would consist of a protein, namely rabbit or venison, and a starch, potato. This limited diet would be fed for 6-8 weeks after which we should be able to determine if the scratching had stopped.

She recommended Royal Canin Limited Ingredient food.

Knowing that the likelihood of Maddie liking this concoction was slim I still bought 6 cans of the rabbit formula. At $2.91 per can I already knew that, even if she adored it, it was a not an affordable alternative for the next 6 weeks – but I committed to giving her a taste.

As I suspected the reception was, well, unenthusiastic.

You know when you feed your dog something and they look at you with expression that says, “That’s it? That’s the best you’ve got?”

I knew it was time to make my own ‘limited ingredient’ batch of food.

Here’s what I made:

• 2 packages Trader Joe’s frozen chicken breasts (approximately 20 breasts)
• 2 – 13 oz. cans of Libby’s Pure Pumpkin (note that this is not the garbage filling that you make pumpkin pie out of)
• 8 medium Russet potatoes
• 3 tablespoons of olive oil (I’m not sure of this was the right amount as I think a bit more would have also been o.k.)

Boil the chicken until cooked. Then, in the same water as the chicken boiled in, boil the potatoes.

It’s important not to boil the potatoes too much. The cut potato should be able to hold a firm ½ inch dicing without crumbling.

The chicken was chopped until fine in a mini Cuisinart food processor.

In the same pot that the ingredients boiled in, after the water has been removed, mix the chicken, potato chunks, olive oil and the two cans of pumpkin together.

As all of this was being cooked Maddie stood by my side trying to control her excitement and the drool.

When I served it to her I thought she was going to eat the bowl that it was served in!

We’re on day three of the diet and it’s clear that I need to make more.

I’ll keep you posted on the results.

flickr credit

Annie had been scratching like crazy. She was trying so hard to get to the base of her tail that she was spinning around in circles!

We had heard that there was a process called an elimination diet that would help determine if the food she was eating currently would be causing her allergies. During our research we learned that one of the problems with trying to determine if food allergies are present is that dogs are usually allergic to only one ingredient, or to a small number of ingredients and not to the whole diet.

This means that the real challenge becomes isolating the food that is really causing the problem.

Historically the way to determine the root cause, which ingredient, was to move to a simple diet that would not often be found in traditional dog food. The reason is you need to make sure your dog has not already been sensitized to a particular food. The most frequent choice was lamb and rice. Unfortunately these two ingredients are now found in common dog food so the combination is less likely to help determine an allergy.

Alternately there are more exotic choices like ostrich meat, duck, venison, rabbit, alligator used in combination with potato and peas. Note that use of these diet components over the long term without supplemental calcium or vitamins is not a wise idea. Short term use in adult dogs should be OK.

If signs of allergies disappear while your dog is on the diet, which can take 8 weeks or more, then it can be assumed that a food allergy is likely present.

Over time you can add back in one ingredient into the diet to see of the symptoms reappear. These would include beef, chicken, milk, corn, wheat, etc.
Future diets should exclude these ingredients if after having been added back they are found to cause a return of symptoms.

Annie loves treats and like most people with dogs we enjoy giving them to her. We have cooked her dog food when we thought she was suffering from allergies and needed to get her away from store bought cans. We couldn’t help but think that there were foods that we should not be feeding her. In fact there is the risk of your dog not getting the proper nutrition from the home cooked meal.

Worse though is that some foods we as humans love are in fact dangerous to dogs.

Unfortunately dogs love the flavor of chocolate, just like so many humans. The reason this is unfortunate is that in sufficient doses it is lethally toxic to dogs. Chocolate contains the chemical stimulant theobromine that together with caffeine and theophylline, belongs to the group of methylxanthine alkaloids. Dogs are unable to metabolize theobromine effectively. If dogs eat chocolate the theobromine can remain in their bloodstreams for up to 20 hours and can result in:

• accelerated heart rate

• hallucinations

• severe diarrhea

• epileptic seizures

• heart attack

• internal bleeding

• eventual death.

If your dog, especially smaller breeds, should eat chocolate, contact a veterinarian or animal poison control immediately; it is frequently recommended to induce vomiting within two hours of ingestion. Larger breeds are less susceptible to poisoning from chocolate, but still are far less tolerant of the substance and therefore it should be avoided.

Note: Many pet gourmet stores sell carob treats. These are not related to chocolate and are safe.

Other foods and their potential interactions are:

• grapes and raisins can cause acute kidney failure in dogs

• onions, and to a lesser extent garlic, contain thiosulfate which causes hemolytic anemia in dogs. Thiosulfate levels are unaffected by cooking or processing. Small puppies have died of hemolytic anemia after being fed baby food containing onion powder. Garlic is also known to cause diarrhea and vomiting

• macadamia nuts have been found to cause stiffness, tremors, hyperthermia, and abdominal pain.

• alcoholic beverages pose problems for dogs just as to humans. A drunken dog displays behavior similar to that of an intoxicated person. Beer presents its own issues.

• Hops, a primary beer ingredient, can cause a condition called malignant hyperthermia in dogs, usually with fatal results. Hops should be kept away from all dogs. Even small amounts of hops can trigger a potentially deadly reaction

• Xylitol is a sugar substitute used in chewing gum, chewable vitamins, candy, toothpaste, and other products. Toxic or fatal liver damage may result

• Dogs can have food allergies just like humans do. This is particular to the individual dog and not of the species as a whole. Just as humans may be allergic to seafood, dogs may have an allergy to seafood

• Dogs should avoid eating the pits of fruits like peaches and apricots, they can get cyanide poisoning due to cyanogenic glycosides.

Needless to say there are many potential downsides to giving your beloved pup too many unfamiliar human treats.

Perhaps the best suggestion is to stick with store bought treats.

Our family dog Annie has been exhibiting the following signs of dog allergies:

• facial itching
• foot chewing
• belly itching

Rather than this being a minor annoyance for Annie or us as owners, this was starting to effect her overall health.

The more she licked, the more hair she ate, the more she coughed. The more she chewed, the redder she got, sometimes to the point of bleeding.

Suspect one to this dog allergy dilemma was her diet, as dog allergies brought on by food are a prime cause to the distress our dog was in.

In fact dog allergies are one of the itchiest conditions known to dogs.

Processed food proteins, fillers and assorted colorings are all further processed inside their bodies. The immune systems may recognize some of these now changed or combined proteins as the foreign invader that needs to be attacked by the immune system. While other evidence of inflammation may appear in area such as the GI tract or other organ, it is the skin that suffers the most.

Many people assume that a change of diet is what will bring on an allergic reaction. The fact is that food allergies take time to develop. In fact you may have been feeding the very food that is causing the allergies for years without any sign of trouble.

In order to get to the bottom of the food allergy mystery you will need to set about a hypoallergenic diet that can be fed to your dog over a set period of time. This will determine whether or not it is, in fact, a food allergy or another cause.

If your pet recovers after the hypoallergenic diet is fed then a 2 weeks resumption of the original diet should be fed to validate the cause as the offending food. If in 2 weeks time the original food causes a new bout of itching and scratching then food allergy diagnosis might be assumed as a cause.