ArtsAutosBooksBusinessEducationEntertainmentFamilyFashionFoodGamesGenderHealthHolidaysHomeHubPagesPersonal FinancePetsPoliticsReligionSportsTechnologyTravel

How to Know if Your Dog Has Food Allergies and What to Do

Updated on July 1, 2017

Dogs and Food Allergies

Dogs can develop allergies to their food, just like humans can. Of all allergies that dogs experience, about 10% are caused by food. 20% of itching is caused by food allergies and another 20% by food allergies with others include eczema, rhinitis or asthma, As you can see, food allergies cause a lot of the itching that dogs experience.

Symptoms

The first sign that you will notice is the dog scratching himself more than usual. All dogs scratch themselves from time to time, but this is scratching much more than normal. Later, you’ll see bare patches from the dog scratching so much.

Some breeds will also develop red eyes and sinus problems. Frequent ear infections or asthma can also indicate a problem.


Be sure to check that your dog’s problem isn’t fleas, mites or ringworm. These can cause itching too.

What You Should Do

Before the situation gets worse, call your vet. You’ll need to explain to him what is going on and he may or may not require a visit. Sometimes, he’ll just prescribe an allergy pill and other times he’ll want the dog to come in, so he can check him over.

Take your dog off his current food. If you’ve just tried something new, you’ll know what the culprit is. Take the dog off the food right away and go back to the dog’s regular food.

What the Vet Will Do

If the vet questions the cause of the itching, he may require a blood or skin test, which he will send to a lab for analysis. He may be able to identify the problem as food allergies just upon his examination.

When the vet verifies that the itching is caused by allergies, he may first try allergy pills. He may also give the dog a prednisone shot and have the dog to take prednisone pills for a period of time.

If the problem continues,  the pet may eventually be put on allergy shots. Don’t despair. The owner will be shown how to give the shots and it really isn’t that hard, but they can cost $200 per year and up.

What You Should Do in the Future

Only feed your pet high quality dog foods. Always check the ingredients. There are special brands on the market for dogs with allergies. If changing your dog’s food, do it slowly. Just add a little to the bowl at a time and increase slowly over a week’s time.

Don’t feed your dog table scraps. These just involve too many ingredients that the dog may have or develop an allergy to.

Watch the ingredients of the treats you buy for your dog too. As a last resort, make your own treats. There are recipes online for both treats and dog food.

working

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy

Show Details
Necessary
HubPages Device IDThis is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.
LoginThis is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.
Google RecaptchaThis is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy)
AkismetThis is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Traffic PixelThis is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized.
Amazon Web ServicesThis is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy)
CloudflareThis is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy)
Google Hosted LibrariesJavascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy)
Features
Google Custom SearchThis is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy)
Google MapsSome articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
Google ChartsThis is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)
Google AdSense Host APIThis service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Google YouTubeSome articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
VimeoSome articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
PaypalThis is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook LoginYou can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
MavenThis supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)
Marketing
Google AdSenseThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Google DoubleClickGoogle provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Index ExchangeThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
SovrnThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook AdsThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Unified Ad MarketplaceThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
AppNexusThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
OpenxThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Rubicon ProjectThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
TripleLiftThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Say MediaWe partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy)
Remarketing PixelsWe may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.
Conversion Tracking PixelsWe may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.
Statistics
Author Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)
ComscoreComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Tracking PixelSome articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)
ClickscoThis is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy)