A cat’s food allergy is a difficult thing to assess. Once it has been determined that a food allergy is the problem, the diet of the cat needs to be examined. Cats can be irritated by sarcoptic mange (scabies), fleas, and inhalation allergies (seasonal pollens for example) but a food allergy has been cited as one of the itchiest afflictions for a cat. Store-bought cat food tends to be seriously processed. Food colorings and a general lower quality of ingredients can play into this. A recent diet change can be also be the culprit. Most interesting however, is the fact that the determination of a food allergy can only really take place if all fleas are eradicated from the pet. A flea bite can at times produce a similar allergic reaction that of a food allergy.
There are several other factors that need to be discerned before a food allergy can be the “arrived upon” diagnosis. Cats will display their discomfort through unkempt hair, continual scratching of infected, crusty skin and possibly even recurring ear infections. Food allergies produce similar results to sarcoptic mange, and flea reactions, but they are a form of atopy. Atopy is characterized by irritation to areas of the body that hasn’t been in direct contact with the allergen. This is why it is very important to determine if the atopy is food related or inhalation related. Pollens, dust, and dust mites can all provide atopic dermatitis similar to that of a food allergy.
After eliminating the other potential irritants, the diet cat’s can now be adjusted. The next step is a hypoallergenic food trial. This is a four to eight week period of time where foods are fed to the cat in order to determine which produces the allergic reaction. During this period of time, if a food doesn’t bring about an adverse reaction, it is a good idea to adopt that food to the pet’s regular diet. Some suggest home cooking as a solution. The test diet can have home-cooked servings of chicken, fish and even tofu added as part of the attempt to determine the food allergy of a cat. There are also specialized foods available for purchase that help a cat owner determine food allergies. A cursory search of the Internet shows that there are specialized cat foods available in order to “mix-up” your cat’s diet and determine what works and what doesn’t work. Common meat products such as herring, turkey and chicken are available.
Sometimes a longer diet trial is needed. The ideas of a continuing inhalant allergy or a fresh round of scabies still being the culprit are things to consider. Furthermore, one has to be completely sure that the food that they are feeding to the cat is the only food that the cat is taking in. A cat’s food allergy is hard to determine, but with patience, and proper trial and error, it can be determined and your pet can be healthy in a relatively short amount of time.
Archive
Posts Tagged ‘Food Allergy’
Feb
16
Jan
29
Dog allergies of all kinds are just as common in dogs as they are in humans. Dog skin allergies are one of the most common forms of allergies that you may experience. These allergies are characterized by having your pet chew, lick and paw at her itchy skin, her eyes and nose may have some sort of discharge (usually a clear discharge) and there may be digestive upsets involved. Skin lesions are another sign that your dog is probably suffering allergies of skin.
What Causes Dog Skin Allergies?
All allergies are a result of our immune system being hypersensitive to some sort of substance (which is referred to as an antigen or allergen). Dog skin allergies can show up at any point of your dog’s life, though they tend to come about during the first five years of your dog’s life.
The most common of the dog skin allergies involves dog fleas. The saliva of dog fleas will often cause the area of skin where the bite occurred to become incredibly itchy and irritating.
There are also atopic dog skin allergies, which is the result of your pet inhaling some sort of substance that does not agree with their immune system. These allergens are similar to the inhaled allergens that bother humans, such as dust, mold, dander, and pollen. This type of allergy usually is noticeable when your pet is quite young (under 6 months in age) The best way to try and stop atopic allergies is to keep your home and the area that the dog lives in very clean and well ventilated.
How are Dog Skin Allergies Diagnosed?
Where the skin lesions are present on the body will often help the veterinarian decide if your dog has an allergy or not. Your veterinarian may also put your dog on some sort of a flea medication, and different foods may be tried so as to rule out whether or not your dog is having a dog food allergy rather than an allergy of skin. Blood tests and allergy testing may also be involved in more complex cases.
How do you Treat dog Skin Allergies?
Unfortunately, allergies are very rarely “cured”; it’s more a matter of trying to control them and to keep them in check. Antihistamines as well as corticosteroids are popular ways to treat allergies, though some pet owners are also choosing “immunotherapy”. This type of therapy is a bit controversial as it is not guaranteed to work, though if it does, it will take up to 12 months to work properly.
May
18
Allergy is prevalent both in adults and babies these days. You would be alarmed to hear that out of the total population that suffers from allergies, 6% constitutes children, especially infants. You never know when an allergy will come. Okay…how does allergy occur? As soon as the immune system starts to react differently for the food items that you generally take, it means you are allergic to that type of food.
When I say babies are prone to food allergies, I’m sure many parents will wonder how and why? Am I not true in saying that for every parent, their children is their world? You give them with all the basic necessities like food, clothing, and shelter and above all, good care. It is essential that you be aware of the food items that your child is allergic to as sometimes, it may even cause death.
You get a lot of food items like pizza, burger, cheese, milk, pasta, fishes, etc. and your child may be allergic to one or more of these food items. It is the duty of each and every parent to take care of their child’s health and that too when allergies are more prevalent. Necessary steps have to be taken to ensure that the child is not experiencing any uneasiness due to allergies. You will have to be extra careful if you are introducing solid foods to your infant.
Let us see how an allergy occurs as this will help you understand how to prevent as well as manage food allergies. As soon as the child eats a food item that is allergic to him/her, IgE (antibodies) will be produced by the body. The next time when the same food is eaten by your child, IgE will inform the immune system for producing histamines. Histamines are produced to fight against the allergens. In general, allergens are harmless; however, it is the immune system that mistakes this to be harmful for the child and will start to attack it. Due to this, a child may get symptoms and signs of allergy. These symptoms may occur within few minutes or in two hours depending on the response from the immune system.
Allergic symptoms fall into two categories, namely, mild and severe. Mild symptoms include:
a) Swelling of skin, or parts of the body like ears, mouth, tongue, etc.
b) Rashes, which are itchy.
c) Discomfort in breathing
d) Vomiting
e) Diarrhea
In some cases, allergy is hereditary. Say for example, one of your family members is allergic towards milk, there are possibilities for your child to inherit this allergy. Some children do not show any signs of allergy when they start eating these food items; however, in the longer run may develop allergic signs and symptoms. Few food items that may cause allergy are:
a) Eggs
b) Milk
c) Fish
d) Peanuts
e) Treenuts
It is advisable to call the local emergency number immediately after your child shows allergic signs or symptoms. Why should you do this? It is because some allergies may even cause death. It is always good if you can detect the allergy at an earlier stage itself. If you get in touch with your pediatrician, he/she will be able to prepare and give you a plan of action to prevent allergy.
Don’t take allergy as a simple disease. Please pay proper attention to if your child is allergic towards a food item. This will save the lives of your precious and priceless gift, that is, your baby.
Apr
24
Not only humans’ even animals are affected by food allergy. It mainly affects cars and is rated among the main causes of atopy, flea bite allergies. Cats usually develop allergies from constantly fed kind of foods.
Often cats are sensitive to a certain type of food ingredient. So, an antibody in their intestinal tracts responds, leading to food allergy. Among all other type of allergies, with a 10% ratio allergies caused by food are more prone to cats.
Food allergies affect male, neutered cats and also female ones. It is also a misconception connecting specific breed of cats to allergies caused by food. This condition can initially create symptoms for cats from four months young to eleven years old. But majority of food allergy cases occur between 3- 6 years in cats. These cats are also in connection with inhalant allergies.
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The main difference between food intolerance and food allergy should be learned to correctly manage allergy in cats. Allergy caused by food are taken as true allergies revealing symptoms like itching and skin problems associated with feline and canine allergies. Incase diarrhea or vomiting happens without creating allergic responses, it means that it’s only intolerance of food. Cat food intolerance is similar to a human having a stomach ache or diarrhea as a result of consuming spicy food or eating food that is fried. By utilizing foods food intolerance and allergies can be prevented. This doesn’t offend the agents.
Many studies reveal that few ingredients of food are the main causes of allergies when compared to the rest. The main common causes in cats are dairy products, fish and beef. Many pet owners would have observed that the following ones are the main ingredients found in foods that are consumed by the cat. Even though few proteins are more antigenic, it still comes in similar forms. So, this reaction depends mostly on the quantity of exposure.
The symptoms of this allergy in cats are most likely the same to most kinds of allergies. But the major ones are excessive scratching, hair loss, military dermatitis and itchy skin. For pet owners it is difficult to distinguish cars that suffer from atopy or food allergy by physical signs. But, they must suspect food allergy if these symptoms begin to take place during winter or through out the year and the cats fail to respond to antihistamine or steroid treatment.
When you figure out the symptoms of different allergies in cats it is very simple to diagnose the allergy. Symptoms of food allergy are similar to that of bacterial, notoedric mange, hypersensitivity to intestinal parasites, seborrhea and yeast infections.
It is necessary to carry out food trials. Elimination and provocative testing diets could be done. One should feed the cat with foods that has carbohydrates, proteins for 11 – 12 weeks without any treats. A typical instance is potato and venison or potato and duck. These foods are commercially available in the market or could be homemade. Young and growing cats have special nutritional needs. Diets made at home containing a carbohydrate and a protein eliminating multivitamins and fatty acids could be fed for 12 weeks. Food trials for kitten are carried out by giving a commercially balanced diet. After few weeks, feed the cat with previous food that they once have consumed. Incase the symptoms are shown then it’s surely food allergy. Others perform blood testing which is not accurate when compared to trials (food).
Feed the cats with commercial diets from hill or Purina or homemade diets which makes treatment of allergy simple and easy.
Feb
16
Allergies in dogs seem to have become more and more common over the years. Whether this is just because we are getting better at diagnosing them is debatable, but certainly the pet food manufacturers have had an important role to play in dealing with this phenomenon. Although a food allergy is thought to be non curable, the good news is that with proper diagnosis and management it can be well controlled in virtually 100% of cases.
What is a food allergy?
A more appropriate term for a food allergy is an adverse food reaction. It is where ingestion of a certain ingredient in the diet causes itchiness anywhere on the body and recurring skin or ear infections with Malassezia yeast and bacteria. Food allergies can also cause digestive tract signs too, such as fecal mucus, blood in the stools and increased frequency of defecation. They have also been associated with increased flatulence.
The root cause of these adverse food reactions is unknown, but research points towards an increase in permeability of the gut wall, or a failure of the gut associated immune system. Though it has never been proven that certain breeds are affected worse than others, some breeds do seem to be over represented. The age of onset can range from a few months to 12 years old.
What are the ingredients that dogs are most commonly allergic to?
There are 7 ingredients that are frequently responsible for adverse food reactions:
1. Beef
2. Milk
3. Eggs
4. Chicken
5. Soy
6. Wheat
7. Corn
Statistically, beef and soy are the biggest offenders. Many dogs will be allergic to more than one of these ingredients, and may also be allergic to things in their environment, such as pollen, certain grasses or fleas.
How can a food allergy be diagnosed?
If a dog has had general itchiness that does not lessen in the winter months, recurrent skin and ear infections or intermittent soft stools, it is worth investigating for a food allergy.
There are 3 recognised diagnostic methods:
1. A blood test to measure antibodies to various ingredients.
2. An intradermal skin test where allergens are injected at various points on the skin and the reaction is measured.
3. An elimination diet.
The intradermal skin test is thought to be very inaccurate, and the jury is still out on the blood test. The elimination diet is seen as the most reliable, and the cheapest of the three options. It does however require a motivated and disciplined owner in order to achieve meaningful results.
Elimination Diet
There are three basic elimination diet choices:
1. Home cooked food
This is not generally recommended as it is time consuming for the owner and can also provide an unnatural and nutritionally unbalanced diet. However, if the dog is incredibly fussy and the owner cannot bear to force it to eat a commercial diet, the best ingredients are one of either lamb, fish, duck or turkey, plus one of either rice or potatoes. The two ingredients selected (the former high in protein, the latter a carbohydrate source) should be ones that the dog has preferably never eaten before.
2. A commercial, limited antigen diet
If one of these diets is to be recommended, suitable ingredients would be venison, rabbit or oatmeal. Remember, we are looking for ingredients that your dog has never eaten before, so cannot possibly already be allergic to.
3. A commercial, hydrolysed protein hypoallergenic diet
These contain proteins that have been broken down to the extent that they are no longer capable of causing an allergic reaction. They are often referred to as prescription diets because they are usually purchased via a veterinarian, although they can be obtained over the counter without a prescription. They are significantly more expensive than limited antigen diets, so it is wiser to try a limited antigen diet first as if the elimination diet is successful, the dog will remain on that food for life.
The elimination diet must be given for a minimum of 6 weeks, and possibly up to 10, in order to observe the maximum response. Owners must not give their dog ANYTHING else during the trial period, meaning no titbits, treats or vitamin supplements. For example, many owners do not realize that rawhide chews are made from cow derivatives and that with beef being the most common culprit in allergies, these chews could be the root of the problem. During the trial period, nothing must enter the dogs mouth apart from the chosen diet and water.
If the symptoms in question are intense itchiness, many vets will prescribe antihistamines or steroids during the first few weeks of the trial in order to make the dog more comfortable. If the dog gets better as the trial goes on, and the initial drugs to provide temporary comfort have worn off, then it is suggestive of a food allergy. If this occurs, the dog is then challenged with its former diet to see if the symptoms return and therefore confirm the diagnosis. It usually takes between 3 and 7 days for the symptoms to return after initiating the challenge.
If there is a partial improvement in the dogs condition, it is likely that the dog indeed has a food allergy but also has other allergies at the same time. The dog will then be kept on the elimination diet while other potential allergies are investigated, such as flea bite sensitivity and atopy. These can be checked for via intradermal testing or blood tests.
If a food allergy is confirmed, the owner can either continue to feed the same food given during the elimination trial indefinitely, or can persevere with dietary trials by introducing the 7 most common allergic ingredients (see above) one by one until it is ascertained exactly what the dog is allergic to.