FOOD
ALLERGIES
If your dog’s
allergies are year round instead of seasonal chances are your dog has food
allergies. Common symptoms are ear infections, excessive scratching, red or
scaly skin
hair loss and
skin infections. Once your veterinarian has identified that the dog doesn’t
have mites by skin scraping, then it’s safe to suspect food protein in your
dog’s diet is the culprit.
Treatment
Your vet will
recommend a special hypoallergenic diet to try. A two- month trial will be
needed to make a correct diagnosis. You must be diligent to feed your dog only
the new diet and nothing else while you are trying to identify the allergen.
Once you identify your dog’s allergy to be food protein you must avoid giving
your pet that food or similar treats. Then the reaction should disappear.
Symptoms will return if these types of proteins are reintroduced into your
dog’s diet.