Have you ever wondered how much hypoallergenic dog food works?

Ask the average person who buys hypoallergenic dog food why they do it and you will get the same answer as for those who buy gluten free food for themselves, because its supposed to be good for you.

But in fact this is kind of the opposite that can happen.

But isn’t hypoallergenic good, like hypo-allergenic bracelets for humans?   See the ridiculousness in this statement is the absolute lack of knowledge most people have about what their dogs are eating, or even why they are wearing a certain bracelet themselves.

With bracelets, a person can be allergic to a given metal. Yes this happens, but most people find metals a non issue, since they are in general a single element or maybe 3 mixed together. There are typically very few dangerous additives that can be added to the metal mix. If you want the safest bracelet you use the metal that is most inert – does not react with anything including oxygen – the reason why people go with straight gold. Though of course once it is broken down from 24 karat it does have other metals added that you can be allergic to – but this is an easy allergy, you see the rash or localize swelling around your wrist usually.

WHAT dog food is your dog allergic too?

This is the major question you need to answer before shelling out any money. If you have looked at the rest of the articles on this site, you will see that dog food allergies are very low compared to contact allergy (grasses) and inhaled allergies (dust mites etc). Perhaps 1 in 100 dogs are severally allergy struck and only 5- 10% of these have the cause as the food they eat.

People, including vets, might tell you that your dog is a very sensitive soul and needs to eat the finest of foods that are gentle to their stomach – but constant runny poos can be a sign of any kind of skin allergy or even IBS or other inflammatory bowel diseases. These are definitely things you should get checked out and can kill your dog relatively quickly. They can be initially diagnosed with blood tests usually.

The trick with what food your dog is allergic to is that even skin tests that allergists use for humans and dogs can be very inconclusive. They usually find out what kind of grass your dog might be allergic to, but not food

Since a real food allergy is a complex internal reaction that often is a result of how the intestine or stomach specifically reacts to a food, and mis-diagnosis often occurs feeding of hypo-allergic dog food is often down for all the wrong reason, not because of an allergy response.

In the next article we look at what causes dog food allergies, the most common foods, and what the difference between dog food allergies and dog food intolerances are. They can have the same result, but usually the intolerance has lower symptoms and can be easier to manage, the only way to manage a real dog food allergy is to avoid that food.