How many dogs have allergies?

Allergies affect up to half of all dogs.  That is a stat that I had to search the internet for a long time go find. But its very vague and doesn’t mention the severity of the allergy reaction.  I suspect that they are also including dog food intolerance which as you will read is a much lesser reaction and nowhere near as life threatening.

The top three allergens

1 Fleas and tick bites

2 inhaled substances like pollen or dust or CONTACT with substances,

3 food allergies.

(vetinfo dot com)

What percent of dog allergies are food allergy related?

Ten percent (10%) of all dog allergy cases  are food allergies.  Well that’s what they say. But of course most dog food allergy sites see to be sponsored by dog food companies.

It is true that all of these statistics are sketchy, and that is because many people dont take their dogs to a vet to get treated for a dog allergy. This can be because of expense or the owner not knowing that its an allergy.

But just in case you missed it only 10% of dogs with allergies are believed to have an allergy caused by FOOD.

If the above statistics of about half of dogs having allergies in total is correct then about FIVE percent (5%) of all dogs have an allergy related to the food they consume (or could consume).

I personally think that the half of the dog population being allergic is a gross over estimation.  The reason is that if dogs are representative of any other type of animal class, then the whole animal kingdom would regularly be suffering from severe allergies.

And of course allergies come and go (many are seasonal related to grass blooms).

If your dog is treated to reduce the chance of flea infestation, and they dont have a large seasonal reaction to pollens etc, then that leaves food as the major allergy left.

However as we have discussed before,  feeding your dog a hypo allergenic dog food is of little use if your dog is actually allergic to a food substance and you have not pin pointed what that food or food protein is.

The point I am trying to make is the dog food industry is driven by profit and convincing you to buy more expensive stuff. If food allergies are the rarest class of allergies, and many dogs dont suffer allergies at all, then being off handed-ly told to buy hypo allergenic dog food is usually going to do very little good for your dog.