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(Kennel Cough #2) Bordetella Vaccination

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Most boarding facilities require proof of Bordetella vaccination for dogs who will be visiting. However, because there are many strains of Bordetella, and because no vaccine protects every patient, some immunized dogs contract tracheobronchitis despite being vaccinated. Veterinary recommendations range from vaccinating every four months to not at all.

“There are two kinds of Bordetella vaccine,” says Stacey Hershman, DVM, a holistic veterinarian in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York. “The intranasal vaccine is highly effective and very safe since it is not systemic but goes down the nose into the throat. I do not recommend the injectable vaccine since it can cause negative side effects like lethargy, fever, vomiting, or diarrhea.

“I never vaccinate animals more than once a year for kennel cough, and then only if they are going to a boarding kennel. Kennel cough is not fatal in adult dogs, who usually board, therefore it would be over-vaccinating in my opinion to do it more than once a year. Healthy, strong immune systems are resistant and do not catch it, which is another reason not to vaccinate unless the dog is going to a kennel that requires it.”

No matter what your dog’s vaccination status, a few natural preventives can’t hurt, especially whenever your dog is exposed to dogs with active or recent infections.

For advice on preventing kennel cough as well as natural and effective ways to soothe the symptoms, purchase Kennel Cough Prevention and Remedies from Whole Dog Journal.

(Kennel Cough #3) Clearing the Air

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When Faith Thanas, an aromatherapist who lives in Leicester, Massachusetts, adopted a Doberman Pinscher from Louisiana one year after Hurricane Katrina, Sasha arrived in a van carrying 20 rescued dogs. A few days later, she started coughing.

To help soothe Sasha’s throat, Thanas mixed a blend of essential oils to spray in the air around the dog. She started with Ravensare (Cinnamonum camphora), one of the “must have” essential oils listed by Kristen Leigh Bell in her book Holistic Aromatherapy for Animals. As Bell explains, this gentle and tolerable antiviral, antibacterial essential oil supports the immune system and has tonifying effects.

Thanas then added Eucalyptus radiata, the gentlest of the many eucalyptus varieties available. It is known for its antiviral, anti-inflammatory, and expectorant properties. Bell writes, “Due to its gentleness, it is very appropriate for use in blends for animals for congestion, and it makes an excellent room air cleaner, deodorizer, and flea repellent.”

Eucalyptus globulus, the next ingredient, is the eucalyptus commonly found in chest rubs, cough drops, and cough syrups. It has a fresh antiseptic fragrance and, when inhaled, acts as a decongestant.

Thanas added Spike Lavender (Lavendula latifolia) for its powerful antibacterial properties.

After diluting the essential oils, Thanas used a spray bottle to mist the air around Sasha. “The results were instantaneous,” she recalls. “She stopped coughing, she was able to breathe, and she was so much more comfortable.”

For advice on preventing kennel cough as well as natural and effective ways to soothe the symptoms, purchase Kennel Cough Prevention and Remedies from Whole Dog Journal.

(Vaccinations #1) Vaccine Titer Tests

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The use of vaccine titer tests can help you decide whether or not your puppy is completely protected from disease after her “puppy shots,” or if your adult dog really needs any more core vaccines.

It’s a similar situation with annual or semi-annual so-called vaccine “boosters” – not many people know much about their dogs’ vaccination status, so they take their veterinarians’ word that their dogs are “due” for more vaccinations.

The truth is, there is no single vaccination protocol that will protect all dogs for all things, without over-vaccinating most of them. Vaccination really ought to be determined on a case-by-case basis, because each dog’s risk factors are unique, based on his age, genetic inheritance, current health, geographic location, and lifestyle.

That said, there is a very useful tool that can help an owner gain solid information about whether her dog is likely to be protected against the most common infectious diseases: the vaccine titer test. Positive test results can also give a dog owner some solid ammunition for countering those who blindly promote (or require, in the case of some boarding or training facilities) so-called “current” vaccinations, which can mean many different things to different people.

To read more about vaccinations, purchase the Whole Dog Journal ebook, Vaccinations.

(Vaccinations #2) What are Core Vaccines?

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Core vaccines include:

  • Canine distemper virus (CDV, commonly referred to as distemper)
  • Canine parvovirus (CPV, parvo)
  • Canine adenovirus (CAV, better known as canine hepatitis)
  • Rabies

Among healthy dogs, the first three “core” vaccines are expected to induce a protective immune response lasting at least five years. However, much longer protection from these vaccines has been demonstrated in dogs in many studies – some- times, even as long as the dogs’ lifetime.

Rabies is a slightly different case. Because the disease poses a significant risk to human beings, it’s the only vaccine that is required by law to be administered to dogs. Each state has its own legal requirements for rabies vaccination. Some require annual rabies vaccinations; the rest require the vaccination be given every two or three years (depending on the state). There is ample evidence that rabies vaccines confer protection from rabies for longer than three years, but given the public health risk to humans, there is considerable push-back from public health officials to the idea of ex- tending the legal requirement for rabies vaccines.

To read more about vaccinations, purchase the Whole Dog Journal ebook, Vaccinations.

(Vaccinations #3) How Antibody Titer Tests may Affect? your Decisions?

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Antigens are any substance that the immune system identifies as an invader and responds to by producing a chemical defense: antibodies. When everything is working as it should, your dog’s immune system will recognize disease antigens that were introduced to his system via a vaccine (weakened or killed) or by natural exposure to the antigen that causes the disease (viral or bacterial).

A “titer” is a measurement of how much antibody to a certain antigen is circulating in the blood at that moment. The result is usually expressed in a ratio. A positive titer test result is strongly correlated with a good antibody response to either a recent infection or vaccination. A dog who has received “core” vaccines and who displays a positive antibody titer test result should be considered protected from the diseases for which he was vaccinated (meaning, he doesn’t need vaccines at that time).

Your dog must undergo a blood draw in order to have an antibody titer test. Labs such as Antech, IDEXX, and most veterinary college laboratories offer these tests. Antibody titer testing is typically run for parvovirus and distemper, since the dog’s antibody response to these two antigens is highly predictive as to the dog’s immunologic competence in dealing with any other antigen to which he has been exposed.

To read more about vaccinations, purchase the Whole Dog Journal ebook, Vaccinations.

Advice for a First-Time Dog Owner

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My son was lucky enough to land his first job out of college working for a company that allows employees to bring their dogs to work. The company has about 140 employees, and my son tells me that on any given day, about a dozen or so dogs can be found around the office.

He brings his dog to work one or two days a week. Cole, an American Black and Tan Coonhound-mix, is very well behaved, but he’s also about 1½ years old ­- an adolescent – and not ready for “office work” all day, every day. On the days he’s planning on bringing Cole to work, my son gets up early and takes Cole for an extra-long run before work, to help ensure that Cole is relaxed and calm all day, not looking for other dogs (and people!) to play with, or whining with boredom.

I am proud to say that my son reports that he has been told a number of times that his is the best-behaved dog at the office, and that several co-workers have asked for his dog-related advice. One such co-worker went so far as to ask my son for advice on choosing his first-ever dog! While my son is a gifted dog handler – having had to handle dogs for modeling for WDJ since he was five! – he felt a little over his head with this request. So he asked me to help his friend 😉

Via email, I asked his friend/co-worker what he was looking for in a dog; his first response was that he wanted a really friendly dog who enjoys being petted. He’d prefer a dog with a short coat, medium-sized . . . but these were not deal-breakers in the right dog, and he had no breed or sex biases. He did emphasize that he’s never had his own dog before – so what that tells me is that he needs an easy dog, preferably an adult, with either some training or highly trainable, and very well-socialized. He is hoping to be able to bring his dog to work, too, so the dog must be really good with other dogs.

I think I found a good candidate for him at my local shelter; I took some pictures and video of the dog and sent them to him, and he’s interested. We’re planning for them to meet this weekend. I’ll keep you posted on how it goes.

In the meantime, he asked me one more question via email: “Do you have any suggested readings on preparing for a dog?” And I thought I would put that question to you! If a person had time to read ONE book before bringing their first-ever dog home, what book would you recommend?

And, to take things one step further, if you had ONE piece of advice to share with a first-time dog owner, what would it be?

Who’s Smarter?

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One of my friends has a dog, Lena, who recently tore her ACL. She’s on as much crate rest as my friend can manage. Ordinarily, Lena is a highly active dog, and keeping her quiet while her knee heals is quite a chore. Lena had surgery on her OTHER knee a few years ago, and my friend has been told that Lena’s hips are highly dysplastic, so my friend has invested a lot in finding ways to keep Lean busy while keeping her inactive. She owns lots of food-puzzles and tons of toys and Lena eats only out of Kong toys…anything to keep her occupied and prevent her from tearing the house apart.

One day my friend came home from a shopping trip, happy about a toy she found in a chain drug store (CVS) called the Fetch N Treat. It’s a low-tech toy that dispenses treats when a ball is dropped into the top. When the ball is dropped into a hole at the top, it presses a lever that makes treats sprinkle out, and the ball itself also rolls out of the toy.  My friend said that she loaded the toy with a combination of kibble and treats, and showed the ball (tennis ball-sized but heavier) to Lena, demonstrated dropping the ball into the hole at the top of the toy to Lena two times, allowing Lena to first eat the treats that were dispensed and then pick up the ball. And then Lena herself dropped the ball into the top of the toy, ate the resulting treats, fetched the ball, and did it again.

I was both impressed and a little dubious. I’ve never thought Lena was all that smart, frankly. My friend got her when she was about three or four months old, and she’s always been kind of a hardhead and slow to learn or at least, slow to learn good manners behaviors. She’s never been all that reliable with recalls or paying attention to her owner on the trail. So I had to see this for myself. I ended up driving over to my friend’s house that day to see both the toy and whether Lena could, as advertised, operate it that quickly and efficiently.

It turned out that yes, she could. My friend set it up and she went to work like a factory worker. Get the ball, drop it in, eat the treats, get the ball, drop it in, eat the treats…Score one for Lena, Nancy zero.

So what’s next? I had to drive right over to CVS and get one of the toys myself so I could see what my dogs would make of it.

Tito the Chihuahua was alternately interested in the ball and the treats. No matter how many times I demonstrated, he would either chase the ball and leave, or eat the treats and then look for more. It seemed like he couldn’t comprehend the connection between the two. But I didn’t think he would. I had higher hopes for Otto. He’s far more interested in training and learns new tasks really quickly. I’ve played shaping games with him many times, like 101 things to do with a box, and he’s always been quick to understand when I want him to find a new behavior; he’ll persist in trying behavior after behavior until he finds something that earns him a treat.

I demonstrated the toy for Otto. He, too, failed to see the connection, or at least, failed to show that he cared enough to operate it himself. He did seem to quickly grasp that treats would come out of the toy if I put the ball into the hole at the top, but he also figured out that if he nosed the toy super hard and made it fall over, the treats would spill out then, too.

I was able to coach him into bringing the ball toward the toy, and even managed to direct him into dropping it into the top of the toy, but I could see that there was no way he would have managed to do it without heavy coaching. Left to his own devices, he just started pawing and nosing the toy (he’s played with a lot of food-dispensing toys that require manipulation to dispense the treats).

Today, I drove back over to get some video of Lena operating her toy. She’s had it for about two months and her owner sets it up for her to play with a few times a week. She is an absolute expert at it now. She doesn’t get frustrated, but just tries again, if she puts the ball in and it fails to dispense a treat (sometimes they get stuck). Sometimes the ball gets stuck inside, and she’s learned to nudge the toy hard if this happens, to get the ball to roll out. She doesn’t need any encouragement or direction; she clearly understands exactly how the thing works.

So much for my understanding of canine intelligence.

Really? A Dog Park I’d Visit?

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I just found the ideal dog park. It’s in Grass Valley, California, in a gorgeous public park called Condon Park.

It’s large, and set in a forested setting, with tall pines overhead, and the footing is thick with pine needles.

It has two separate areas, with a smaller section (but still quite good-sized) reserved for “small and shy” dogs. I love that the folks who set it up did not specify small dogs only. What do you do when you have a dog who needs to really run and romp and get tired, but isn’t reliable off-leash yet . . . who could benefit from some socializing, but isn’t yet ready to be accosted by large, high-energy buddies?

There are multiple entrances, each with a double-gated “airlock.” But the park planners have improved on the norm by including signs that encourage people to use one of the other entrances if there is a crowd by the first one they approach. And there is also signage that instructs people to remove their dogs’ leashes in the airlock area before turning them loose in the large area (which prevents owners from getting caught in the middle of a rambunctious group of dogs who are trying to greet the incoming dog, and prevents the dog whose leash is not yet released from being hindered from running or defending himself from the onslaught of even fun-loving, well-meaning playmates).

The entrance of each area includes a paved sidewalk that extends well into each of the two play areas – something that was being taken advantage of by a guy I saw who was there in a wheelchair with a big Lab-mix. In my home-town dog park, at this time of year, and there is no paved path into the play area at all; the entrance is quite muddy. The sidewalk, by the way, extends all the way in both play areas to a concrete patio-type area where fresh water is provided; there are several big bowls and a faucet with a hose to fill them with. The water was cleaner (and the dogs were cleaner) than in the parks I’ve seen where the water is provided in a gravel (or dirt/mud) area.

There are multiple benches for people to sit on, and organizers had sought out donations to help support their installation and maintenance; signage on the benches thanks the donors and advertised their services where appropriate. There are also agility-type obstacles scattered about for people to explore with their dogs ­- fun! I counted at least six dispensers for poop-pick-up bags, and as many barrels for disposing poop. There were also several poop pickup tools in various spots.

At the main entrance, there is a bulletin board with an area where anyone can post signs about lost dogs or dog-related services, and a locked area under glass where the organizers can post official notices that couldn’t be ripped down or altered. A large sign with clear, firm, and reasonable park rules appears there. There is more signage acknowledging the major community sponsors of the park.

When I first approached the park with Otto, I thought at first no one was present, because it was so quiet, and because the park is so large that I didn’t see several groups of dogs playing at the far end of the park. When we entered, there wasn’t an immediate rush of over-amped, anxious dogs racing over to rudely greet Otto; the dogs there were playing energetically, but when they approached, it was with casual interest, not with the kind of drive that makes you think of a mob with pitchforks and torches. It was clear to me that the pack’s mood was a result of the relaxed, calm atmosphere.

I don’t take dogs, any dogs, to the dog park in my town. It’s just not a pleasant place to take a dog. And in my former home town, there is a lovely park, but it’s so overrun, and so heavily populated by dogs who seem to LIVE there (they are there for so many hours a day, and so many days of the week), that they are quite belligerent and territorial. I’ve seen and photographed many dog fights (and human fights!) there that were caused by too much out-of-control, hyper energy – too few rules with zero community enforcement, and too many bullies (canine and human). It’s the kind of place where the loudest voices bully owners into making bad decisions for their dogs, for example, as the scared adolescent dog is running in a blind panic, being chased by three or four larger, intense dogs, the kind of person who says, “Don’t be overprotective, dogs have to work it out! Your dog needs to learn to defend himself!” Blech.

But this park? I would bring any nice dog there, anytime. Kudos, Grass Valley.

Suspect Your Itchy Dog Has a Food Allergy?

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If you suspect your dog has a food allergy, follow these steps:

1. See your veterinarian to rule out other possible causes.

vets checking dog ears

© Luckybusiness | Dreamstime.com

2. Save your money if someone recommends allergy tests. They’re unreliable.

3. Ask your veterinarian to help you construct an elimination diet.

4. Choose a carbohydrate source and a protein source that you are comfortable feeding, that your dog will readily and comfortably consume, and that you can afford for weeks at a time. (For instance, fresh ground buffalo may be available from your local Whole Foods, but feeding that as the daily protein source for your 80-pound Labrador may not fit into your budget.)

5. Check all your dog’s medicines for flavorings and get substitutes, if necessary.

6. Stop all supplements during the trial.

7. Take photos of all chewed, bare, or irritated spots on your dog’s body at the start of the trial, so you have something to compare with as the trial goes on.

itchy puppy

© Ladykassie | Dreamstime.com

8. Report any changes in behavior or gastrointestinal upsets to your veterinarian immediately.

9. Be vigilant. Watch your dog 24/7 and ensure that he cannot gain access to a food, bone, treat, or chew he is not supposed to eat.

10. Keep a journal of your dog’s activities. If he has an outbreak of itching, you may be able to use this to determine whether he could have managed to eat something that wasn’t on the diet during his outing.

11. Once the trial is finished, choose a diet (home-prepared or commercial) that is limited to the ingredients you know your dog can safely consume. If you choose a homemade diet, consult a veterinary nutritionist.

Elimination Diet for Dogs: Will it Help Your Allergic Dog?

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An elimination diet for dogs may help an allergic dog, but it depends on finding out what the allergy is.
Developing an elimination diet for your dog may require experimentation to determine what the allergen is.

[Updated January 30, 2019]

When your dog itches, you know it. That relentless licking, scratching, chewing – anything he can do to relieve the itch. He seems obsessed, and he probably is. Whatever you do, don’t ignore this problem (as if you could!). Incessant scratching and chewing may indicate a food allergy. He’ll constantly tear into any place on his body that he can reach with his teeth or claws. You may see ugly hair loss. Until you find the cause, this problem will go from bad to worse. Trialing an elimination diet for dogs may be able to help with this, but it isn’t always certain the cause is a skin allergy.

Yes, persistent skin irritations can also be due to something else, including dry skin, hormonal issues, liver disease, fungal infections, drug reactions, pain, boredom, anxiety, or a combination of any of those! For this reason, if your dog has chronic itching, it’s always worth a trip to the vet to rule out some of these potential causes.

But the fact is, 70 percent of canine skin conditions are allergy-related – and most of those are due to flea allergy and/or environmental allergens, such as pollen, mold, or dust mites. If the dog has fleas, or if his symptoms have a seasonal component, it’s likely that environmental allergies are his primary problem.

But an estimated 10 to 15 percent of the dogs who suffer from allergies are allergic to their food, or at least some ingredient or ingredients within their food. Many owners assume that a dog with a chronically upset stomach has food allergies, but many dogs who have chronic upset tummies may have a food intolerance; if there is no hypersensitive immune response, it’s not an allergy. (That said, one can use an elimination diet to help determine whether the dog is intolerant of certain foods, too.)

dog with year-round allergies
Dogs with year-round allergies, characterized by whole-body itching (and resulting chewing, scratching, and rubbing) are likely to be allergic to something in their diet. A food elimination trial can help identify the problem ingredients so you can avoid buying and feeding diets that contain them.

The primary symptom of food allergies, just as with inhaled or contact allergies, is itching. Dogs with food allergies might also show gastrointestinal signs (vomiting and/or diarrhea), or secondary infections, such as chronic otitis (ear infections), but they might not; non-seasonal (year-round) itching might be their only symptom.

How to Figure Out What Your Dog Is Allergic To

Puppies aren’t usually born with food allergies. These hypersensitive immune responses tend to build up over time, usually appearing between the ages of 1 and 3 (but they can appear late in life, especially if the dog has been on the exact same diet for years and years). The most common food allergens for dogs are protein sources – especially beef, dairy products, wheat, chicken, egg, and soy – but the cause may also be a carbohydrate, a preservative, a dye, or anything else in the food.

While there are skin and blood tests that can be performed for allergies, they’re expensive and have only a 60 percent accuracy, frequently returning both false positives and false negatives. No wonder many veterinarians consider them useless! Although all you’re going to hurt by trying them is your wallet, a far better solution is an “elimination diet.”

Better described as a “restricted diet,” this limited-fare menu will help you both identify the foods that cause an allergic (hypersensitive) reaction in your dog, as well as find foods that can be fed to him without causing an allergic response.

The first step in a food-elimination trial is to think hard about all the types of food you have fed to your dog, and then gather the ingredient lists for all commercial foods the dog has received, or foods you have included in his home-prepared diet. Write down (or list in a spreadsheet) all of the ingredients in the foods your dog has eaten. While it may be difficult to recall (or impossible, in the case of dogs who were adopted as adults) every food a dog has eaten in his lifetime, all of the ingredients in the diets that the dog has received most recently should be included on the list.

You now have a working list of the ingredients you will avoid when selecting foods for the dog’s elimination diet.

Dog Food Ingredients for Allergic Dogs

The goal for the first stage of the trial is to find ingredients that the dog has never received, in order to find some to which he is not allergic. You will then start him on a diet of these “novel” ingredients, in hopes that his itching reduces and then stops, indicating he is no longer eating something to which he is allergic, and that he is not allergic to any of the novel ingredients.

If his itching and other dog food allergy symptoms stop, you can begin adding other ingredients back into his diet, one at a time. If the itching recurs, the most recently added ingredient is then put onto your dog’s list of forbidden foods.

Ideally, an elimination diet initially consists of just one protein source and one carbohydrate source, neither of which appears on the list of foods your dog has previously eaten.

“I recommend a limited-antigen diet: one protein, one carbohydrate,” says Eileen Fatcheric, DVM, co-owner of the Fairmount Animal Hospital in Fairmount, New York. “The foods should be ‘novel,’ meaning the dog has not eaten them before.”

In order to ensure the food is new (novel) for your dog, your veterinarian may recommend some seemingly crazy cuisine. Ingredients often recommended for elimination diets include:

Proteins

  • Rabbit
  • Venison
  • Duck
  • Buffalo/Bison
  • Kangaroo

Carbohydrates

  • Pumpkin
  • Oats
  • Barley
  • Quinoa
  • Chickpeas (also a good protein source)

Keep in mind that this initial, “one novel protein and one novel carb” diet is being used in hopes that you have eliminated whatever your dog has been reacting to in his diet, so that he stops itching, his skin clears, and any other allergic symptoms he has ceased. Once he is totally asymptomatic – and this may take weeks – you can add one ingredient to his diet for a few weeks. If he starts itching, that ingredient gets added to the “forbidden” list, and you retreat to feeding the diet that didn’t make him itch, wait until all is calm again, and then try adding yet another ingredient.

The ingredients you choose to use for this initial trial should be new to your dog, but readily available to you, and affordable. Some of the more unique proteins may be more available in frozen, dehydrated, or canned form than fresh.

Decades ago, beef was the most common animal protein used in commercial dog foods, and so when a dog appeared to have a food allergy, most veterinarians would recommend a lamb and rice food. These ingredients were rarely seen in commercial foods at the time and, therefore, were novel to most dogs. The combination was even dubbed “hypoallergenic” – a misnomer for any dog who is allergic to lamb or rice! Of course, when food-allergic dogs improved on these foods, they became popular; soon, even owners whose dogs didn’t have allergies tried them, and more companies began offering foods that contained lamb and rice. The upshot is that within a relatively short time, both lamb and rice lost that all-important “novel” characteristic for many dogs.

The same phenomenon is making it even more difficult for dog owners to find foods that contain ingredients that are novel for their dogs. The popularity of grain-free foods, and their inclusion of potatoes, sweet potatoes, peas, and chickpeas (as replacement carbohydrate sources for grains) means that many dogs have been fed these formerly rare (in dog foods) carbs, eliminating those ingredients from the pool of potential “base” ingredients for the allergic dog’s preliminary restricted diet.

Other owners may have fed novel proteins to their dogs in foods that appealed to them for reasons other than food allergies – just to provide the dog with variety, for example.
We suggest that owners avoid feeding foods that contain uncommon proteins to their dogs, so they are available for use in the dog’s diet if he should develop food allergies later.

Do You Suspect Your Itchy Dog Has a Food Allergy?

If you suspect your dog has a food allergy, follow these steps:

✓ See your veterinarian to rule out other possible causes.

✓ Save your money if someone recommends allergy tests. They’re unreliable.

✓ Ask your veterinarian to help you construct an elimination diet.

✓ Choose a carbohydrate source and a protein source that you are comfortable feeding, that your dog will readily and comfortably consume, and that you can afford for weeks at a time. (For instance, fresh ground buffalo may be available from your local Whole Foods, but feeding that as the daily protein source for your 80-pound Labrador may not fit into your budget.)

✓ Check all your dog’s medicines for flavorings and get substitutes, if necessary.

✓ Stop all supplements during the trial.

✓ Take photos of all chewed, bare, or irritated spots on your dog’s body at the start of the trial, so you have something to compare with as the trial goes on.

✓ Report any changes in behavior or gastrointestinal upsets to your veterinarian immediately.

✓ Be vigilant. Watch your dog 24/7 and ensure that he cannot gain access to a food, bone, treat, or chew he is not supposed to eat.

✓ Keep a journal of your dog’s activities. If he has an outbreak of itching, you may be able to use this to determine whether he could have managed to eat something that wasn’t on the diet during his outing.

✓ Once the trial is finished, choose a diet (home-prepared or commercial) that is limited to the ingredients you know your dog can safely consume. If you choose a homemade diet, consult a veterinary nutritionist to ensure the nutrients meet or exceed recommended levels.

Commercial Dog Foods for an Elimination Diet

Today, a visit to any specialty pet-supply store will reveal that any number of companies offer “complete and balanced” foods that contain uncommon proteins such as rabbit, duck, venison, bison, and even kangaroo. Further, many of them are formulated to contain only one type of animal protein – what the makers often call “limited-ingredient” formulas. Those products seem ideal for feeding a food-allergic dog, right? Well, it depends.

home-prepared dog food
It can be a challenge to prevent one dog in your household from eating anything the other dogs receive. Some people solve this by putting all of their dogs on the same elimination diet.

A commercial dog food is most likely to work in an elimination diet if it contains just one novel (to your dog) protein and one novel (to your dog) carb. However, if it contains (for example) one novel ingredient (say, rabbit) and chicken – which is the most common animal protein in commercial dog food today – it probably won’t work for use in an elimination diet. You have to look past the “headline” ingredients to see whether a food might also contain ingredients your dog has consumed many times; it doesn’t matter if a food is called “Brand X Bison and Barley Dog Food” if it also contains beef and rice.

Here’s how you can use our WDJ Approved Dry Dog Food Database to find a limited ingredient dog food

There is also the matter of the potential for cross-contamination at the pet-food manufacturing facility. A dog severely allergic to chicken, for example, may react to a food that contains no chicken, but was made on manufacturing equipment that was inadequately cleaned after running a batch of food that contained chicken.

Also, even if it’s a single-protein, single-carb “limited ingredient” commercial diet, any “complete and balanced” food will necessarily contain more ingredients than a home-prepared diet that contains only the protein and carb sources. While it’s quite rare that the dog’s allergy is to a preservative or herb or fiber source in the food, the fewer ingredients that are used in the trial diet, the more certain you can be about what is or is not causing the dog’s symptoms.

For more on commercial foods to feed your dog with allergies, see our companion post Commercial Foods for Allergic Dogs.

Homemade Dog Food for Canine Allergies

Another option is to make your own dog food for dogs with allergies – a course of action that has its own benefits and pitfalls. While it provides you with the ultimate method of ensuring that your dog’s diet contains only those ingredients that prove to be safe for your dog, it may take some trial and error to figure out appropriate portion sizes and the best ratio of meat to carbohydrate for your dog. Also, you may be limited as to how long you can keep your dog on the diet, as it isn’t likely to be nutritionally balanced.

It can also be expensive. When dog-food manufacturers use something like kangaroo or rabbit in their diets, they have the benefit of buying those novel proteins in bulk, for much lower prices than you are likely to pay. That’s why it can be a great boon if you’ve never fed your dog a diet that contains a common animal protein, that is, when your dog’s “novel” protein is something that’s easy to find and affordable, like fish or beef.

Feeding Allergy-Free Dog Food

The switch to the elimination diet should take place over the course of a few days. Change your dog’s food gradually, substituting increasing amounts of the new food for equal amounts of the old food until the dog is eating only the new food. If you see any signs of gastric distress (vomiting, diarrhea, constipation, which may indicate your dog is allergic to one of the ingredients you have chosen) or if your dog refuses to eat the new food, you’ll need to choose different ingredients.

The length of time that you feed the initial diet (of just one protein and one carb), and how long you should wait before introducing a new ingredient, will depend on how your dog’s allergies are expressed. Dogs whose primary allergy symptoms include diarrhea, vomiting, and gas will respond (for better or worse) relatively quickly after dietary changes are made.

However, if the dog’s primary symptom is itching, it can take a lot longer for the problem to subside after the “trigger” food is removed from his diet. It may also take longer for him to start itching again when a problematic ingredient is added back into the diet.

“For food-allergic dogs whose symptoms are gastrointestinal, you only have to do the ‘diet trial’ for two weeks,” Dr. Fatcheric says, adding that it could take as much as 8 to 12 weeks for skin problems to completely clear.

If there is absolutely no change in the dog’s symptoms – no reduction in itching or GI problems – you may want to change both the protein source and the carb source and start a new elimination trial.

If a second trial, with all-new ingredients, produces no reduction in the dog’s symptoms, it’s very likely that the dog’s diet is not what he’s allergic to; he most likely is allergic to something else in his environment.

In contrast, if your dog’s symptoms reduce immediately and disappear quickly, you will know that there was something in his most recent diet (before the elimination diet) to which he was allergic.

Challenging the Evidence

Few owners are willing to take a further step to confirm the link between their dogs’ old diet and the dogs’ allergy symptoms – a “challenge” phase – but many veterinarians feel this step is necessary. To definitively establish the link between the dog’s former diet (or even the single ingredient suspected of being the allergy culprit in the old food), some vets suggest reintroducing the old diet (or the suspect ingredient); if the dog begins to break out in itching or GI distress, the allergen for that dog is decisively confirmed. Quickly return to the diet that your dog did well on, with no allergy symptoms.

Some owners stop there – and who can blame them? It’s a pain to employ such scrupulous supervision over your dog’s diet. If you feel confident that the trial and challenge have identified the ingredient that is problematic for your dog, you can start looking for (or formulating) a new, complete and balanced diet that is free of that ingredient.

However, it can be incredibly useful to continue for a few more weeks, to challenge your dog with a few more ingredients (one at a time), in hopes of finding more ingredients that are safe for him to consume. Feed him the trial diet until his allergy symptoms are gone again, and then add one ingredient that you would like to use in his diet in the future. If you are able to add it and he doesn’t react with signs of allergy within two to three weeks, you can put that ingredient on his “safe” list for now. Once you have challenged his system with a few proteins and carbs without an allergic response, you should have enough ingredients on his “safe” list to enable you to buy or build a complete and balanced diet containing those ingredients (and none of the ones that he’s proven to be allergic to).

If you’re lucky, you may be able to find a commercial diet that contains only the ingredients on your dog’s safe list and none of the ones that trigger an allergic reaction in your dog. But if you can’t find such a diet, or want to continue to prepare your dog’s diet at home, Dr. Fatcheric recommends that you “work with a veterinary nutritionist to make sure your diet is balanced and complete.” Another option is to consult with a company like JustFoodForDogs, which will formulate a diet based on your dog’s special needs. (See “Better Choices for Home-Prepared and Special Needs Recipes,” December 2013.)

Tips to Ensure Clear Results

Make sure your dog consumes only the “trial” food – even for treats. For training treats, use dried bits of the animal protein you are using in the trial. (See “How to Make High Quality Dehydrated Dog Treats” in the May 2012 issue of WDJ.)

Be sure to check any medications your dog may be on, such as a monthly heartworm preventative, to make sure they have no flavorings. If they do or you’re not sure, ask your veterinarian for an unflavored alternative. It is critical that you are vigilant about your dog’s diet during this time.

If you have several pets, you’ll need to oversee dinner time to ensure your dog doesn’t eat someone else’s meal. Or put all the dogs in the household on the same diet for the trial period. With an elimination diet, your dog can’t even lick the cat’s bowl clean or gobble down something he finds outside. You’ll need to watch everything he does. This is another time when it’s valuable for your dog to be happy and habituated in a crate for the periods when you can’t supervise him directly.

“I myself would have a hard time being completely compliant for two to three months. No treats (of foods that aren’t part of the diet). No nothing. Be careful in homes with toddlers who drop food on the floor. And watch for well-meaning neighbors or in-laws slipping a treat,” Dr. Fatcheric says.

Trials Are Worth the Effort

Allergies can literally cause a dog to tear his hair out, setting acute moist dermatitis (“hot spots”) into motion and triggering fits of paw-licking and headshaking (caused by allergy-induced ear inflammation and infection). When this happens, many owners head to their veterinarians and beg for corticosteroids, antibiotics, pain-relievers, you name it; if it relieves the dog’s agony, they want it.

All of those medicines can help a dog who is in acute distress from an allergy attack. But drugs that are prescribed to address the fallout from the symptoms of allergy (scratching and chewing) shouldn’t be considered as long-term therapies for any but the most severely allergic dogs. It makes much more sense to try to identify the substances to which the dog is allergic, and then manage the dog’s exposure to those substances than to continue giving him the food that causes so many problems and then treating those problems.

Most people who are allergic to shellfish avoid eating shellfish; few who have suffered swelling, hives, and itching after eating shellfish continue to eat the food and dose themselves with steroids in order to survive the aftereffects! So why do so many people take that approach with their dogs? We have two guesses: We suspect few veterinarians attempt to explain food-elimination trials to their clients, much less encourage owners to try one, because of the weeks of commitment and attention required. And we’d guess that many owners just want the problem treated right then, and when the dog’s itching stops overnight with a steroid, they put it out of their minds, as if the problem was solved.

Dog Food-Elimination Trial Proof

A food-elimination trial can be a valuable tool in determining the cause of your dog’s discomfort. But it does take commitment, vigilance, and a little extra cash. It’s well worth the effort, though, if you do it correctly.

If you stick with the restricted-diet regimen, you should see a reduction in itching by 50 percent or more at the end of the trial. If not, you haven’t eliminated the cause. That means you either need to try another combination, consisting of a new protein and new carbohydrate, or determine that dietary hypersensitivity is not the issue. That’s why it’s so important to involve your veterinarian right from the start.

If the results do prove a dietary cause, you will have been given the key to an itch-free, happy, comfortable dog. You can then either choose a commercial food that contains only those ingredients you used during the elimination trial or consult a veterinary nutritionist to construct a diet that will work for your dog. It’s important that the dog’s diet for the long-term is complete and balanced.

“Diet trials are hard. But the people with food-allergic dogs who successfully complete them potentially have a comfortable, itch-free pet without expensive and potentially harmful medications. It’s worth it, if you can tough it out,” Dr. Fatcheric says.


Cynthia Foley is an experienced dog agility competitor.  Also a lifelong horsewoman, she served as editor of Horse Journal from its inception in 1994 to 2014.

Small But Mighty

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Whole Dog Journal editor Nancy Kerns

 

Have you experienced that moment when your family has been reduced for whatever reason from multiple dogs to just one, and you keep thinking you need to check the back door to let someone or other back inside? You get used to the rolling thunder of dog paws and canine vocalizations when the doorbell rings, and a circus-like amount of hubbub first thing in the morning when you head to the door to let the pets out – and then suddenly there is just one calm dog, politely following you around. It’s weird, but at the moment, given that I’ve only loaned out my second dog (not lost him), I’m enjoying it.

Tito, the 10-pound Chihuahua we took in about four years ago “for a few weeks,” is currently staying with my sister-in-law and five-year-old niece about an hour away. We lost my brother to cancer just after the new year. I’d been staying at their house a lot, and because they are all “dog people,” I always brought my dogs with me, and my niece has really bonded with little Tito. They lost their family dog, Hannah, to old age a few months earlier, and Ava really misses having a canine companion. She’s an only child, and they live in a rural area where there aren’t any other children close enough by for casual play dates, so having a little dog run out of the house every day to greet her when she gets home from kindergarten is the next best thing.

chihuahua and little girl

 

Ava’s mom reports that Tito sleeps with Ava, keeps her face clean, and rides on her lap in her car seat in the car. Unlike most adults, Ava is endlessly amused by the fact that he won’t give a tennis ball back after he’s fetched it, but will allow himself to be chased, merrily playing “keep away” for an hour. I suspect he’s going to pretend not to recognize me when I next visit. “Nancy Who? Nice to meet you, but I have to get back to my little girl.”

Tito is a funny guy, full of character and “Don’t tread on me” bravado, and he’s easy to have around for all reasons save one – his relentless drive to alert the household to anyone’s arrival; go to the store for milk and you will be welcomed upon your return to home as Odysseus, lost at sea for 10 years. It’s a little much, so out of scale that it doesn’t seem sincere, somehow; frankly, it feels like small dog hysteria to this large dog person. Without him here it’s just . . . so quiet!

I don’t know if my sister-in-law will want to keep Tito forever, or just for a few months, or what. All I know is that if they need him and want him, he can stay. He’s happy, and Ava is happier with him there. That’s huge. Tito gets a lifetime pass.

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Why Your Dog is Always Getting Humped at the Dog Park

Confidence training may help your dog assert himself and avoid being a victim of humping.
Is your dog always getting humped at the dog park? Building your dog's confidence may help.

You may have noticed that occasionally a dog comes along who seems to have a “hump me” sign on his back. Particularly obvious at dog parks, where multiple dogs are free to engage unrestrained in assorted behaviors at will, this poor dog is approached time and again by various dogs who are intent on a round of mounting fun. It may even be your dog that always gets humped at the dog park. You might also see it in dog training classes where supervised free-play is allowed, and at poorly run doggie daycare centers. What is it about these victim dogs that attracts other dogs to them? And if you happen to own one, what do you do to protect your dog from the unwelcome advances of other dogs?

There doesn’t seem to be much in the way of solid scientific information about why certain dogs are particularly selected as mountees, so we are left with a couple of theories. Perhaps there is something about a victim dog’s behavior that arouses other dogs and encourages mounting.

Is your victim dog particularly appeasing toward and docile in response to the social advances of other dogs? If so, you might try confidence-building exercises with your dog to teach him new body-language skills around other dogs. (See “Building Your Dog’s Confidence,” WDJ September 2011.) Teach your dog operant behaviors that mimic more assertive body language (lift your head up, stand tall) and cue those behaviors when a dog approaches him with mounting intent.

Is it possible that your dog gives off a scent that is arousing to other dogs? Next time he’s bathed, try a different kind of shampoo and see if that reduces the frequency of these encounters. Or try giving him a bath before your next off-leash dog encounter and see if that makes a difference.

Know Your Dog; Protect Your Dog

Regardless of the cause, your job is to always protect your dog. If he stands calmly and stoically while other dogs are inappropriate with him, you might just let him handle it. If, however, you see any signs that he is disturbed by the other dogs’ attentions, you must take action. You can ask other dog owners to remove their dogs (and suggest they read the accompanying article!), but ultimately it’s incumbent upon you to remove your dog from harm’s way – and sooner rather than later, before your dog decides to aggressively protect himself or becomes traumatized by being singled out for this unwanted attention.

Remember, your dog doesn’t have to go to the dog park and he doesn’t have to participate in class play. If he does have to go to daycare, be sure he attends one that will look out for him and match him with appropriate playmates. You can also invite friends with compatible dogs (those who don’t mount other dogs) over to your own backyard for playdates.

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I recently fostered a dog who first greeted me at the shelter that I sprung her from by jumping up on me. I spent the first two days with her almost exclusively working on preventing her from jumping. When I introduced her to a friend, my friend immediately held her arms out and greeted the dog’s enthusiastic jump up with a big hug, petting, and cooing